While We Wait Here Review. (Spoiler Free) Get To Know The Pain and Trauma Of Your Customers in This Psychological Horror Kitchen Game
Serve a good meal, and moral advice.
Developer/publisher: Bad Vices Games
Socials: Twitter | Youtube | Discord
Platform: Steam
Price: $4.99
In a diner full of regret, grief, and despair, serve food and lend advice and an ear to those who need it in While We Wait Here, developed and published by Bad Vices Games. This first-person kitchen management game with a psychological horror narrative takes place in the Long Glass diner in the middle of nowhere, where the player decides to play as either Nora or Cliff, and rides out their last moments on the diner alongside an troubled clientele.
What’s Cooking?
This short one-and-a-half to three-hour experience is played linearly for your character, branching off between two dialogue options when given the option that will ultimately affect the ending of each customer.
They take advantage of the point of view, as the player will be able to assume the role of some characters to see what they were going through before they entered the diner, and what led to their venting.
When the customers aren’t venting to you or taking your advice, they’re giving you orders. After all, you’re in charge of the diner. These orders aren’t anything complex but serve to keep the player busy and make the world feel natural. It also allows for psychological trickery to unexpectedly occur, though those who aren’t a fan of horror can be comfortable knowing that it’s not heavy at all.
But the cooking was simple and entertaining. It was weirdly enjoyable going to the back to get buns, cheese, and meat to then throw them into the grill to cook them up and ultimately put them all together on a plate in a workbench system. With only a handful of recipes and no timer or some sort of happiness/anger meter, you can take your time taking orders, cleaning the dishes, and trying to figure out where the cheese is.
What Is Right?
While We Wait Here is the equivalent of a short story collection, as each character has their own story that gets influenced by the hard moral advice you can give them. And while at times, some characters can come off as eccentric or generic, as you talk to them and get to know what’s affecting them, every character starts to feel very real. Each one of them has their or problem that was truly hurting them, and in some cases, it was a trauma, and so each advice you give them is neither right nor wrong, it just is. They are human.
However, my two biggest gripes are the voice acting for some characters, such as the homeless man outside the club, and in some clips it sounds like people are reading a script. It was odd that not switching into the perspective of some characters, but not all, even as I do understand that the player jumps into the customer perspectives because they’re venting, it could’ve added depth to the characters, making them more likable and not a tool to progress the plot or have a twist.
Just, Go.
While We Wait Here is an enjoyable short experience that I wish delved deeper into all the characters, not just some. The characters that were explored were intriguing, touching, and their traumas and pains that were emotional. Maybe they wanted to keep the short playtime, but more could’ve been explored and fleshed out on some customers, making me wish it was a little longer if it meant getting more context and depth on some characters that just feel bland, shallow, or two dimensional. But the cooking mechanics were very competent, and the story still had some enjoyable twist and moral decisions that makes the story worth experiencing.
While We Wait Here is a:
7/10
and
I do recommend it,
To anyone looking for a nice and sweet short narrative with some horror elements and simple cooking mechanics.
Let me know what you think of this game in the comments below! Did you know about it? Will you be picking it up?