{"id":11937,"date":"2022-11-03T15:45:37","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T13:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/?p=11937"},"modified":"2022-11-03T15:45:37","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T13:45:37","slug":"ancient-temples-floating-islands-and-a-shapeshifting-hero-a-review-of-aer-memories-of-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/ancient-temples-floating-islands-and-a-shapeshifting-hero-a-review-of-aer-memories-of-old\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient temples, floating islands and a shapeshifting hero \u2013 a review of AER: Memories of Old"},"content":{"rendered":"

AER: Memories of Old is an open-world adventure game developed by Forgotten Key and released
\nin 2017. The player controls Auk, a young shapeshifting member of a tribe inhabiting floating
\nislands high up in the sky, as she travels across the landscape, or rather, the airscape, discovering
\nit\u2019s secrets. Auk can travel from island to island, for she has the ability to transmogrify into a bird.
\nThis world of floating islands is full of the ruins of old temples, shrines and ancient runes which the
\nplayer can read to discover more about the world and the beliefs of the people in it.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The numerous runes found around the world are interactive and can be read<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first thing that catches the eye is the look of the game. The graphics are angular, and the
\ndesigns have a kind of unfinished look, but these are clearly artistic choices, and the roughness is
\npart of the charm. This art style must have been cost-effective, especially for an indie game, but it
\nalso gives the game a pleasant look. Characters, including the main one, have no facial features
\napart from the rough shape of a nose, which amplifies the mysterious and dreamlike quality the
\ngame has. The music is largely ambient, yet also, in its minimalism, undeniably powerful and
\nbeautiful. Whenever the main character takes flight, the music turns more energetic and, in some
\ncases, more melodic \u2013 one might even say, more flighty – and different instruments, such as drums
\nand even a banjo, are introduced, which complement nicely the colorful and fast-moving imagery.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Despite the simplistic graphics, the game looks phenomenal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The controls are the typical controls of a 3rd-person game: WASD keys to move, spacebar to jump
\nthe mouse to look around. Movements are not exactly smooth, but neither are they clunky, and
\noverall, they pose no problems. The player can turn into a bird at any moment, though only
\noutdoors. During flight, the controls can get a bit more troublesome, although not unmanageable.
\nI never discovered how to slow down during flight, only speed up, which means that often when
\nmy speed got too great, I simply crashed onto land to get back onto my feet. This does not harm
\nthe character, but it is still a somewhat clumsy way to stop such an otherwise magnificent
\nexperience.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The flying gives the player a liberating sense of freedom the explore the world<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The game\u2019s greatest asset is the world which the player is invited to explore. The gameplay
\nconsists mainly of traveling from one island to another by air and then exploring whatever secrets
\nthey hold by foot. There are puzzles, which are very light and, frankly, easy to solve, and some
\nminor platforming, but the main emphasis is on the exploration of the world. Along the way the
\nplayer meets people with whom one can converse \u2013 that is to say, they will say a few words to the
\nplayer, but the player cannot respond \u2013 and there are even some talking animals, such as a
\nbeautiful two-tailed foxlike creature and a great polar bear. There is truly a sense of freedom in
\nbeing able to fly through the air as a bird and then land on the ground and search through ancient
\ntemples and caves. To play the game is to have a nearly spiritual experience, and that is something
\none cannot say about most video games.<\/p>\n

Basic info
\nPublisher: Daedalic Entertainment
\nDeveloper: Forgotten Key
\nPlatforms: Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
\nRelease date: October 25, 2017
\nGenre: adventure
\nPEGI 7
\nPictures: screenshots from the game, taken by the author<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ancient temples, floating islands and a shapeshifting hero \u2013 a review of AER: Memories of Old<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":11942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[246,650,1717],"class_list":["post-11937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","tag-adventure","tag-exploration","tag-spiritual","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}