Time travel narratives have always captivated audiences because they tap into our most fundamental human emotion: regret. The ability to rewind the clock and correct our mistakes offers an irresistible premise that Wadjet Eye Games masterfully explores in their latest point-and-click adventure, Old Skies, released April 23, 2024.
Meet Fia Quinn: Time Travel Guide
Set in a near-future 2060s New York, players step into the shoes of Fia Quinn, a ChronoZen agent who escorts wealthy clients on temporal journeys. Unlike her customers who can alter their pasts, Fia is “chronolocked” – immune to timeline changes yet constantly experiencing their ripple effects. One moment she might have a family she’s never met, the next she’s living a completely different life, while maintaining her core identity as a dedicated professional.
Technical Specifications and Compatibility
| System Requirements | Information |
| Compatibility | Steam Deck Verified |
| Tested On | RTX 4090 |
| Developer | Wadjet Eye Games |
| Publisher | Wadjet Eye Games |
Puzzle Design that Respects Your Time
The game’s puzzles strike an ideal balance between accessibility and satisfaction. While rarely reaching hair-pulling difficulty, they incorporate clever time-travel mechanics that feel genuinely rewarding to solve. Players might find themselves creating futuristic medications using extinct ingredients or researching historical records to overcome contemporary obstacles.
Unlike many adventure games that require illogical leaps, Old Skies respects player intelligence with puzzles that follow consistent internal logic. Solutions typically emerge through careful observation and creative thinking rather than random combinations of inventory items.
A Visual Evolution
Long-time fans of Wadjet Eye will notice a significant artistic evolution. While the game maintains the studio’s signature vibrant, hand-painted backgrounds, character art has transitioned from pixel sprites to a bold, comic-inspired style featuring thicker lines and more expressive animations. This new approach brings characters to life with remarkable personality while maintaining the studio’s distinctive visual identity.
The audiovisual experience is further enhanced by a jazz and blues-influenced soundtrack that perfectly complements the game’s New York settings across different time periods.
An Emotional Core That Resonates
What begins as seemingly separate anthology-style missions across different eras of New York gradually coalesces into a cohesive and emotionally resonant narrative. As Fia’s professional distance erodes and she forms personal connections, the story evolves into a powerful examination of love, loss, and profound regret.
The voice acting deserves special recognition, particularly the performance capturing Fia’s gradual emotional transformation. Her repeated mantra of “Focus on the job” becomes increasingly poignant as the layers of her character are revealed, showing the toll of witnessing countless timeline changes while remaining unchanged herself.
Why Time Travel Stories Matter
Where many science fiction narratives become entangled in complex temporal paradoxes, Old Skies remains firmly anchored in human stories. The time travel mechanics serve the emotional narrative rather than overshadowing it, creating a rare adventure game that uses its fantastical premise to explore deeply relatable themes.
By focusing on the human impact of its sci-fi concepts rather than technical explanations, Old Skies delivers an adventure game that resonates on a profoundly emotional level while still providing all the engaging puzzles and exploration that the genre demands.