While Waiting is a game that belongs in a gallery. It’s installation art, and maybe you know the kind. It’s a lark, but a difficult, complex, ponderous lark, if such a thing is possible. It’s WarioWare designed by Beckett. It’s Super Bartleby Bros. It’s a game about waiting, a state of being that so many games are designed to try and minimise or avoid entirely (or sell you ways to jump past, granted). And yet just as waiting pops up in games even when designers are trying to avoid it, waiting can disappear utterly when you try to focus in on it and it alone. . So it’s about the things you do as waiting is taking place. But does that mean you’ve ceased to wait, or that you’re still waiting you’re doing this other stuff too?
While Waiting reviewDeveloper: OptillusionPublisher: OptillusionPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch
These are philosophical questions of absolutely the least importance, if you ask me, but they can still be exhausting to pick at, the kind of things that won’t let go when you’re trying to get to sleep. And While Waiting – this is a compliment – is exhausting too, in its own way. It’s knackering to play, particularly when you aren’t really playing it. Is it interesting? Absolutely. Is it fun? Not really, but I very much doubt that’s the point. Did it reorder the world a little and reveal it back to me in a slightly altered way? Good question.
While Waiting presents you with a bunch of scenarios that involve waiting. You’re queuing for something. You’re waiting for a bus or for the rain to stop. You’re waiting for the Wi-Fi to sort itself out. You’re waiting for your partner to give birth. You can simply sit back and watch each scenario unfold, and then painlessly move from one to the next, or you can meddle around with them somewhat, moving your character about, fussing with things, messing stuff up.
While Waiting – Official Launch Trailer Watch on YouTube
To help you with this, there’s a list of optional objectives that come with each scenario. They’re only vaguely hinted at, though, so you need to interpret the rather delphic instructions you’re given and layer them onto the possibilities around you. So you’re waiting for fireworks to go off – anything you can do with a balloon at this point? One of the objective clues definitely seems balloon-shaped… You’re waiting for your college chancellor to finish a speech. It’s a hot day. Any chance of an ice cream?