Where the Water Tastes like Wine is an indie narrative adventure game that fits right in with the other artsy adventure games of the last few years (KRZ, Disco) in tone, but diverges strongly in structure. You see, rather than following your own narrative really, you travel around the depression era USA and collect others’ narratives.

In particular, you’re trying to hear the stories of 16 particular people dotted around the country, and to do so you need to collect your own stories, watch them evolve, and impress/open up the people you’re seeking out. These stories don’t really have anything to do with each other besides the country they took place in, but when you mix them together you get a wonderful tapestry of experiences and emotions around the reconstruction, the depression, and the great war. My favorite was Jimmy, a black preacher who’d served in the war and seemed just, lost. There was no glory in it, and nobody saw him as anything more when he got home.

The game as a whole plays with the idea of story as both currency and power in itself, oftentimes the only thing keeping you going as you trudge from city to city. Which I guess I should talk about, as it’s easily the weak link here. In-between gorgeously rendered art of the characters and picking up random stories that could transform into any one of a number of classic folktales, you play as a skeleton walking on a giant, heavily stylized map of the United States. It really feels like something out of some illustration of a tall tale, and it’s gorgeous, if a little cheap looking sometimes. Unfortunately, I had loads of performance issues as I played, not much more than a stutter every couple minutes, but when you’re trudging slowly for minutes at a time, nothing else on your brain, it gets distracting.

Besides that though, my biggest issues with the map-walking are that it doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the game artistically, and that it’s just kinda thin. I would’ve much preferred an illustrated 2d map, but even then, something like that implies exploration, and you’re not really exploring so much as drifting, listening to stories. I’m not sure how to represent that with gameplay, but I don’t think this game does it well.

Still, the stories really are fantastic. They feel very true to life, and the voice acting and art accompanying them just elevates them to a wonderful level. The rest of it is passable enough, so if hearing cool, well-written stories about the 1930s sounds like your jam, you should definitely give this a shot. Plus it might run better on things that aren’t macs lmao.

Reviewed on Sep 20, 2022


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