Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
Forever Ago is, on the surface, a narrative adventure game, filled with all the hallmarks of the genre – deeply story and character focused, and with gameplay mostly consisting of finding Important Object A to get past Inconvenient Obstacle B. Look closer, though, and you’ll find it’s actually a thesis on loss, grief, life, love, memories; how they all swirl around and fold in on each other, and how you can find beauty in even your darkest, lowest moments.
You play Alfred, an elderly man setting out on a road trip in his camper van. He’s guided only by a journal left by his late wife Audrey, directing him to revisit important places from their decades together. It’s largely linear, with developer Third Shift laser-focused on the couple’s lives, but expands on genre norms with a brilliantly implemented photography mechanic. Alfred carries an old instant camera, a sentimental relic really, but one that both factors into exploration and puzzle-solving, and allows players to take their own snaps to add to the journal along the way.
You may not like Alfred much at the start, though. He’s crotchety and cantankerous, clearly not wanting to go on this journey but driven by love, promise, obligation – take your pick. It’s easy to see why he’s so reluctant, too. Beyond being in mourning, each stop – the charming roadside diner that’s now a soulless chain, the favourite theme park that’s long since closed and been reclaimed by nature, even the truck stop that’s under new management – is a reminder of Alfred’s own mortality. The game soulfully explores how things we think of as eternal and immutable still change and end.
However, it’s also about coming to terms with those changes, and all the other trials life throws up at every turn, and slowly, subtly, shows Alfred beginning to heal. Unlikely figures he meets along the way give him new perspective, and a stray dog he picks up – or rather, who picks him – forces him to start caring for another living being again. After a few legs of the tour, it’s impossible not to root for the guy, even after he’s blown up at an oblivious young waitress.
Coming from publisher Annapurna, Forever Ago invites immediate comparison to stablemate Mixtape, another grounded, slice-of-life narrative adventure that won innumerable plaudits earlier this year. In some ways, this is the matching bookend to that game, a celebration of a life well lived sat in between them. However, this is a slower, more ponderous affair – Alfred is a senior citizen, after all – with an almost magical realist edge to it.
At each stop, Alfred stumbles upon scatterings of Mariposa petals, Audrey’s favourite flower, each triggering memories. Find a complete set and the petals reform as crude silhouettes to be snapped with that all-important camera, revealing vignettes of the couple’s life over the years. Every time, the memory lingers, the flowers themselves almost taunting Alfred, and every time he moves towards the floral effigies, he’s ripped back to the present. Other flashback scenes, usually when Alfred suffers a physical or emotional setback, take a deeply surreal approach, having him move through bizarre, ever-shifting, half-focused memories of the couple’s home, each one revealing a little more of Audrey’s fate. It’s all rather dreamlike, making wonderful use of the game’s painterly aesthetic to create images that sear into your memory.
Unfortunately, Forever Ago frustrates by making some parts of Alfred’s road trip missable, particularly those petal-powered vignettes. The game only permits one active save file, and you can’t replay chapters if you accidentally move the plot along before you found every collectible you wanted to hunt down. For a game that’s so powerfully character driven, and that hangs on the idea that every moment with loved ones, the highs and the lows, is worth remembering, having some of those moments be left unseen seems counter-intuitive. Also, and ironically for a game so focused on photography, the camera (your view of the game, as opposed to the object Alfred uses) is a bit of a pain, often not allowing you to highlight objects you need to interact with, leading to a fiddly dance as you try to line everything up just to open a door or read a note.
Control and progress wonks aside, Forever Ago is a beautifully poignant and often heartbreaking experience. Its pace may be too slow for some, and its raw subject matter too uncomfortable for others, but it’s a trip worth taking.
