As you work through the various environmental puzzles of When the Past Was Around, you see a relationship bloom and break down through your actions.
Edda seems to have had some form of loving relationship with The Owl, a bird of some wonderful musical talent. As I worked through the PAX East demo, I would join them in scenes where they would share quiet moments together or share in The Owl’s lovely music. These moments were often fleeting, though, leaving Edda alone in a variety of locations filled with puzzles.
The puzzles tasked you with finding objects in the environment, picking at the various devices and objects until you figured out how each item tied into all of the others. It made for some great puzzle-solving, as the solutions were all contained within small environments. You couldn’t wander off and get yourself mixed up by going the wrong way. Everything you needed was close, making for a calming feeling of progression. You;d also get to see more moments between the two characters, sharing in their quiet romance.
As you solved puzzles, though, you’d leave the room in shambles. Plants would be hurled onto the floor. Things would be discarded as if you were tearing the place apart in your search for something. There was this sense that you were breaking things in your constant momentum toward The Owl. It loaned the game this sense of personal destruction – as if you were purposely wrecking your life and existence in order to keep up with this relationship, or that the connection itself was damaging who you were.
Somehow touching and upsetting all at once, the Prologue demo for When the Past Was Around showed the developers continue to impress us with their ability to weave touching narrative into the gameplay, creating an experience and story that I just want to know more about.
When the Past Was Around is currently in development, but in the meantime, you can add it to your Steam Wishlist or try out the Prologue demo.
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