Wanderlust Travel Stories

 PC
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. GRYOnline.pl
    Sep 26, 2019
    85
    Wanderlust is a novelty video game. While it does use some mechanics known from more typical games, you need to keep one thing in mind if you want to give it a chance (which you should): this is first and foremost a story about travelling, in which feelings play the central role.
  2. CD-Action
    Jan 10, 2020
    80
    It’s a game practically devoid of mechanics, with much of its weight revolving around storytelling. The Travel Stories build a bridge between a game and a book; between the literature of truth and fiction. [01/2020, p.69]
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  3. Adventure Gamers
    Oct 21, 2019
    80
    A variety of engrossing “choose-your-own” quests based on real-life travel memoirs, Wanderlust Travel Stories’ vividly written text will have you longing to start your own exotic adventure.
  5. TheSixthAxis
    Oct 10, 2019
    80
    Wanderlust: Travel Stories is a different experience from your run-of-the-mill video game, and should appeal to anyone who is an avid traveler or wants to explore some unknown parts of the world from home. The stories are engaging and presented nicely, having enough of an impact on me to start downloading travel apps and plan trips. It may have the same effect on you.
  6. COGconnected
    Nov 18, 2019
    72
    I wouldn’t recommend Wanderlust to anyone who dislikes reading. Wanderlust Travel Stories is a very text-heavy experience. But if you enjoy reading and learning from gaming experiences and also enjoy traveling, I definitely recommend this gaming experience. Wanderlust Travel Stories is an evolution of non-fiction, blending the sights and sounds of cities, mountains, shores, etc. with interactive storytelling.

User Reviews

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User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 15 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 15
  3. Negative: 1 out of 15
  1. Toread
    Sep 26, 2019
    10
    I was really hooked once I started playing. It's deep, meaningfull and full of emotions. There isn't any game like this out there.
  2. tsschindler
    May 11, 2022
    8
    Text-based adventure game - illustrated with nice pics taken by the development team during the production and interesting (yet tiring fromText-based adventure game - illustrated with nice pics taken by the development team during the production and interesting (yet tiring from time time) narrative. It is somehow a bit more than it seems - really enjoyable.… Full Review »
  3. PublicNuisance
    Apr 14, 2021
    7
    Wanderlust is certainly a different flavor of visual novel as what I am used to. You basically steer various stories that a group of touristsWanderlust is certainly a different flavor of visual novel as what I am used to. You basically steer various stories that a group of tourists tell each other as they explore and interact with each other on vacation. Through this you learn more about them as well as shape certain parts of the stories. With this many different mini stories some are bound to resonate more with you than others. I really enjoyed the “Sea Fever” story about a father and daughter taking separate trips through the Antarctic at the same time as well as a story about a woman travelling through Africa to get to her daughter in time for the birth of her grandchild. I was not a big fan of the story of that same woman taking her grandchild to Coney Island as I felt it tried to hard to shoehorn politics into the story in a way that felt unnatural. I also felt that Tomek’s story about meeting a woman one day in Barcelona had a very sudden end that left to much unexplored. One thing I will say is that regardless of whether I enjoyed the story or not all of the stories in the game had a crazy amount of detail to them about the locations and journeys. The developers must have done a great deal of research about them because everything from cuisine; language; locations; methods of travel; local politics; etc seemed authentic and made you feel like you were there. The art work featured in game was great but it was only of locations and wildlife. It would have been nice to get some pictures of the characters as well. There were plenty of choices to make in some stories but others had very few. The stories ranged from one to two hours on the high end to fifteen to thirty minutes on the low end. The music was also fairly good and well used.

    I played Wanderlust on Linux. It never crashed on me and I didn’t notice any glitches. I did notice one grammar mistake where a sentence said “who was lived in Uganda” where it should have been “who has lived in Uganda”. There were quite a few words in the game so one mistake isn’t a big deal. Alt-Tab didn’t work. The game saves every time you exit the game. There is only one save game allowed at a time. I would have preferred a manual save system.

    Game Engine: Unity
    Save System: On Exit
    Graphics API: OpenGL
    Game Version Played: 1.5.10.1911021518

    GPU Usage: 9-20 %
    VRAM Usage: 435-708 MB
    CPU Usage: 3-12 %
    RAM Usage: 1.6-2.4 GB

    Overall while I enjoyed some stories and not others I would say the game was solid. It had an interesting overarching story mechanic; great detail in the stories; as well as great art and music. I finished the game in six hours and twenty one minutes. I paid $5.99 CAD for the game and felt that was a great value for what I got. The normal price of $17.49 CAD is a tougher sell for me. Overall if you enjoy visual novels I feel there is something here for you.

    AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 21.0.1 | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB | Manjaro 21.0.1 | Mate 1.24.1 | Kernel 5.11.10-1-MANJARO    … Full Review »
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