Ageless

Ageless is the sort of game that could best be described as a great concept that almost nails the execution. The sombre narrative, cerebral gameplay, and distinct presentation are all great in their own regard, but each is plagued with enough inconsistencies and caveats to hold back the overall experience from true greatness.

Ageless stands very well in the ever-growing genre of heavy platformers. It owes this to a great variety of new elements and unique story aspects. The graphical style uses color in a beautiful way and brings the world of Ageless to life. This game thus remains a fun and stimulating experience for any fan of challenging platformers.

If you have been looking for a game in the style of Celeste for a long time, then you've finally found it, only in a slightly deformed and crumpled form.

Good and hard puzzle platformer with repetitive background.

Whilst Ageless may appear to be a pretty standard platformer on the surface, the game predominantly focuses on a unique time mechanic. Kiara, our protagonist, uses a bow which can either advance or send back an object or animal in time. For example, the opening levels feature a dolphin who, by using the bow, can be changed into a whale for a bouncy platform. This feature helps Ageless stand out from the pixel platformer genre and even the puzzle genre in general. The time mechanic is something I haven’t played before and adds a real depth to the puzzles on offer.

In the end, Ageless has the signs of many great puzzle platformers.

Ageless is bright, colorful, and sounds great, but is just a bit clunky. The game gives off a Celeste-vibe, which is a good thing, but it can take some time to get used to the age mechanics and the precise aiming required for a lot of the puzzles.

Ageless is a beautiful tale about empathy and purpose, with an ambience as simple as its message and full of puzzles that can be quite complicated. The game has several positive aspects, and it manages to develop its own identity to create an experience that deserves to be explored. However, there are also several stones in the way: gameplay can be repetitive, tiring and simply flawed and frustrating.

The experience would be a much smoother and more memorable one if its primary mechanic was easier to execute. Each world culminates in a boss fight, and these border on maddening when coupled with scarce checkpoints, the aforementioned aiming issues, and a system of progression that's essential trial-and-error. Those who like their platformers extra spicy may find a satisfying 10 hours here, but be warned that fighting with the controls is par for this course.

This indie title can’t decide if it wants to be a tough-yet-relaxing puzzle game or a momentum-based platformer, and it suffers from such an identity crisis. “A” for effort.