When the Past Was Around Review

I’m not one for the older point and click games. Obtuse puzzles combined with ‘witty’ banter or over the top characters generally put me off (plus, I’m not much of a PC gamer). However, I’m not adverse to giving them a chance and I’m glad I plumped for When the Past was Around. It’s not particularly long, but what’s here is charming, heartfelt, and just plain enjoyable.

While the point and click puzzle style is here, there feels much better logic in how to solve each areas puzzles – even when the order of operations might not make too much sense. While it would be far more intuitive with a mouse, there’s nothing too fiddly here that the controller can’t handle well enough, and there’s never more than half a dozen things to click on, with the game clearly telling us when an item can and can’t be used. Some of the puzzles can feel a little laborious, but that’s mainly in the context of those that came before; when one puzzle takes seconds to solve, the next one taking a minute feels longer than it really is. When I sit back and look having cleared the story in under an hour, really nothing was too taxing though.

But that’s kind of the point. The puzzles give us something to do and interact with, but really we’re just along for the ride, with a touching yet surreal love story following one girls journey, from the blooming of a relationship to the bitter sweet end. There’s no dialogue at all here. Instead, everything is told through a beautifully drawn motion comic style. I’ve always enjoyed this style of animation and When the Past Was Around is one of the better examples in gaming for my money. Bit of a random throwback, but I’m reminded of the story scenes in Christmas NiGHTS on the Sega Saturn in its look and feel.

The soundtrack is excellent too, as I’d hope seeing how intrinsically tied into the narrative it is. It’s a shame than the handful of times we’re presented with notes to ‘play’ that nothing more is made of it though. As is, it’s just another short interlude in the story that helps to reinforce the theme.

Conclusion

As I say, When the Past was Around isn’t the longest game, but it also doesn’t need to be. I enjoyed almost every moment of my time with it, and found the story to be genuinely touching, yet bizarre in its presentation. The visuals and music are excellent, and other than a few slight challenges in terms of drawn out puzzles, it’s just a breeze to play. There’s little replay value outside of achievement hunting, but plop yourself down for an evening and play this through and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by it.

This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox One console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.