There’s been a clutch of what I call “sentimental clean and fixers” that have all been released in quick succession, and Pieces of the Past looked like a very promising title. Most titles pick either cleaning, fixing, or organising things as their cosy, relaxing pastime of choice, but Pieces of the Past covered all three. I was hoping for a triple threat. Instead, I got a game with clunky controls that somehow largely played itself to compensate for them.
Pieces of the Past takes place in a book shop-home hybrid. Behind the book shop, your family live. There’s no bathroom or kitchen, mind you, just bedrooms for each family member dotted with six objects for you to clean, fix, or organise. Wandering around the environment in first-person perspective is nice, with some care taken to make it a full space. It’s the way you’ll find the 36 objects in the game to tackle. Sadly, from there, it’s all downhill.
This game feels like one long tutorial. Some objects have three pieces of dirt on them for you to grab a brush and hold left click over to clean. When organising things, the outline of their need to go is shown, and when you let go, sometimes the objects snap to their location without you needing to try and place them. Other times, you’ll hover over the outline, and it snaps back to the organising tray. Other objects may need glueing back together, but you don’t need to be careful. Just wriggle the mouse about, and magically everything is now sticky, and the pieces auto-rotate and snap into place without any real effort. Some objects require taking apart and putting back together, and these are the few highlights in a game that plays itself. Here, broken or replaceable pieces are brown and can be pulled apart to insert new pieces before rebuilding. Yes, everything still auto-snaps a little too easily, but I felt like I was actually doing something. Everything else felt like autopilot. I have a sneaky suspicion that the reason why so much of the game runs on autopilot without any need for vague precision is that the controls are clunky.
Most of these types of games are on the easier side, and that’s ok as long as the player feels some kind of accomplishment. Pieces of the Past takes making things easy to the extreme, where nothing feels satisfying to do. The tidbits of story for the memories attached objects are minimal and barebones, too. I was able to complete Pieces of the Past in 52 minutes, without rushing, and reading all the flavour text. That shows just how simplistic the 36 puzzles are. I can’t recommend this at full price, but perhaps as a “my first clean and fix game”, there is some merit in having it for younger children. Everyone else, I fear, will feel bored and short-changed. Shame.
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