I have to admit, September was packed with blood, shooting, and slaughter in gaming. That’s exactly why it is so refreshing to unwind with a sweet, beautiful, quiet, and slow-paced game after such a turbulent month. A game where you can simply relax, let go, and enjoy the ride. Forever Ago, published by Annapurna Interactive and developed by Third Shift, is exactly that kind of title. It is a deeply serene, personal, and emotional adventure that doesn’t try to wow you with a massive open world or explosive set-pieces. Instead, it builds its narrative around a single man, his past, and a road trip that seemingly accidentally gives him the chance to confront what he left behind.
At the center of the story is Alfred, an elderly man who, following a tragic event, decides to abandon his old life and hit the open road. It’s already touching, right? He packs his camera, his trusty van, and a rather heavy burden of memories. His journey through various landscapes isn’t a classic sightseeing tour; it’s a desperate attempt to find new meaning and make peace with things he can no longer change. I have to say, the premise itself made me a bit melancholic right from the start, as my 40th birthday is rapidly approaching, meaning I’m slowly inching into that “older man” territory. Personal existential dread aside, the game places you in a very distinct position. Alfred isn’t a hero in the traditional sense, and there’s no grand villain to defeat. His greatest battle is internal. The story is split into four chapters, representing different legs of the journey, where you’ll meet various people and hear their stories. While Alfred is the protagonist, Forever Ago doesn’t linger solely on his past. Every new person you encounter brings their own sad, happy, sweet, or bitter story, problem, or secret, gradually creating the impression that the entire trip is a beautiful anthology of human experiences. Someone is looking for a lost loved one, someone is trying to find their place in the world, someone is running from the past, while someone else is just trying to take one more step forward.
This is exactly where Forever Ago hits the bullseye, right in the heart and soul. The game inherently understands that not every moment needs to be grand and dramatic. Sometimes it is enough to just sit by a campfire and listen to someone’s story. Sometimes you’ll just chat with a passerby, snap a photo of a landscape, or help someone with a minor mundane problem. All these little interactions combine to make it feel like you are on an actual road trip, rather than just clearing video game levels. You spend the vast majority of your time exploring the environment. Alfred can leave his van and explore the areas on foot. The worlds he visits aren’t massive, but they are open enough to invite you to look beyond the main road, to truly explore. The game frequently hides its best moments behind minor detours, so if you want to see everything Forever Ago has to offer, you have to be curious. There is no combat system, no enemies hunting you, and no split-second threats to react to. Instead, exploration mostly boils down to conversations, simple interactions, finding items, and solving minor puzzles. This is the ultimate chill game, something to sink into and forget about real-world problems, or simply act as a palate cleanser from whatever sweaty multiplayer game you just played. It might sound overly simple, but that simplicity is the true beauty of this title. It doesn’t push you to the edge; it gently pulls you into stories you will deeply connect with.
However, there are mechanics, this is a video game, after all. Photography is one of the most vital pillars of Alfred’s adventure. His camera isn’t just a prop; it’s a tool that actively motivates you to pay attention to your surroundings. During your travels, you can photograph various animals, flora, landscapes, and quirky details, turning the hunt for new subjects into a delightful mini-game. Once you start actively observing your environment, the road trip gains an entirely new layer. It subtly pushes you to take those side paths because the best shots aren’t always handed to you on a silver platter. I particularly loved how photography makes perfect narrative sense for the character. Alfred doesn’t take pictures just because the developers needed a collectible system. He is actively trying to document the passing world. The photographs become a way to anchor fleeting moments that would otherwise be lost. This ties beautifully into the game’s core theme: memory. Memory is practically the gravitational center of the entire experience. Alfred is a man trying to keep living despite a past that constantly shadows him. His journey is just as emotional as it is physical. The more time you spend with him, the clearer it becomes why he left and how incredibly hard it is for him to accept what happened. Yet, the game never resorts to cheap emotional manipulation to make you cry. It leaves enough unsaid, allowing you to process the weight of the situations on your own terms.
