Wanderlust: Transsiberian

...Especially for an experience that one cannot expect to replicate in real life anytime soon if ever, given the circumstances. But yes, it was a fun little experience, one that felt somewhat short but not detractively so - Though it did feel tied up somewhat too soon, maybe to keep the scope in check. There is some railroading at places - not unexpected given it's largely a story of rail travel, and again not too distracting. Treat it like a paperback novel with pop-up inserts, and have a good time.

I previously read two accounts of traveling on the Trans-Siberian railroad free on the internet and both were both better written and had a bunch of pictures. I highly recommend looking for such accounts rather than playing this game. I had hoped that even if I didn't like the writing there would at least be some nice pictures, but it turns out there are very few pictures and most of them are close-ups or faded or otherwise quite generic. This is quite a shame as this train passes some beautiful scenery and towns. Generic is the best description for the writing as well, frequently mentioning conversations without saying anything about them. There also just isn't that much text, which is surprising and unfortunate for a narrative-driven game. It seems like the basic story is two depressed guys decide to go for a journey and find they are still depressed. The story seems to be more about the experience of being depressed than the experience of traveling. Over a quarter of the journey is brushed off with a brief bit of text at the end. Even with text delay off the interface feels very slow. There are some variations possible in the story, I'm not sure how much since I only played once. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a fair number of options (you can choose what part of the train you travel in, for example), but also quite a few seem likely to make no difference. I didn't see the detained by police scene that another reviewer mentioned. Still, the choices often didn't seem that great. In one case, the game forces the main character to get into an argument with his companion and then asks why he got into the argument. Some games I recommend: My Brother Rabbit, Amnesia: Memories, London Detective Mysteria, Botanicula, Costume Quest, Card City Nights, anything by Falcom, Little Bug, Guacamelee, Hollow Knight, Yoku's Island Express, Beatbuddy, RiME, CrossCode, 140, the RollerCoaster Tycoon series, Shuggy, Moto Racer, Infinifactory, Psychonauts, Stardew Valley.

This is a type of game I didn't even know I'd enjoy. I got it when it was given away on gog and immediately fell in love with it. We decided to play it together with my wife while enjoying a glass of wine. Thank you very much for this wonderful evening.

At first it seemed to be just a perfect novel-game. A player impersonates a guy who decided to travel the Trans-Siberian Railway. During the journey, the player discovers the past of the protagonist and learns about his motivation. The characters to met, the dialogues and descriptions of locations are very interesting and picteresque. References to the Russian literature are fun. Just fine - not too long and not too short. The whole experience takes about three-four hours. All in all, after completing the game for the first time, I could not wait to make once again and discover new features. There are two routes of the railway and three classes of train to be chosen by the player - it gives a combination of 2 x 3 different scenarios. And here the troubles begin. There is in fact only one scenario. No matter of which route or which class the players choses, the story is always exactly the same. There are always the sames quarrels with your friend you cannot avoid or you always miss the train in a particuliar part of journey. The player's choices do not change the story in any possible way. Do not matter. Therefore it is not even a game. It is not an interactive novel. It's just one novel to be read. After the first game, I would have given it five stars and would have bought another titles of the studio. After the second and third games, I realised it hardly deserves 2/5.