Game 5: While We Wait Here

And now for something bleaker than our current reality.

While We Wait Here on Steam

I'm Cliff, and I either own or work in this diner.

Voice acting is decent except the southern fellow in the hat might be overdoing the stereotype.

Looks like a hot day in possibly Arizona, Nevada.

That's Nora, my co-worker... no, she's more than that, she's talking about getting a house together and wants my opinion, so either my wife or girlfriend.

People glow like angels when I'm supposed to interact with them.

That's my kind of choice!

We're thinking of moving out anyway so I'm not taking shit from anyone today.

Whenever a customer orders something Cliff will freehand-draw color pictures of the food with a pencil.

Cliff is an incredible artist!

There's a cooking element to this, a straightforward 'put things on grill and wait' mechanic. I'm not sure if I can screw it up or not.

Ok what the fuck?

Who are you and why are you suddenly in my freezer?

What is happening. It's like I skipped time.

Trippy. There was no scene transition for all this, it's just happening.

I can't talk to anyone except my current interaction target, the police and ambulance showed up and are photographing things like a murder took place and I'm still prepping the same burger order.

Is this an artistic choice? Is Cliff going crazy? Could Nora maybe serve a burger once in awhile?

I am intrigued, at least.

I do not appear to be able to screw up the orders, at least not now - I might still be in a tutorial. I will try again later.

Switching to Nora's perspective, Cliff isn't looking so hot.

This got dark quick.

And running outside in terror, the world isn't looking so hot either.

I just wanted to serve someone a burger....

And then the credits roll to start the game. Nice.

And now I'm a woman named Alex outside a club.

We're going places. Possibly none of them pleasant.

Alex tried to help out her friend who is being cheated on by a guy and what goes down here tells me that this is very much not a game for children.

Back to Nora at the Cafe, and the world is normal again.

 I could wear food service gloves but since I'm my own boss, I choose not to.

The 'can't burn food' mechanic means I can just leave these eggs and bacon cooking until someone happens to want them I think.

We serve our eggs 'Well Done'

UFO hunter Eddie shows up and asks me to turn on the TV.

Subtlety is not one of Eddie's qualities.

The TV doesn't work and he freaks out, going on a tirade about aliens about to attack us.

Then we get a scene of what happened to Eddie in his trailer. So this appears to be a 'walking simulator' game where you're essentially watching a movie and you have some limited interaction. I prepare food in this game as well as occasionally get a dialog option but I don't get the sense that either one is affecting the story. When that's the game then whether the game is good or not mainly depends on whether the story / acting are good, much like a movie.

Ah this is fun, we start the scene by getting to shoot some balloons and cardboard cutouts of government agents as Eddie while we listen to the diner conversation.

Eddie is the sort of person I'd prefer not own a firearm but this is America!

Also Alex and her pal Lisa have arrived at the diner.

It's all coming together.

I start to take more orders, and that entails going into the fridge to get ingredients. This is the fridge now.

I like that this game uses the mechanic of going to start prepping food to surprise you with something.

Ok, NOW I think my dialog options are affecting things - back at the start when I was Cliff, Nora asked me if I'd rather go for a place in the city or the countryside. I chose city, now we're getting into an elevator to go to 'our place'.

Only, we never made it here, Nora notes.

Hank (the old Southern guy in a cowboy hat) starts a story about the theft of his cattle but he gets hit on the head by the thief and the story diverges into how things was when he was a kid back on the farm.

I think part of what's good about a walking simulator vs. something like a movie is that you are still participating in it in such a way that you're paying more attention to it - with a movie it's easy to zone out and let your mind wander if things don't grip you, it's much harder to do that when you need to fulfill customer orders to progress the story.

Is it more fun to watch someone else milk a cow or to do it yourself?

Hank's story involves him getting into his daddy issues while you're walking around in a cave. Hank is a very slow walker so I'm a little bored with the sequence when it gets to a point where metaphor-dad starts chasing you - if he catches you then you restart where he starts chasing you so I need to find some way to get away.

Unfortunately for me I am bad at this and can't see a way out, and the 5th or 6th time this happens I experience a game bug and fall through the world, and I can't reset or progress.

Hank: "And then as I was runnin' from my giant zombie Dad I fell into the infinite."

Restarting the game loads you from the beginning of Hank's story, so I have to do the whole Hank's story segment again from the start. Frustrating. Time to re-milk a cow, re-shovel a haystack, and re-explore a cave.

Back at the dad monster, he is pretty scary.

The moment when you hope you're adopted.

Ok, got away first time on that attempt. It shouldn't have been that difficult earlier since you just run directly away from him and click on a rock to climb up, but I swear I tried it before and it didn't take - I probably just missed the climbing rock.

Back at the bar as Nora, I look like an utter fool for a bit wandering around trying to find a glass for the milkshake I just made. Turns out it's the SAME GLASS WE USE FOR SERVING STRAIGHT WHISKEY, which means we are either serving milkshakes that are too small or whiskeys that are too large. Maybe both.

Here's the glass - you let me know if this is for milkshakes or whiskey. Or both, you freak.

A new couple walks into the diner along with their baby.

They mention that they saw a messed up car outside and were wondering if anyone here was hurt. Alex speaks up and says it's her and Lisa's car, explaining the damage as having hit an animal on the way here. Given the way Lisa seems freaked out I think I can guess what sort of animal.

William here bears some resemblance to yours truly.

The weather outside has turned for the worse... both in and out of game, as it happens, which is a nice coincidence that enhances the experience so long as I don't lose power. Annnnnd now everyone is dead.

I think you've probably had enough to drink at this establishment, sir.

I suspect that he killed Cliff. Everyone is alive!

Why yes Mandy I'm definitely not having catastrophic visions, why do you ask?

And now for something completely different.

Eddie may be a nutcase but his stories are more fun than Hank's!

You get to run around a spaceship and blast aliens, so I'm starting to see the appeal of being a conspiracy theorist.

Back at the diner, Cliff is with us again. He's looking out the window at dark, people-shapes that wander through the storm outside.

Having found my Inspection Grade, I would like to note that I have never once put on the food service gloves or washed my hands before preparing food.

William's story - the guy that looks like me, with the wife and the baby - is that he's maybe not been super-loyal to his wife.

Before you judge William too harshly, can you really say that you could resist a woman with terrible handwriting?

Nora flashbacks to when she was running the diner with her dad, and we get to see the outside of it for the first time.

The place could use a new coat of paint.

At least I understand the milkshake / whiskey thing now, we can't be having multiple types of glasses in the 'Lone Glass' diner.

SHE'S SO FRAGILE I HAD TO CHEAT ON HER DON'T YOU SEE

Now having told the stories of our strangers, the narrative draws to a close. I was right about the murderous stranger - we see the scene of Cliff getting killed by him. We get a vignette with the outcomes for the various characters based on your dialog choices - and I suspect that includes Cliff. There was an offhanded question earlier about 'If you had to save Cliff or Nora, which one would you save?' and I chose Nora, so I suspect you can probably take the other option and get Nora killed instead, playing most of the game as Cliff.

Eddie gives up on the alien thing.

Hank finally takes a vacation after years of endless work.

William tries to make things work in his marriage while pining for that illegible penmanship.

Alex and Lisa end up going to the cops for the 'animal' they hit, and I hope Alex goes down on 2nd degree murder charges.

Our heroine Nora decides to try to move on from the diner, the memories of Cliff and the guy who murdered him.

What wonderful weather for putting the top down

And the world may have ended but I think it was a metaphor.