Ancient temples, floating islands and a shapeshifting hero – a review of AER: Memories of Old

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

The hero standing in front of ancient runes

The numerous runes found around the world are interactive and can be read

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

Despite the simplistic graphics, the game looks phenomenal

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

The player flying through the air as a bird

The flying gives the player a liberating sense of freedom the explore the world

The game’s greatest asset is the world which the player is invited to explore. The gameplay
consists mainly of traveling from one island to another by air and then exploring whatever secrets
they hold by foot. There are puzzles, which are very light and, frankly, easy to solve, and some
minor platforming, but the main emphasis is on the exploration of the world. Along the way the
player meets people with whom one can converse – that is to say, they will say a few words to the
player, but the player cannot respond – and there are even some talking animals, such as a
beautiful two-tailed foxlike creature and a great polar bear. There is truly a sense of freedom in
being able to fly through the air as a bird and then land on the ground and search through ancient
temples and caves. To play the game is to have a nearly spiritual experience, and that is something
one cannot say about most video games.

Basic info
Publisher: Daedalic Entertainment
Developer: Forgotten Key
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Release date: October 25, 2017
Genre: adventure
PEGI 7
Pictures: screenshots from the game, taken by the author

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#Adventure #exploration #spiritual