Wavetale is a gorgeous little platformer that’s full of charm, with a unique sense of style, and all set atop an ocean world. Humanity, or this small chunk of it, has destroyed themselves after a great war and the game kicks off from the perspective a a young girl, the seeming first generation to grow up post war. You work to uncover the truth about the war while, both about your side and the apparent enemy, all the while working to find out what happened to your mother who was lost just after. It’s crazy to think that such a small team has managed to craft a stronger and more impactful story than most AAA games today.
The gameplay is where Wavetale keeps things together as you’ll be surfing across the ocean after gaining the power to do so from a shadow that follows you after a wave of what the game calls Gloom floods your home and engulfs you. Movement is smooth and fluid, something which is important as the bulk of the game is traveling to the islands covered by the Gloom in order to rescue their inhabitants and clear the miasma. But surfing isn’t all you’ll be doing as you also have a Bionic Commando-inspired fishing net that can send out a beam to attach to specific points on the various islands.
You’ll also be able to fly for fairly long distances with your magic little net by twirling it around like a helicopter. Mix these aspects together and you’ll be surfing and flying all over the world, moving back and forth between the islands in this small world very quickly like a parkour master. Backtracking does happen a fair bit, something understandable for a small development team, but the movement is so much fun and fast that backtracking never feels frustrating. The team seems to understand this as one of the characters that you save will pop up around the world to give you time-trials to test your skills to help break things up while offering an added challenge.
Graphically, Wavetale has a very basic look that’s highlighted with a gorgeous cell-shaded style over everything. It works incredibly well with the faces of each characters being filled with lots of energy and emotion as they are all 2D animated. This really does give Wavetale its own unique look almost more along the lines of an animated show or living classic comic book. The story also is always being pushed forward leaving very little dead time or almost any filler at all with side-quests never taking you very far off track. So many indie games, and AAA games for that matter, that use an open-world love to fill/kill time with various meaningless side quests and backtracking over long distances.
It should be noted though, that because their is no filler in Wavetale, that means that the game can be pretty short for most people. It’ll only take you a few hours (around 4) to complete the game, but I sort of love it for it. I’d much rather play a really strong game that’s short instead of spending dozens of hours playing a game that’s 40% filler, as long as the price point feels right (more on that later). Video games are getting larger, longer, and more expensive to create and produce, but with all of these things growing, the heart seems to be lacking in so many major projects. Wavetale might be a short and stripped back open-world game, but it’s one that leaves you feeling satisfied.
The music used throughout the experience is also solid, with some exceptional tracks that highlight the story aspects. Some tracks feel haunting, others dark and ominous, while other light and breezy, something fantastic when dashing across the waves. One track in particular that is sung by the gamers heroine is quite lovely and stopped me in my tracks so I could enjoy. Now, I keep talking about how the game looks, how well it plays, and how nice it sounds, but what about the combat. It might sound like this is some movement only adventure game, but there is combat, and quite a fair bit of it.
You, again, use your magic fishing net to attack Gloom-based enemies that are scattered across the world. It’s nothing more than tapping the attack button, but having combat is a plus to help break up the movement while on the small islands and archipelagos even with its simplistic nature. There are only three types of enemies with the first being simple fodder and the other two have some unique abilities or abilities. There’s nothing here to wreck your day (I never died a single time) but it does fill out the overall experience. And then there are the boss battles that are pretty darn impressive.
You’ll be fighting a huge mechanical worm create that’s hundreds of feet tall and that shots from the ocean bottom. It reminds me a lot of the battles in Shadow of the Colossus. You can’t kill this enemy and must instead swing and climb up the massive create and reach some sort of switch or trigger that allows the environments around you to damage it until it runs away to fight again. This creature kept as a boss makes it feel a lot more threatening every time that you encounter it. Wavetale is the perfect example of of how to do a lot with a only a little.
But not everything is perfect in this beautiful little adventure. You will be running into a number of environmental glitches because of all the movement and grappling. You can often get temporarily stuck in corners, or is you land funny the camera sometimes flips out like an old PS2 game. This is incredibly annoying when it happens right as a cut-scene starts and the entire screen turns into a vomit simulator. You can skip all cutscenes, even during your first playthrough, but I don’t want to choose between getting more story or throwing up on all over my desk. Some players have noted crashing issues, but I didn’t experience any during my time with the game, so those issues may have been addressed.
Wavetale is a relaxing adventure that tells an interesting story about war and how what you know and are told might not be the total story. Add in the missing mother story and mystery of the Gloom and you have more than most games try to offer. But there is something to be aware of that I only uncovered while doing some additional research for this review. It seems that Wavetale itself isn’t a new game at all like I initially thought when we picked it up. It’s a former Stadia release, which is why I, or anyone here in the office, didn’t know anything about it.
Some people seem to hate this, especially old Stadia fans, as its being sold for $30 wehen it was free to Stadia Pro members, but I’m pretty indifferent because of the fun time I’ve had with the game. Stadia is a dead console platform and for all its problems there are titles on there that deserve to be played and saved. I think $30 might be a little high for the short experience ($20 feels like the perfect sweet-spot for re-release with nothing added) and the minor glitches, but the game is solid enough on the hole to be just about worth it. I’d say that if it’s ever on sale then definitely snap it up.
Wavetale is a fun, if short, ocean adventure with fun movement controls, a unique visual style, and a tight story to keep players invested from beginning to end.
Pros:
+ Great Movement Controls
+ Fun Visual Style
+ Tight Story With No Filler
Cons:
– Movement Glitches
– Short Length Could Turn Some Away
– Price Point May Be An Issue
Final Score:
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