While Waiting PC Review

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While Waiting is the latest release from indie developer and publisher Optillusion (Moncage). This point-and-click narrative game depicts the unnamed male protagonist’s life at various key moments. The premise intrigued me as you can let events happen passively or actively participate to make entertaining moments happen. The game is full of tongue-in-cheek humour, and heart as you relate to the main character. It even had me belly laughing at times, something a game hasn’t made me do in a while. While Waiting is available now on Steam and Nintendo Switch.

Life pauses for no one in While Waiting

Gameplay

While Waiting begins with a child-friendly and humourous version of conception and birth, which immediately sets the tone for the rest of the game. This sequence introduces the mechanic of simply waiting to reach the next scene or being proactive. Moving around and interacting with objects or other people often results in funny and unintended consequences. From here we see the life of the unnamed male protagonist beginning to end.

The crux of playing is point and click with each new time and place. While Waiting does live up to its name, you can sit back and enjoy the narrative play out. However, engaging with the scene, solving puzzles etc can add to the life moment. I would say it is similar to Untitled Goose Game when it comes to optional but entertaining parts of the game.

I found the game did a great job encapsulating the experiences at different eras of life we’ve all had and can relate to. From hating vegetables as a kid, taking tests in primary school and having awkward teenage moments. Also references to Snake, the mobile game, being stuck calling customer service and more. While Waiting is chock full of puzzles and optional scenes to unlock. They are signified by the stickers in the top right corner and often require multiple playthroughs to achieve. There are 100 moments of the character’s life to experience and they all do well in adding to the narrative.

My only downside with the game was the time constraints and finicky controls. It was often frustrating that the scene was over by the time I figured it out or I was still scratching my head. I enjoyed the narrative building but it was a bit of a shame that the extra scenes had no impact on the story.

Graphics and Audio

The art style is perhaps my favourite aspect of While Waiting. I like the cartoon animation style and use of panels like a comic book. The design goes hand in hand with the tone and sense of humour. Without spoilers, there are often surreal aspects of the game and it wouldn’t have worked half as well with other design styles. Being designed like a cartoon allowed for a vibrant colour scheme which brought the game alive which was fantastic. The use of colour drew focus to people and objects of interest, making puzzle-solving easier.

The audio of While Waiting is delivered through orchestral music and sets the tone and pace of each scene. Whether that is melodically in the background or more loud and brash in the foreground. I found this worked well but did begin to feel repetitive especially if you have been playing for a few hours. I feel the game was missing a voice for the characters, especially the protagonist given it tells his life story. Despite this, the narrative was engaging and had me eager to continue.

Final Thoughts

I had a great time playing While Waiting, which conveys the feelings behind these moments very well while gamifying them. And as someone in their 30s, a lot of the game did hit close to home. Optillusion has delivered a great game taking a relatively simple premise and crafting an engaging, funny and heartfelt story. I do wish there was more time for each scene for puzzles and being on keyboard and mouse it was less finicky but it does give an excuse to replay it. The visual design is fantastic and the audio works well enough with the game. A complete playthrough takes 5-6 hours but with plenty of scenes to unlock, there is plenty more.

While Waiting has earned the Thumb Culture Gold Award! I’m looking forward to seeing what Optillusion bring out next.

Disclaimer: A code was received to write this review.

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About Author

Mike

Hailing from Glasgow I play a variety of games but a big fan or RPGs and action adventure games. However I do try and review other genres of games. In real life I work in a call centre so with gaming am happy to let video game characters do the talking.

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