Developer: Kodots Games
Publisher: KISS Ltd
Platforms: PC
Tested On: PC
Wanda: A Beautiful Apocalypse – Review
Robots and the end of the world are two elements that seem to go hand in hand more often than not, leaving behind a vision of difficult and desperate survival. Kodots Games, however, has taken this trope and has raised in its place a different impression in their latest title, Wanda: A Beautiful Apocalypse. Instead of a desolate place where no one can escape, Wanda is about a quest for love, friendship and hope- and capturing the player’s heart with its adorableness, of course!
Story
Imagine being the only robot to wake up after stasis in a place that you don’t recognise. You wander for miles, hoping to find someone to talk to, but there’s no one here. All you can see are run-down robots that look like you, but haven’t worked for centuries. And then there’s a sound, far off, but loud enough for you to make out. Another ‘living’ soul? You hurry towards the voice, and there they are- a tiny little robot, afraid and excitable, but wanting to be your friend. So that is what you become, wandering the wasteland until the very end…
There is only one word for the story in Wanda: A Beautiful Apocalypse, and that is delightful. Despite there being no dialogue in the game, and no narration for the story, players will quite honestly be rooting for them all the way through simply because of their character and charm. This game proves so well that the spoken and written word doesn’t need to be an essential element for the feels train to come raging through. Our only complaint with regard to the story is the ending, and those who play this title will probably understand exactly what we’re talking about. Why, Kodots Games? Why must you make it so sad?!
Graphics
If the idea of hand-drawn backgrounds and environments normally puts you off, don’t be in this instance. Wanda: A Beautiful Apocalypse is truly stunning. Kodots Games has done superbly in creating the atmosphere of a bleak, deserted place that has its own attractiveness- showing that even an apocalypse can be beautiful. Having it all being hand-drawn also gives it a personality that would have been lost had it been solely digitally created, so no need to turn your nose up at this title!
The robots themselves are also adorable, with their rounded features and endearing expressions. As aforementioned, though there is no written dialogue that we can understand, the way that the robots have been made to react is what sells this game. From being drawn with happy little eyes, to shivering in the cold or even crying, the character design helps the player to connect with the robots. By the end of it, you’ll want to cradle them in your arms like a little baby for sure.
Sound
Before you start Wanda: A Beautiful Apocalypse, it’s hard to know what sort of music you might be faced with. Boppy, futuristic music that makes you think of robots? Underused and underdeveloped tunes that don’t really play much of a part in the game? Certainly not in this title. We were blown away from the moment the title screen popped up, because the melody was so pretty that we had to sit and listen for a time before we even started the game. That theme continues into most of the cutscenes, which certainly increases the emotional intensity of the relationship between the two robots (and yes, we did even cry because of it!). The gentle melodies aren’t the only music in this title, either, as the music changes to something much more upbeat (or sometimes even melancholy) when you come up to certain puzzles. The variation really is great, and makes for a great soundtrack to a title that doesn’t have spoken dialogue to fill the silence.
That doesn’t mean to say that Wanda: A Beautiful Apocalypse has no spoken dialogue at all; it just happens to be in a language that we don’t necessarily understand since we’re not robots. The voices of these robots are wonderfully emotive, and you can just hear (and see) how they feel without needing to know what they are saying. The sound effects also add a great deal to the game, as they allow you to feel exactly as if you are in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world full of broken down but not completely useless equipment that you need to use to get through each level. Overall, the sound in this title is well thought out and makes the experience so much more enjoyable.
Gameplay
Wanda: A Beautiful Apocalypse is a casual, heavily story-based puzzle RPG set in an apocalyptic world, where you guide two robots through different environments and puzzles in order to progress through the story. The basic controls start off as being WASD for movement, and Z to interact with objects; later on, more controls are added, such as Q to reset puzzles, S to swap between the blue and the red robots, and then A when you receive the teleport gun for one puzzle. However, considering the game mostly consists of cutscenes, you don’t necessarily need to worry about moving about unless you’re working out the puzzles.
The puzzles themselves are fairly challenging, from pushing rocks in a certain formation so you can get through, to pressing buttons to change the colour of lasers so that the same colour robot can get through to work out mini puzzles within the overarching one. They aren’t too painful to complete, however. They’re just enough to be entertaining, so players don’t need to worry about tearing their hair out if that isn’t their thing. In the end, really, you’ll just want to be completing the puzzles to find out what happens in the story anyway!
If we were to have some small issues with this game, one of them would be with its length. It’s really quite short, so it would have been nice to have a bit more story. Even some more gameplay might have been a good idea, as those who don’t necessarily want to watch a game go by instead of playing through it may be put off of Wanda: A Beautiful Apocalypse. Another minor problem is the lack of a pause menu, especially during the cutscenes. When there’s a lot of story to get through, you need the toilet, and you don’t want to miss the narrative, a pause menu is definitely handy- and this game would have benefitted from that. However, these are just nitpicks of what is a great game.
Conclusion
Wanda: A Beautiful Apocalypse is a charming game that players who love story-rich RPGs will enjoy to no end. With pretty graphics, a great soundtrack and fun puzzles, the only complaint is that there needs to be more gameplay and story to lengthen this fairly short game. Regardless of that, we would definitely recommend playing this title- just make sure you have some tissues ready!
Wanda: A Beautiful Apocalypse - Review,
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