Chronology

Chronology (2014) is a running and jumping adventure game where you play a man and a snail who change time to save the world. Play focuses on time-travelling and time-pausing to interact with the environment in both its past and present states and find a way forward. It stands out for how you control both the man and snail, using their unique attributes and time-manipulation abilities alongside each other to progress.

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You play an old inventor who wakes up in an overgrown, ruined world with no memory of what happened. After finding a strange device that enables you to travel back in time, you search for answers by transitioning between the past and present to complete platforming sections using the time-altered environment. Along the way, you meet and team up with a talking snail who can pause time completely, teleport to the inventor and climb on walls. You switch between the inventor and the snail to use their abilities in tandem to solve puzzles and forge forward.

As you progress, the traversal challenges become more complex, requiring creative problem-solving. For example, you may need to plant a sapling in the past and climb the tree it has become in the present, pause falling objects to avoid them, or use the snail’s shell as a platform.

The result is a game with many interactive layers, from the different characters to contrasting moments in time. The art style and narrative feel similar to a book, exploring ideas of friendship, regret and putting things right.

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Our examiner, Jake Kendall, first checked Chronology 4 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 2 weeks ago.