If you weren’t already worried about game developers – and, heck, you really should be by now – the growing emergence of games explicitly about burnout is certainly a good reason to start. Wanderstop, in a similar vein to last summer’s Dungeons of Hinterberg, is exactly that, only this time instead of opting for a breezy vacation to get away from it all, your location is a little more confined. Imagine Alice in Wonderland except, instead of a whole forest to act as her psychological gauntlet, Alice is trapped in a single clearing that’s been turned into a kind of max-security plant-based rehab facility.
Wanderstop reviewDeveloper: Ivy RoadPublisher: Annapurna InteractivePlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC (Steam), PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Sinister as it sounds when you put it on paper, Wanderstop, from the new studio Ivy Road formed by The Stanley Parable’s Davey Wreden and Gone Home’s Karla Zimonja, is sincerely lovely. Protagonist Alta, a lifelong ‘fighter’ by trade, has seen her years-long undefeated streak, brought about through a relentless pursuit of perfection, come to a sudden and unexplainable end. On a search for answers from her old master here in the mysterious woods, suddenly she finds herself unable to lift her sword, a kind of inverse King Arthur, as though her own subconscious no longer deems her worthy. She’s rescued from the forest floor by Boro, the happy-go-lucky owner of Wanderstop, a strange tea shop that presents itself to travellers in need. And here Alta must stay, making tea for increasingly weird passers-by and bouncing her restless leg, until she regains the strength, perspective, or whatever it may be that she needs to carry her sword again and leave.
As much as there are darker corners to Alta’s psyche, Wanderstop’s story is told with the warmest of hearts. The intention here is to provide a kind of welcoming hug, a guided mediation for the player as much as Alta herself through concepts of purpose, work ethic, self-acceptance, ambition and exhaustion. Its actual successes are mixed, but much the same as lovely Boro, at no point does it ever dip below pleasant, gentle-spirited and admirably kind.
Boro, at once simple and wise, is really the heart of Wanderstop, your go-to for functional questions about how gardening works as well as more philosophical musings on boredom (sometimes it’s good to be bored!) or what to do next (sometimes it’s good for there to be nothing to do!) or how to solve Alta’s deepest problems (typically: sometimes it’s good to have a rest!). His first main suggestion to you, however, will be to try making some tea, which remains a common solution throughout.