I just finished up my first playthrough of this Australian game over Thanksgiving. Since it's a thoughtful game with multiple female characters, the vast majority of them senior citizens (so exceedingly rare in lots of media, especially games), I thought it might be worth posting a small review here.

According to Steam, this is the game's description: Wayward Strand is a heartfelt story told in a curious way. Hop aboard an airborne hospital and meet its fully-voiced cast of eclectic characters. As time passes for everyone on board, explore the interwoven lives of the patients and staff; discover something new on each and every playthrough.

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I think the tone of this game is perfect. It's not full of emotional highs and lows like Spiritfarer, but it is sensitive enough to treat each character as a real person with real emotions. The game isn't slapping you in the face with sentimentality. No one is too over-the-top, but they're all still interesting and some are flat-out entertaining (looking at you, Esther). Perhaps most importantly, the main character, Casey, comes across as an actual teenager. She's a bit awkward and shy, but simultaneously can be opinionated and bold -- and she doesn't get along with her mother. Casey can tell that there are things going on aboard the ship, but as a kid in an adult's world she doesn't have a god-like ability to figure everything out on her own. As the player controlling Casey's decisions, you're not privy to every conversation, nor are you always able to glean the true meaning from what you do overhear. It creates a nice balance between trying to problem solve/mystery solve, and just taking your time learning about each character.

All that to say, there is a lot of work put into the setting and characters to make you feel connected to things while you're there. It's really well done.

This game a good choice for someone who enjoys taking their time and doesn't mind slow gameplay. It is not for completionists or people who like to maximize efficiency in any way. There are no satisfying repetitive tasks, resources to hoard, or anything like that. You just literally walk around an aesthetically pleasing hospital, having conversations with various old people. Your decision to speak with one person means that you are missing out on multiple unique experiences speaking to someone else during that same time period. The game does not wait for you. Personally, I thought that was pretty interesting, but some may find it frustrating. For example, at point in the game, one of the nurse characters asked me to spend time with one of the patients for a while. I sat with him and realized the nurse character got busy and forgot he was there. I started to feel bad about it and tried to see if I could find the nurse or get the old man lunch from the cafeteria myself, but the game didn't give me that option. I could see that being frustrating to someone else, but I think its purpose was to show that this stuff can happen to the elderly in understaffed/busy nursing homes or hospitals. However, game-wise, this meant I "wasted" an hour of in-game time just sitting next to a character who wasn't in the mood to speak with me. I felt it was worthwhile, but others could understandably find this annoying.

One other gripe I have is that the very slow pacing of the game is paired with the inability to save until the end of a day. Given how slow the game moves, this is not very player-friendly. You essentially have to play one third of the game before you can save any progress at all. I'm glad I started playing this during a holiday long weekend and could dedicate uninterrupted time to it, because normally this would be a dealbreaker for me.

If the above gripes wouldn't bother you, I think this game is unique enough to give a try. It also looks really nice, and the voice acting is good-to-excellent (not in love with Casey's repeated "ums", but maybe that's what 14 year olds are like, idk).

One additional note that I will add in here since I'm writing for Ovarit and not Steam: there are multiple female characters in the game that felt like real women, and all very different. I don't want to put spoilers in here because the fun part of the game is learning about them, but trust me when I say that they're the highlight of the game.

One final note: While there are a few overarching "mysteries" happening in the game, this definitely isn't a whodunnit. I point this out because the context under which it was recommended to me was in a list of "mystery games".