Wayward Strand Review

Introduction

Wayward Strand is a heartfelt interactive story, told in a unique and curious way. Play as Casey Beaumaris; intrepid teenage journalist, as she visits an airborne hospital for the first time. Uncover the airship’s mysteries, and explore the lives of its inhabitants.

Review

It’s the summer of 1978, Casey Beaumaris is busy enjoying her school holiday, when her mother asks her to spend a long weekend helping her in an airborne hospital, where she works.

Casey is reluctant, but decides to use the visit as an opportunity to write an article for her school newspaper about her time in the airborne hospital. She spends the three days visiting the patients, talking with them and learning about their lives, and how she can help them.

Time moves forward whether you’re interacting with a character or not, so there can be a limited time on conversations and tasks. You can listen into conversations and peek into rooms to uncover secret opinions and feelings of the patients – which will be added to the journal that Casey writes her notes in for her article.

This game has a beautiful visual novel feel, and colourful bright sets, which just added to the emotive storytelling. As you explore the ship with Casey, you’ll learn what the patients, and staff feel about the ship, and what prospect they have for the future. Each character has a very different outlook, and is interesting in a way that keeps you returning to them for more conversation, just to find out more about them.

The game is made up of three chapters, which resembles the three days that Casey is visiting the airborne hospital. What she does during her visit is entirely up to the player; who she talks to, where she explores etc. so the choice is completely yours.

The dialogue response options are timed, however, there is plenty of time to make a choice from the options; I never felt rushed in making a choice. But remember, sometimes it’s better to just say nothing.

There isn’t really much music in the game, only at times when music was being played by the characters. It didn’t feel like anything was missing, at least for me – as the game is so focussed on the narrative, there wasn’t a lot of empty, silent moments. The only sounds you mainly heard, other than the conversations, were the sound effects, which I felt were done really well.

It took me about 3-3.5 hours to play through the game, however for platinum, I would guess it would take around 5-6 hours, with a couple playthroughs.

The relationships and emotional dialogue felt pretty close to home at times, and definitely made me think about my own family, and those I’ve lost.

Rating

Pros:

Good storytelling
Interesting characters
Visual novel designs

Cons:

Sometimes felt a little slow
Couple times where the dialogue just cut off

Summary

Very unique game about family, friends, and all the in-between. Emotive storytelling and fun, interesting characters you just wanted to help, however you could. Pretty visual novel style designs and colourful sets with lots of attention to detail.

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Game & Developer Information

Developer Website: Ghost Pattern
Developer Socials: Twitter
PSN Store Links: £TBC/€TBC Europe / $TBC North America
Trophy Information: 30. 1 / 5 / 10 / 14