When The Past Was Around Review | Stunning Game!.

When the past was around, you get the idea from the title alone, that this game was going to explore some melancholic themes. But is this point and click adventure and puzzle game worth investing your time, and emotions into. Let’s have a look with this When the past was around review.

Stick around for the score at the end, I’m really curious to see if you agree with my assessment of this game. Eda is the protagonist in this immersive game and is very clearly going through some trauma and self discovery as we meet her. She clearly has a passion for music, and we quickly learn that her pain and suffering links heavily into her longing to once again spend time with The Owl, her lover in this story.

Eda works her way through memories linked to her experience both with the owl and the violin of which drove their shared love of music. Each memory is explored through wonderfully crafted setting design as well as intriguing puzzles that have a stylistic link to the emotional place that Eda is finding herself currently within.

You will be clearing mess, tuning television sets, finding hidden items and spending a whole lot of time scratching your head wondering exactly what this ice cream stick message means. As you solve puzzles, you will find feathers, and progress further into the game by exploring new doors and new memories.

The puzzles serve as the main gameplay mechanic of When the past was around, and yet they almost play part of a distraction, in a good way. As you are working your way through the different memories, you almost subconsciously get drawn into the story and relationship between eda and the Owl, which is quite interesting given there is actually no direct dialogue in the game.

This paves way for a clever narrative form in that, often when you feel satisfied at solving a puzzle and area, you are immediately thrown into a traumatic or melancholic part of the story line, that you can’t help but be invested into. When the past was around is a very simplistic game, so there are not a lot more mechanics to discuss, beyond the obvious integration of music into the storyline, and the odd scene that requires you to click upon music notes to progress the game further.

The true discussion of When the past was around is in terms of the artistic choices and thematic topics that you are thrown into. The game looks gorgeous, and I love when artist have a clear vision about how their game is going to be visually explored.

Even the creative decision to use a white border around the screen which works as almost a vintage aesthetic for the game, is so well thought out, and you almost forget it until it changes, so dramatically in line with Eda’s desperation. The game itself looks pretty, and the music is lovely, and without knowing too much about When the past was around, you could be forgiven for thinking this was going to be a completely relaxing playthrough in which you could clear your mind.

That couldn’t be further from the truth. Trauma, loss, longing and acceptance are all themes explored within this game, and it’s such a rollercoaster ride given that it last for approximately 2 hours to play through. In this way I would say that When the past was around provides an experience more closely linked to a movie.

You’re drawn in to care about what’s happening almost without realising, and each time you feel you are comfortable, eda is once again thrown into turmoil. I don’t often get emotionally connected to the characters of games I play although I do appreciate stories that do this really well, for example like Celeste, however this one got me right in the feels.

Watching the Owls health deteriorate is a gut-wrenching scene to be involved with. You know it’s coming but you just get so caught up in reliving the good memories, that you almost forget where this one is going to end up. It is such a cruel, and yet brilliant idea, to get people to be drawn into a relationship, after pretty much already telling them that it’s going to go to some dark places, and then draw them along for the ride.

When the past was around is a masterpiece in a genre that I can’t think of too many comparisons. Artistically beautiful and such a creative and unique experience in story telling. You can’t help but sit back and think about the amount of effort and problem solving that has gone into to making such a compelling puzzle game in which everything links so beautifully, and yet is driven by a narrative and immersion of themes.

As I mentioned earlier, this game will not last you a long time to play through, and the first play through experience will always be the most powerful, yet I feel this decision is apt as increasing the length by too much more would have weakened the impact of eda and the owls interaction.