AER: Memories of Old

Despite a few disappointments, this is a beautiful and soothing game. The world and its story are coherent and well designed. Gameplay is quite minimal, comprising mostly of exploration as well as a few fairly easy environmental puzzles.

Unfortunately, all the good aspects stop short of being truly great.

The world is well designed, but not well realized. There's just not that much to explore, or rather exploration is not very rewarding. Here and there are a few delights to find, but even these are short and do not add much or anything to the story. The visual style is nice, but it doesn't really do justice to the vision. You know in your mind that these vistas could be gorgeous, but all you see are dull polygons. Craggy mountain peaks look no different from enormous trees. The game is just begging for a remake with lush details, textures, and lighting. Minimalism can often ignite the imagination, but in this case it feels like just bones without tissue.

The story, too, is overly simple. Though exploration will reveal tidbits in the form of old texts and memories, these usually don't tell you anything you didn't know. It quickly becomes boring, and I found myself racing through the texts, something I almost never do in games. There are too few characters and their personalities are very one dimensional.

I actually did enjoy some of the puzzles, and wish there were more of them!

All in all, AER is an enjoyable experience, but it also feels like a missed opportunity.