The Past Within is a co-op point-and-click adventure from Rusty Lake

One player is in the past while the other’s in the future

There’s something so intriguing to me about solving two-player puzzles with a friend in a point-and-click adventure. That’s the premise for The Past Within, a new PC and mobile game from Rusty Lake.

If you’ve checked out this team’s prior work, you’re likely on-board. The setup for The Past Within is to “travel through both past and future to piece together the mysteries surrounding Albert Vanderboom.”

The live-action-meets-gameplay trailer is light on details, but it establishes the mood and its blend of 2D and 3D. The idea is that players will work together to make sense of their surroundings from two different perspectives using good old-fashioned communication. There’s even the promise of cross-platform play, with PC, Mac, iOS, and Android versions launching in 2021. (“Hopefully” consoles too.)

“We have been working on this project for more than a year overcoming a lot of challenges, creating our first Rusty Lake game set (partly) in a 3D environment using Unity and mixing this with multiplayer gameplay. We still have a long way to go before we can communicate a release date, but we hope to keep you excited on our social media, our blog, and Steam on the development progress of the game.”

The Past Within seems like a pretty decent entry point to this brand of puzzle gaming. I’ll be watching.

The Past Within – Teaser Trailer [Rusty Lake Blog]