Game Review: Old Man’s Journey (Xbox One X)

Old Man’s Journey is an adventure video game that was developed & published by Broken Rules. Originally, it released as a mobile game in 2017 and eventually came to consoles in 2018 & 2019. Upon release, the game went on to win and be nominated for several awards. These include; iPad GOTY, Best Artistic Achievement, Best Narrative and many more. The game launched on Xbox One as part of the Game Pass program, that’s how I came across it.

Best described as a puzzle based adventure game. You must guide the old man across each new screen. You do this by shaping the landscapes around him, creating new pathways to progress. Along the way, the old man will stop and reminisce about something in his past. This is done through images, sounds and music but no dialogue. You’ll start to piece things together as he does and come to understand the deeper meaning of it all.

Old Man’s Journey tells a powerful yet poignant message about life, loss and the impact that certain decisions can have on our lives. Certain moments are precious and no matter how broken something can become it is never too late to fix things. These are the things that Old Man’s Journey conveys wonderfully. However, I can’t help in feeling that the old man is really selfish. He abandoned his family to go travelling and seemingly expected them to wait around.

The visual style of the game is very beautiful. There is a hand drawn feel to it with each new screen showcasing a delightful array of colourful, painting like landscapes. Also, accompanying that is a wonderful, melodic soundtrack.

The gameplay is extremely simplistic. It mostly sees you moving pathways up or down in order to be able to progress. It does require a small amount of thought and manoeuvring but nothing too taxing. Another thing, Old Man’s Journey is very short. It can easily be completed within an hour with little to no challenge. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really have any replay value.

Thankfully, it can be enjoyed via Game Pass. This is why I love the program because I never would have played this game. I’m really glad that I experienced it.

Regardless of the straight forward nature of the game it does manage to have an emotional impact which is impressive.

This is definitely worth checking out. Follow along with my walkthrough above which will help you gain all 1000GS in less than an hour and a half.