The Wanderer : Frankenstein’s Creature
- Genres : Adventure, Puzzle
- Publishers : ARTE Experience
- Developers : La Belle Games
- Players : 1
- Consoles : Nintendo Switch
- Languages : British English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese
- Release date : July 02, 2020
The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature allows you to revisit Merry Shelley’s classic by playing the creature. This narrative game has a magnificent artistic direct from every single point of view. I propose you to discover it with me.
Live the adventure through the eyes of the creature
You play the creature which just woke up. Alone and lost at the beginning, its environment will quickly colour itself and become warmer. The rendering of the creature’s vision is extremely well done!
Step by step, during the entirety of the story, you will discover sublime watercolour drawn landscapes that will make you travel. I had the feeling of moving around inside true paintings. The graphics are really magnificent and the music that accompanies them immerge us fully inside the story.
A pretty harsh story which ending will depend on your choices. Here, no narrator, only the thoughts of the creature or the exchanges it has with the inhabitants of the regions it goes through. The absence of a narrator is not a problem as the story is so powerful, it brings you by itself into the voyage of the creature.
I really loved going through every single of the water coloured sceneries which colours change with the seasons or the mood of the creature. A real treat to the eye!
The music perfectly completes the sceneries by transmitting to the player the feelings of the creature in the different situations it encounters.
It is a detail, but I also really liked the font chosen for the game. It is slim and soft and looks like a manuscript writing.
A nice achievement for the teams which worked in that game and managed to make the player feel a multitude of sensations.
A tranquil gameplay in order to take the story in
The gameplay is very calm, adapted to the theming of the game and will allow you to essentially direct the creature through the different sceneries. And to make choices to make the story go further.
You will encounter a few small puzzles you will have to solve… those little puzzles are perfectly integrated to the game and bring a little dynamism to it. It is really pleasant!
The only downsides come from the invisible moves in the sceneries. Sometimes, they are so small you will have some difficulties in moving the creature where you want to. You might even get a sensation of Joy-Con drift, but no. It is only a bad calibration of the game (testes with brand new Joy-Cons). I am talking to you about the Joy-Con, because the game does not work with the pro remote controller. And that is a real shame!
Other than those problems, the game and its story are really worth to be discovered.
Conclusion
I love reading and I really like this narrative game that was able to take me away into the skin of the creature. I was most of the time sad for it… I was also scared for it and pitied it. This version of Frankenstein clashes completely with the horror films on the subject. The game allows to discover from a new perspective this classic piece of writing.
The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature also takes the player in a magnificent visual and audio experience! You will necessarily be touched by this version of the story.
I recommend it to every fan of the genre even with this quite frustrating problem during the movement phases. Maybe a patch will be able to correct this problem present in only some of the sceneries…
To achieve the different endings at your own pace, you will need about 3 hours. You are free to launch the game again to test out the different choices available to you. The game is at 14,99€ on the eShop and proposes an excellent narrative adventure.
I thank Ico Partners and Arte for entrusting this game to me so I could discover it and give you my opinion.
