Wanderlust: Travel Stories

It is strange game. Probably not a game at all. Just collection of stories you can tweak and twist a bit by your choices. Some stories are deep, some are shallow. Sometimes you can connect to the author sometimes you do not. But when you do connect, you get it, that feel of "Wanderlust". Feel of awe of what you see, wonder of what you seen and longing to see what is behind next corner. That feel which sends me out of my door to explore remote lands in real world. If you have wanderer, if you have imagination and do not mind to read this game is for you.

This is an immersive storytelling experience that lets you feel like you are travelling. My wife and I enjoyed the slower pace this has. The minimalist style with just some text and photos allowed our imaginations to be involved. We enjoyed the memories of travel that it brought back. Like travel, there isn't really a goal but you just enjoy it as you go.

Completed my first play through of this, and two play throughs of transsiberian. I've found it a really relaxing and enjoyable time, but I don't think I'll get more than a second playthrough out of it. I love that it gives me the experience and sensation of travelling, when Covid makes that tough for many of is. I enjoyed how different the stories were, some of them felt like I could play myself very comfortably, while others lead me to play the characters outside my comfort zone. No matter how I played I was rewarded. There are some aspects of all the stories that can be challenging or uncomfortable, and I like that the game gives multiple ways to approach this, and none are wrong. The game may feel very lofi, no video, just text, a photo and some background music. For me is part of the charm though, it has just enough there to put you in the place, but much like a book let you fill in all the details. Tomek and Martine's stories stood out to me as well written and paced ones, and the ones I enjoyed the most. The others weren't bad either but didn't resonate with me the same, and I felt the pacing for them didn't drag me in, at some points just as I felt I was getting established into the context it changed locations. The emotional aspects give a unique flair and were certainly a motivator with transsiberian to replay and explore different options. Two aspects I feel can be improved on: First the 'anecdotes' (short 15 min stories), didn't feel super engaging (except for Adilia's), but I enjoyed that each one used the time to focus on a paticular issue, and would draw back on how you played the character previously. Secondly, I found the end of each chapter's summary screen wrapped things up too quickly, maybe for future releases, weave a para or two of the gameplay in to more naturally lead the players to the ending. 4/5, a very enjoyable and relaxing game, certainly one worth trying if you're stuck and can't travel.

This is just a written text, more like an e-book, which you can interact with a little. It isn't a game, especially NOT an adventure game as being advertised, and it should not be advertised as such. The whole concept of a story is ok, but it should have been done differently to be called a game. Even when discounted it is not worth the money, because we naturally expect a game environment, not only written text rolling down. Disappointed !

Everything in this game would be working perfectly if only the stories were any degree entertaining or even plausible. Graphics are neat, music is very pleasant and ambient, but the stories... They simply are a nasueating bore. Short of any meaningful plot, action or even a degree of surprise, they are mellow, momentarily forgettable, and, worst of all, they didn't make me care about their characters in the slightest. Big dissapointment, better play 80 days for the 100th time.