Where The Water Tastes Like Wine

You are a guy which has a bad deal of cards one night, and the Dire-Wolf (voiced by Sting) curses you to walk through America and to gather stories for him, and spread them through the continent. On paper this sounds awesome, but the execution of it, is quite bad. The stories are accessed by clicking on locations and then later implementing the stories in discussion with certain characters which you need to get to like them. The more you talk about them the stronger and weirder or tamer they get. The said characters you encounter are also parts of the American heritage through they years, so their voice work and stories are interesting. After some time you will find out that the game play is empty, you are basically walking, and changing the stories from time to time when they are over used. There is a speed button, but I have to tell you this is a bad design choice, hold CTRL, then you start whistling and clicking the notes, but in this way you get robbed of hearing the most positive thing from the game it's OST! There is also a way to travel by trains, it can cost you money or health or by hitchhiking which doesn't cost you anything. They imputed a lot of care in each song, which are really done with great taste and detail, you will see that passing through every state changes the way the song is played, and sang in different languages. Art direction is neat from time to time, each story has it's own artist and style, but after playing the game, you start to see they are repeating quite a lot for various stories. During the game play of 10 hours or so, I've encountered the following bugs and glitches, camera starts wildly panning and zooming out by itself. The frame rate drops and it takes about a minute or so to stop. And lastly the bug where the game doesn't allow me to control the character but just goes and on on, until a restart is done. I would advise that you only get this game while it's on sale and to lower the expectations.

I don't have much good to say about it. The camera is a complete disaster. In a game where the camera is as important as in this one, completely focusing on exploration, that is a big problem. They should have fixed that before releasing the game. The music ruins the athmosphere. Constantly this cheerful a bit noisy folk music playing in the background, no matter what happens. Feels like a loop. The music doesn't change with the content. Mostly it feels out of place, even though the songs themselves are well made and the soundtrack is amibious. Walking, whistling. Nah. I'd skip this game unless you're someone that likes really slow games that are very low on gameplay and loves collecting things. Read a book instead if you are that into stories. I give it a 2/5 because I respect that they tried.

This game is genuine art, with a beautiful soundtrack and an impeccable atmosphere. The entire thing feels like a fever dream. But the gameplay is honestly painful, with terrible optimization, constant framerate stuttering, a wild camera that swings away and makes it hard to walk in a straight line etc etc. To enjoy this game as a 4-5 star experience, you have to learn to ENJOY this jankiness, and see it as being part of the fever dream. If you can't tolerate the jankiness (and why should you really), this is a 2-3 star game.

I like this game alot mainly for its focus on watching the stories you come across grow and change, despite knowing what actually happened. In a way its a reflect of how almost all stories that become urban legends get their start. Word of mouth and a little white lying to make it more interesting. Today, its pretty much the same and can spread even faster thanks to the online community. The SlenderMan is a great example of this, a terrible story of a man with large tentacles for arms who stalks the forest, looking for victims. In reality the story could have been something completly different at one point. Could have actually been based on a real killer who wore a suit or maybe not. Thats why I like this game so much, it provides a real expirence into how a story becomes a legend. Also as a side note, the artwork is gorgous, the music fits perfectly, and you really get a sense of adventure as you travel the country looking for stories. Its not a fast-moving game but if your okay with a slower pace and don't mind a TON of reading, then you'll most likely enjoy Where the Water Tastes Like Wine. Not a game for everyone, more for a niche group of gamers who can look past gameplay for an interesting story.

Absolutely love the concept of this game. In execution...it could be better. The music is by far one of my favorite parts about the game and I use the soundtrack on long road trips. A few of the mechanics don't make much sense, without spoiling too much, your character is allegidly made functionally immortal...then told that he isn't immortal at all in a bid to add a sense of urgency to the game. Also, personal critique here, if your sense of humor or what emotions certain stories ellicit from you are...not mainstream, you may actually find things more challenging than you thought, but I will not spoil things by going into detail, as experiencing this game on your own is worth almost any ammount of frustration. It is after all, all part of the journey. I hope you find what you're looking for.