Wander To one of the most delicious opening scenes I have ever seen: blotting with three other cats, roaming the blowjob workers covered with green.
The new game of Bluetwelve studios with Annapurna Interactive succeeds the most when it continues to allow you to do exactly that: to be a cat. It was incredibly satisfactory to jump on a book tower, overturn a planting pot, rub against someone’s leg, scratching a carpet and jumping from one precarious position to another.
The game gave me a level of empathy for my cat that I never had before. Ruin a piece of furniture was so pleasant that I watched my Zelda cat and that I understand you, baby. I loved crushing the meowing key and running along the roofs, curling up in random places with new friends. Wander summarizes the independence and self-satisfaction of the external cat.
Unfortunately, he also has a lot of … no cat stuff.
Goodbye cats, hello robots
About 15% of the path in the game, the cat discovers a sub-city of robots with emotions, some of which are convinced that there is an “outside”. The cat obtains a drone companion and eventually pursues the great meta of the civilization of the observation of dead humans.
When the game began to help sensitive robots – like a grandmother who knits the ponchos of electric cables (I want one) – inscape their biohazard prison, I tried to keep an open mind. Bluetwelve Studio extends the same caring touch as for cats as for robots.
Robots have intelligent unique designs, personalities and funny comments and different adaptation mechanisms. Even their apartments are unique with beautiful little worlds to explore. The cat assistant, a drone named B12, provides a useful translation and a cultural bridge.
Try too hard to be a “serious” video game
I was often exhausted when I felt Wander was weighed down by the expectations of “what a video game is. There are several occurrences with an enemy Blob of hive, I can only describe like Icky. A myriad of enemy bacteria continue the cat in simple platform puzzles or short but urgent speed levels. They are stressful and not really fun, and I don’t know why they are there, to be honest, apart from adding stress for stress.
He brings the secular question back: makes a game to have Have “fighting” to be a game?
I don’t think. I had hoped Wander’The gameplay s would look closer to The beautiful exploration of AbzaireOr Even the sweet click of Snap Pokémon. These games are Interactive experiences that encourage players to exist simply in the world, to fight in its wonders and to embrace the subtle joy of the movement. Wander got closer to a few rides:
Oh, being a cat in a bucket … #wander @annapurnapics @HKDEVBLOG pic.twitter.com/9xmkx9assb
– Amanda Tien (she / her) (@amandajotien) July 26, 2022
Unfortunately, the accent placed on these frightening and panicked levels officially played a game to my mother, which moved me because she would have loved playing a cat game. And it was not the only trap Wander fallen into.
There are collectibles related to history (of course there are) which are easy to miss (of course they are) at levels to which you cannot come back because even this cat cannot open a door by itself. Furthermore, Wander is increased by stimulation problems, moving too slowly in certain sections and moving aggressively quickly in others, which leads to end -of -game characters who are not as fleshed out as those I met earlier. I felt like the game wanted to be exciting, always rushing into the next section even when I just liked to push.
The world of Wander: Both good and bad
And it’s a shame, because Wander’The design of level S and music invite exploration, even if you do not “find” much. There are fun side quests, such as gathering songs for a street musician or plants for children who cultivate their own greenhouse. Each level is meticulously, beautifully designed with proofs of life – first humans, then robots.
The world of Wander is beautifully lit by signs of neon, greenery and … problematic Asian things. Which is a shame, because it is a magnificent space that did not need to fall into the tropes.
I just wanted to play a nice cat game without it Techno-Orientalism. Unfortunately, Wander Do not question his creative influences at all. And from the moment when the developers decided to base their game on an enclave created by British colonialism, they had the responsibility to fight against its history. Wander Takes so much care in the way he represents cats. I just want it to be so consistent in the heirs of real humans.
Sisi Jiang’s Fantastic essay on orientalism WanderKotaku.com
Problems with WanderHistory and end
The confrontation between Wander’S Sweet Story and his desire to achieve certain video game ideas came to me at the end of a mid -game level. A robot friend, Momo, waited in a boat in an alley – even if we had just returned to save one of his friends lost for a long time. Six other robots came to hug him, but no Momo.
Given all the treatments and magnet keys that the game had given to its robots so far, I have been shocked that the designers choose not to let Momo have a meeting with his best friend. It would have been easy to make Momo walk to the boat later, or to fade for Black and to make it appear there (narrative tips already exploited elsewhere in the game). But no, before we even returned from the rescue mission, Momo is already ready to go to Shepherd the player at the next level of no return.
Wander Put pressure on herself to be a capital-G game throughout her scenario. He has repeatedly highlighted a story not bad-booth-over-over-over to save the world of robots because all humans died because of a plague (because of course they are), when I think the game (and A lot of internet) I really wanted it to be Live his nickname, “The Cat Game”.
Consider the last moments of the game (big spoilers) to see my point:
East Wander A good video game?
In all, Wander left me a little strange. I felt all the above, but I couldn’t help but smile every time I led the cat to slip under a sign, stick his head in a bag just to see what happened, or curl up on a pillow in a library of apartments (dreamy!). Wander is also a good weekend frenzy, even if it failed my little cat heart or made me grimacted on rice hats.
As a video game, Wander is far from perfect, but as a cat-in-one-Bucket simulator, it’s quite incredible.
Score: 7.9 / 10
