14 DAY TRIAL // 
Stadia is dead, long live the games! Although the fate of Google’s gaming platform was not the one many have foretold or at least hoped so, there are some games that deserve to not go down with the ship. While legendary IPs like Baldur’s Gate will surely find a new home on different platforms, Wavetale is one of the indie titles that might have been overlooked. But let’s see why this action adventure deserves our attention.
The first thing you will notice about the game developed by Thunderful Games is the colorful and cute art style, that seems to be inspired by games like Journey, Life is Strange or Sea of Thieves. The gameplay on the other hand feels like a light version of Zelda, that focuses on making traversal as spectacular and effortless as skipping stones on the water. The result is a memorable, albeit short experience, that is far from perfect, but has a lot of soul.
It all begins at a lonely Lighthouse caught up in a mystical storm. At the base our hero Sigrid is taking her first steps on the journey that will change her life and save the world. After a short introduction we are presented the key mechanism of the game, the ability to glide on the water, that will make it possible to explore the different locations, meet various characters and uncover the dark secrets of her world.
The story itself is predictable, yet heartwarming lightly touching on some serious topics like ecoterrorism, greedy exploitation of the resources and the unmissable cliché of family bonds. All of the characters, our hero included, are unidimensional, do not have too much depth and are there just to pave the road towards the big reveal from the end of the game.
The game can be finished in a couple of hours if you focus only on the main story, and this time frame is not enough to really start caring about any of the characters. If you go searching around every nook and cranny to better understand what happened before the current adventure, and gather resources to buy customization items, the duration of sailing the waves will easily double.
But you will not be playing Wavetale to the end thanks to the story, but by the only mechanism that makes the game so fun: sliding around the world barefooted, using the surface of the water as a giant skating ring. It is so easy yet so spectacular to surf around that you will be hooked from the very first moment. Jumping around to reach waterslides that increase your speed and glide through the air is by far the best feature in the game.
The sliding mechanics is combined with platforming sections on land that are also very satisfying thanks to the accurate jumps and the simple, yet clever level design. The fine folks at Thunderful Development even prepared a few challenges that will put your traversal skills to the test, pitting you against an unforgiving timer. For better or worse, this is the only part of the game that will make you sweat a bit, mostly because you will need several tries in order to figure out the route you have to follow.
As satisfying as the jump and run sections of the game are, as disappointing is the combat. It is a basic system that does not offer anything, and the various enemies do not represent any real challenge. Even the huge water striders that show up at key moments can be downed very easily, by pressing a couple of buttons a few times. The final boss fight itself is even more disappointing, robbing you of the feeling of having achieved something truly great by defeating the one responsible for the corruption of the entire world.
On the bright side, the entire atmosphere of the game is very charming and makes you run with it. Be it exploring to find more currency so you can complete your look by buying wacky and funny hats, costumes or hair colors, or just surfing around and doing various spectacular jumps and dives, Wavetale remains memorable for the joy it offers and through the atmosphere the developers managed to build.
One other major aspect that contributes to the immersion is the visual style, which is arguably inspired by other illustrious titles. Regardless of which games have inspired the developers for Wavetale, it fits the game like a glove. The vivid colors and detailed surroundings are in sharp contrast with the faces seen during cutscenes. The latter are a bit too cartoonish, even compared to the rest of the graphics, but you will not see them too often.
Moreover, the entire soundtrack of the game matches with what’s going on the screen for most of the time. The tunes themselves are more than decent, but the adaptive music misfires quite often by ending a peaceful tune with a fadeout that leaves you sliding the waves in silence for quite a few seconds or cueing in a more adrenaline driven music when there is no danger around.
The Good
- Brilliant water surfing mechanism
- Colorful and endearing visual style
- Good level design
The Bad
- Too short
- Music and system errors
- Predictable story
Conclusion
For what is worth, Wavetale does a single thing well and that's the sliding mechanic, which is probably the only true selling point of the game. From the beginning to end, surfing the waves remains the main charm of Wavetale. It is a remarkable first effort, and one can only hope that it is enough to make people notice Wavetale and grant the developers the chance to make a sequel building upon the existing formula.
Review code provided by the publisher.
