The Old Tree

Have you ever wondered what happens to a baby squid alien after it hatches from its egg somewhere deep underground? Probably not but it seems to be an interesting thought and that’s what The Old Tree is all about.

The Old Tree starts off with the little alien hatching and then finding its way to the nearest doorway. Throughout the game you will have to help it overcome certain obstacles, be it closed doors, calling elevators, scaring giant myriapods with the help of an alien bee and loads more.

This world in which you find yourself is strange in a lot of ways. It’s dark but it doesn’t seem all that hostile, although danger is all around. It’s also a surprisingly silent game in which apart from certain sound effects and a slightly eerie soundtrack, there’s not much else to hear. Although, that is a good thing because you have plenty of time with your yourself to try and think about what this place is.

As a point and click game, The Old Tree won’t hassle anyone with any kind of ridiculous complexity. The puzzles it offers are in the lateral thinking side of things and some of them have amusing solutions.

It’s a game that’s more of a visual novel in which the action unfolds at a somewhat slow pace, but you never feel as if time is being wasted. Everything is well timed, transitions between areas of the games will catch you by surprise and they sometimes contradict with the scale of the world you are in.

The only thing that can bother you about The Old Tree is the fact that it’s a short game. Somehow, it feels like it ends just when you get a bit attached to the little, slow crawling and somehow cute alien.