As a narrative trope, time travel is usually accompanied by grand adventures, world-ending consequences, and plenty of paradoxes. Old Skies, a new time-traveling point-and-click adventure from Wadjet Eye Games, takes a slightly different approach. Certainly, a more human approach. This isn’t your typical grandiose Back to the Future-style adventure. Instead, Old Skies flirts with a much more relatable fantasy, something we’ve all wondered at some point in our lives.What if we could go back in time, just to save one person’s life? To say goodbye to a loved one when we never had the chance? To meet a notable figure of history, just to ask them a question? And, for ChronoZen agents like Fia Quinn, the game’s protagonist, how does an ever-changing reality of multiple timelines affect one’s psyche?Screenshot: Wadjet Eye GamesIt’s the year 2062, and humans have effectively gained control of time travel. ChronoZen, a company that specializes in chaperoning its wealthy clients through time, has employed a select few agents to accompany its customers throughout their journeys into the past. As long as you’ve got the cash, ChronoZen will warp you back to any time, any place, and let you spend a day mucking around. Wanna have a quick bite to eat at your old college burger joint? Bon appétit. Care to meet a famous boxing star from New York’s Gilded Age? Go for it, champ. Want to disrupt the flow of events so that a loved one evades a deadly accident? Sure, as long as their historical impact wasn’t all that important.If I could turn back timeSee, ChronoZen has an archive of just about every human that’s lived, along with their biographical details, how they died, and a measure of their timeline impact rating. Someone with a low impact rating, meh, doesn’t really matter if they live or die as time intends. Someone with a high impact rating? Changing their history could spell catastrophic effects on the future. ChronoZen hosts many clients returning to the past and tinkering with the future, which means the reality of the present (2062) is constantly changing. That means that agents like Fia Quinn effectively live a life of solitude, unable to form relationships outside of ChronoZen and barred from living a “normal life”. Because nothing is permanent, and paradoxes are created minute by minute. One day, Fia may get a call that she’s forgotten to pick her kids up from school. The next moment, that family never existed.Screenshot: Wadjet Eye GamesThat’s why ChronoZen agents are carefully selected, and why Fia Quinn has to forgo much of the typical human condition so that others may alter their own. Old Skies is broken into six chapters, where Fia guides a new client through various moments of history. Some clients just want to rewind the clock by 20 years or so, in a desperate attempt to save their college sweetheart. Another asks to visit downtown New York on the day before 9/11. Each chapter, though bite-sized adventures in their own right, still packs enough emotional weight to make their narratives impactful and memorable. It’s not always a happy ending, and sometimes, changing a timeline in Old Skies has unpredictable consequences. Both for the world and for Fia Quinn’s mental state as well.‘Old Skies’ is storytelling that stands the test of timeOld Skies leans heavily into its narrative, which means that its puzzles are often easier to solve than other adventure games. Solutions are usually within arm’s reach or, at times, often found by simply exhausting all dialogue options with the characters in the vicinity. That’s not a bad thing, by any means, as Old Skies clearly has a story to tell. Though, if you’re looking for a real head-scratcher, it’s not likely in this game. Screenshot: Wadjet Eye GamesFia has access to the ChronoZen archives at all times, a sort of digital White Pages that display all information attached to any name she enters. As she learns new names, they become available in the archive. This comes in handy in Old Skies, not only as a source for hints about the next step of any given puzzle but sometimes as the actual next step of progression. In addition, she’s got Nozzo, her ChronoZen assistant, on speed dial. Nozzo’s always available to lend an ear and, more importantly, a slight nudge in the right direction when needed.Old Skies marks a distinct change for Wadjet Eye Games’ visual style. Its backgrounds are beautifully painted with vibrant colors and bright lights. Characters, however, look a little less exciting, presented as cartoonish sketches with slight rotoscoping effects. It’s certainly not enough to dampen Old Skies‘ total package, but I do think it ends up looking slightly dated and less immersive. But, hey, I’m a sucker for a more pixelated art style, something akin to the studio’s previous game, Unavowed. I think Old Skies‘ art style works fine for its story, but I can’t help but wonder how much more I would have enjoyed it had it looked more similar to the studio’s past work.Time flies in ‘Old Skies’Nevertheless, Old Skies nails exactly what it’s going for. A strong, thought-provoking story with equally impactful characters throughout. Fia’s voice actor, Sally Beaumont, delivers an effortless performance throughout the 15-ish hour adventure. Edwyn Tiong, voice of Nozzo, also serves as the perfect sidekick. And, a character I actually found myself happily talking to as much as possible. Just about every performance is wonderful, giving Old Skies a cast of characters as believable as they are memorable.Screenshot: Wadjet Eye GamesOld Skies isn’t the flashiest game – but it doesn’t need to be. Rather than a grandiose, sci-fi thriller that the “time travel” trope tends to accompany, it grounds itself in a more sobering proposition. Ordinary people with ordinary desires, making extraordinary decisions. You aren’t here to save the world, but instead, to witness small slices of humanity. Sometimes, you don’t need an extravagant exit; you just need a shoulder to lean on.Verdict: Highly RecommendedOld Skies is available now on PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch. A code was provided by the publisher for the sake of review. Reviewed on PC.The post ‘Old Skies’ Is an Emotional Look at the Costs of Turning Back the Hands of Time (Review) appeared first on VICE.