Wanderstop

I can only applaud when games try to say something more about the world we live in, or how human existentialist issues manifest themselves around us. Of course, entertainment value is crucial, but fortunately, that entertainment can come from many different sources, and every once in a while, it's that biting social criticism, subtle philosophy, or compelling contemplation that we experience something interactively striking, something we haven't encountered before.

Disco Elysium, Terra Nil, Celeste - there are plenty of games that manage to pair sprawling narratives with something to say with satisfying gameplay, and while The Stanley Parable may not quite manage to put forward as compelling a gameplay framework as the aforementioned titles, at the time it got us thinking about interactivity, about how we listen to the game, and how it eventually responds to our actions. Now, a number of the key people behind The Stanley Parable, including creator Davey Wreden, are trying to do it again; to create a game that entertains while establishing a narrative that provokes, tantalises, and tries to push us out of our comfort zone.

Wanderstop is the name of the game, which takes its name directly from a fantasy tea room in a small clearing in an enchanted forest where quirky characters from near and far end up for mysterious reasons. And so do you, a fighter named Alta, who after a major breakdown ends up on a bench next to Wanderstop owner Boro. Devastated, Alta admits to both Boro and herself that her life up to this point is not sustainable, that her personality is at war with herself and that it's draining her strength. She has anxiety, she has stress, and she doesn't know how to go back to her life as a kind of fantasy gladiator whose sole reason for existence has been to defeat the next opponent. Here in the clearing, through relatively mundane and monotonous tasks, she must regain her composure, reorganise priorities and rediscover herself. It's an extremely introspective journey that is not defined by major external events, but rather how Alta, little-by-little, puts herself back together after falling apart.

And that's really the whole point of Wanderstop, both the game and the tea room. The characters you meet, and you, yourself, come there to find peace, and this manifests itself in the game's very basic structure. If you thought the game would develop into a sophisticated life simulator, think again. Wanderstop remains extremely simple throughout, and both brewing tea, breeding better plants that give access to new flavours, and maintaining the shop are simple, and at first even a little confusing in their simplicity. You're constantly waiting for the game to open up, for a complexity to emerge, but even though the game naturally has systems that expand gradually, Wanderstop tells you several times that you, as Alta, should try to find peace in the monotony, in the recognisable loop. Boro actually suggests several times that you make yourself a cup of tea and sit somewhere in the clearing, and when you do, Alta's mind starts to wander.

There are absolutely golden moments here, where the calm that washes over Alta really rubs off on the player. Where you suddenly look at the colourful branches of the trees swaying gently in the wind in a different way, where the simple yet effective soundtrack has a different power over you, or where the warmth of the crackling fireplace on the first floor of the lounge can almost be felt on your hands. It's in these moments that Wanderstop really comes into its own.

Unfortunately, over time, these introspective oases start to become further and further apart as the mind starts to crave systems that offer a little more interaction, more influence from the player, and perhaps most importantly, more personalised chatter. You have a camera, yes, and you can take pictures and place them in frames around the parlour, but the actual life simulator framework consists primarily of brewing tea for the characters that wander into the clearing, and considering brewing tea isn't expanded or changed, you're stuck with the actual mundane tasks the game sets you.

Yes, there are moments where you let yourself go, but it's worth mentioning again that this game also needs to be an effective life simulator, and it lacks systems, versatility and personality to engage the player, because it just gets a bit too boring in the long run. Although perhaps being bored is a subtle hint that being bored is part of the point... There is a kind of therapeutic aspect, but at the same time, this is also a game, a game that can easily take 12-15 hours to complete, and it needs more meat on its bones to make that journey feel more fulfilling.

That said, Wanderstop generally gets almost all the basics right. The game has a simple but beautiful aesthetic that works throughout, and most importantly, the writing is fantastic. It's a shame that the voice acting is so incredibly sparse and limited to a handful of scenes. We never get to hear all the wacky, bizarre characters. There's nothing wrong with the writing, but a livelier soundscape would have been ideal to give each character a slightly more memorable personality.

I wish Wanderstop's actual gameplay elements had been given an extra coat of paint, a little more focus. It's not that I'm demanding that the game prioritise differently than it does, but even if you fall in love with the therapeutic, calm, and introspective atmosphere, you'll probably end up getting bored before the end credits roll, and that's a shame.