Yesterday Origins Review

I’m a big fan of point-and-click adventures, so when the original Yesterday came out in 2012, I really got into it. It was the first proper game in the genre that I’d come across on Android (not counting re-releases) and I got pretty addicted to it. The storyline was good, the puzzles were tricky but logical and the writing was pretty good for a small studio. It was a really polished game, certainly more so than its budget price would suggest. Fast forward four years to 2016 and now, thanks mainly to Telltale, the point-and-click adventure is an established genre again, with plenty more titles to choose from. Does Yesterday Origins stand up when the crowd around it is much bigger this time?

Like the first title, the game starts off with a prologue setting the scene before the main story kicks in. I won’t spoil the story but it’s set hundreds of years in the past and involves bothering a pig. The game starts properly and we return to John Yesterday, now running an antique shop instead of the private detective work he was doing before. This means that the mechanic of gathering information through conversations with and observations of other characters doesn't make as much sense as it did in the first game. Nonetheless, that mechanic is still in the game and still relevant to some of the puzzles, more on that later though.

The pace is incredibly slow this time round, with the game taking a long time to get interesting post-prologue. I spent about an hour pottering about doing admin tasks in John’s antique shop towards the start of the game. It made playing a chore if I’m honest and if I wasn't playing it for a review, I probably would have given up before the story got good. This is a shame, as the writing genuinely does get better in the second half of the game, with a somewhat bizarre story featuring the Spanish Inquisition, immortals and a whole lot of jumping around through time periods.

This little piggy definitely didn't have roast beef...

 The theme music is the same as it was for Yesterday, with a few new tracks peppered in for good measure. It was really good in the first place so that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I believe a few of the voice actors have been replaced, but Pendulo don’t seem to have published a cast list for the games so I can’t tell. They certainly sound a little different and as I mentioned above, this meant that some were a bit hard to warm to like before. For the main part though, the voice acting is competent and the music is nicely composed and sets the scene appropriately.That said,it does get a little samey if you take a while stuck on a puzzle so I found myself turning the music off in the end.

On that note, it’s fairly likely that you WILL get stuck on puzzles throughout this game as some of them are needlessly obtuse. To cite an example, there’s a point in the game where I need to find an object that Pauline’s Dad hid somewhere. In order to find it, I need to change characters, look at a statue as John, then go and talk to Pauline about said statue. Only after you've done this, switched back to Pauline, and looked at a photo of her father, is she able to find the object you need to progress in the game. Clicking in the place where the object is has no effect before this triggering. This jumping between characters gets very old, especially as they go back to their starting positions when you switch. This means that you have to traipse between two buildings multiple times in the first chapter in order to advance the story. Because the characters often rely on events triggered by another character, you can’t just complete all your tasks with one character and then switch to the second either. It almost feels like it was done to lengthen the game.

You certainly can't deny that the artwork is lovely.

In fact it wouldn't surprise me if there were elements included to lengthen the game as it is rather short. The first title took about five hours to complete, this one about seven. When you consider that it’s more than three times the price, that’s a real issue for me. At £6.99, I could live with Yesterday being a bit on the short side, for £22.99, I expect a bit more meat to a game.

Some of the characterisation seems a bit different in this sequel too, with Pauline and Boris both coming across as less likeable than in the first game. In the early stages of the game, Pauline shoots herself in order to get rid of some wrinkles, which I feel is probably a misuse of the whole immortal regeneration thing, and paints her as a bit shallow. There’s also a really awkward family argument about having children playing throughout the game which makes you feel just as uncomfortable as being in the middle of a real-life couple’s dispute does.

All said and done, Yesterday Origins comes across as a game where all your troubles aren't so far away. I can’t say I didn't enjoy my time playing it, but I didn't love it like I did the first title in the series. I do hope that a third game arrives and that Pendulo can improve on the formula because they’re good storytellers and I’d like to see more of John Yesterday. I would, however, like to see less of his antique shop.

John and Pauline arguing in their antique shop. A picture that summed up the first half of the game for me.