The term “cosy game” typically inspires one of two responses in those of us who play video games regularly. It will either call you in with the promise of soft, resource-management oriented gameplay whose slower pace offers a gentle escape and a bucolic alternative to gunslinging and high-stress adventure. Or it will repel you – as admittedly, it repels me. Cosy is often a kind of code for twee, low-stakes domestic adventures where drama is eschewed in favour of repetitive tasks intended to generate comfort, or imitate lightning-in-a-bottle resource management sims such as Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing.
So when faced with Wanderstop, a colourful game in which a fallen warrior trades in her fighting life for managing a tea shop, I was hesitant. However, this is Davey Wreden’s third project, after The Stanley Parable and The Beginner’s Guide, which means that, if it is anything like its predecessors, it will be full of surprises and made with deep attention to detail and artistic vision. Wreden is an auteur – one of his trademarks being a knowing, wry postmodernism. His work bends what the medium of the video game is capable of, and thankfully this latest offering is no exception.
