These two parts of the game don't appear to have anything in common visually, which makes the game feel like two different parts. The cities and map you travel on appear similar to an elementary school classroom poster, and everything on the map has a very basic 3D appearance to it, including buildings, forests, and the UI over the highways. The overworld takes on a very different tack. Upon further inspection or continuation of the story, maybe you'll notice the white beady eyes from under the hay in the wheelbarrow, or that the boy is just a bit too still. Each story features a single piece of art, from a boy lounging in the grass to a girl carrying a wheelbarrow, where subtlety is key. The same art style is in the main menu and the sections of the game where stories are told and shared, using scratchy pencil art for the illustration and menu items to give the game its offbeat yet devilish tone, perhaps emulating the terror of Francisco Goya's pinturas negras. Where the Water Tastes Like Wine boasts an intriguing art style that unfortunately lacks follow-through.
Overall, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine's unique concept makes the game incredibly interesting but doesn't distract from its faults enough. What also must be noted is the quality of the story the tales woven by the game are all pretty captivating, ranging from the exciting to the macabre and even the supernatural, resembling the works of Flannery O'Connor in tone. The narrator shifts tone to more modest man, grumbling through his words in a warm, grandfatherly manner this time around, reading through almost all of the hundreds of short stories presented in the game it's a real treat given the talent of the voice actor.
The most fascinating aspect is the stories. It's somewhat distracting to both traversing the country and reading and hearing the stories that you collect. The overworld, if you will, features your 3D skeleton lumbering from place to place while music that emulates the phrase "whistlin' Dixie" plays. The game is largely comprised of static images and is pretty clunky. The concept is pretty interesting, but the implementation is rather rudimentary. You bop from place to place, managing money and health as a passing thought, in the hopes of finding one of these characters to share stories with and glean for yourself, choosing from your collection of tales to best suit their tastes. As you explore, you encounter scenarios that turn into stories, shaped by the choices you make, spinning different yarns with different tones (all aligned to tarot cards). He's a demon, and he tasks you to travel the country collecting and sharing stories to repay your gambling debt.įrom here, the tone changes drastically, and the gameplay changes from a sea of dialogue boxes to a land you travel as a wayfaring skeleton (complete with straw hat and bindle), exploring big American cities on a map of the U.S., gathering stories to share, and looking for the 16 characters you must extract stories from along the way. A seemingly winning hand goes south as the final player's head transforms into that of a demonic wolf. It opens with a Sam Elliott sound-alike narrating a card game that you enter in a bar on a whim, creating a scene as American as a Norman Rockwell painting - but more willing to get down and dirty. Where the Water Tastes Like Wine employs the childlike whimsy of folklore. in an intriguing way by employing a variety of gameplay systems and techniques.
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine celebrates the culture and community of the U.S. Dim Bulb Studios locks in on the curiosity inspired by both traveling and storytelling, and the developer runs with it. Do you ever wish that our world hadn't been made so small? What if we regressed technologically and were forced to interact more with each other socially? Where the Water Tastes Like Wine gives us a fantastical view of the past in the United States, putting us back in the early 20th century in the shoes of a wayfaring story collector.
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