Of course, Forever Ago can be quite direct during its emotional peaks, so keep some tissues handy if you are prone to tearing up. Certain dialogues explicitly convey a character’s grief, and a few encounters feel deliberately engineered to elicit a specific emotional response. But even then, there is an undeniable sincerity in how the game handles its themes. It never tries to turn sorrow into a hollow spectacle. It is far more interested in what a person does after tragedy strikes and how they keep moving forward. Because of this, the game’s pacing is incredibly slow, but that is a highly deliberate design choice. Forever Ago is not the game you boot up if you want constant dopamine hits. You will spend long stretches just walking, admiring the view, listening to the score, and reflecting on a previous conversation. Some will find that breathtaking, while others will quickly start wondering when the “game” is going to start. But broadly speaking, this is an experience meant to be felt.
Puzzles and interactions are quite rudimentary, so don’t go in expecting a highly challenging brain-teaser. They primarily serve as pacing tools to slow you down and encourage environmental exploration. If you came looking for complex logic puzzles, you will be disappointed. But if you view them as interactive pit stops on a road trip, they do their job perfectly. The same applies to the collectibles. Snapping photos of wildlife and finding hidden details won’t drastically alter the gameplay loop, but as I said, they give you a wonderful excuse to wander off the beaten path. And in a game like Forever Ago, those detours often house the most memorable moments.
I know this game isn’t for everyone. It can be hard to surrender to a purely narrative-driven experience when you’re used to raw, brutal gameplay and high-APM controller mashing. If you are that type of player and this pacing doesn’t suit you, Forever Ago will feel like a sluggish crawl. The game lacks the mechanical complexity to carry dozens of hours on its gameplay alone. Its entire value lies in its story, characters, and atmosphere; if those don’t hook you, nothing else will. On the flip side, if you appreciate walking simulators, you will find a treasure trove here. Forever Ago nails that specific atmosphere that makes you feel like you are genuinely traveling. Distinct biomes, dynamic weather, a stirring score, and ambient nature sounds work in tandem to give each location its own identity. There isn’t a massive number of areas, but they are visually diverse enough to prevent the trip from ever feeling monotonous.
Regarding the graphics and presentation, the art style is fairly simple, highly stylized is the better term, but it pairs beautifully with the narrative tone. Characters aren’t hyper-realistic, the textures won’t melt your GPU, and the animations can occasionally feel a bit stiff. However, the landscapes can look genuinely stunning, especially when the game utilizes wide framing and natural lighting. Audio is the other crucial half of the immersive puzzle. The soundtrack doesn’t try to overpower the scene; it gracefully underscores the emotional beats, while ambient nature sounds breathe life into the world. The rustling of wind, the babbling of a creek, birdsong, and other subtle audio cues become vastly more prominent when there are no explosions drowning them out. Sometimes, pure silence does the heaviest lifting.
As wonderful as all that sounds, I do think the game occasionally suffers for what it is. Certain segments could have been trimmed, some conversations drag on longer than necessary, and a few objectives feel like blatant padding designed just to extend your time in a specific zone. When the story hits, you don’t mind lingering, but during weaker sequences, that slow pace becomes glaringly obvious. Yet, when you add it all up, Forever Ago is one of those titles that doesn’t try to entertain you in the traditional sense. It wants to guide you through an emotional journey, giving you enough breathing room to process it at your own pace. There are no world-altering choices, no complex RPG skill trees, and no combat. It’s just a man, his van, a camera, and the open road.
We would like to thank Annapurna Interactive for providing us with a copy of the game for review purposes.
Forever Ago (Xbox Series x)
To be completely honest, this genre usually isn't my cup of tea. But since the other writers who typically cover these games were slammed, I decided to take the wheel. And I have to admit, I don't regret it for a second. The game resonated with me far more than I ever imagined it would. A sweet, deeply emotional, touching story populated by characters you won't easily forget are more than enough reasons to play it through to the credits. If you are burned out on the endless stream of blockbusters that have dropped over the past few weeks, this is the perfect game to help you decompress—and maybe even shed a tear or two. Check it out; trust me, you won't regret it. Every now and then, stepping out of our comfort zone is exactly what we need.
