3/5 ★ – RoseFNV's review of While We Wait Here.

A narrative driven task simulator where I honestly enjoyed the menial task simulator element of this more than the narrative. There're some great ideas at play here and the core premise is absolutely impeccable but it's all put towards an awkwardly voice acted and disappointingly structured story that is never able to truly get much out of its cast and world. Was hoping this would be a one location thing along the lines of adios or even like va-11 hall-a but instead it overuses flashbacks and at times even gimmicky sequences to tell it's story. which isn't even the worst idea in the world but it's not done particularly well and just makes the game feels like it lacks confidence in its dialogue writing, which unfortunately... It probably should. The characters themselves are often unable to break out of cliches and even the ones that do are crippled by this game's AWFUL choice system. It's so unbelievably black and white and when you take the reasonable approach of "changing your mind as the scenario presents new information" you're punished and given a bad ending if you do that too many times, which obviously is the one I got. It is annoying and makes the game's writing feel stupid and single minded, and I wish this choice system was either more fleshed out or simply used in a much smarter way than it actually is. Despite everything I still did have fun going through this story and enjoyed learning the character's tales, especially when it's all presented so well. The PSX/PS2 style aesthetic is wonderful and the animation work on display is truly impressive. You really feel every movement in an argument or every scrub as you wash a Patron's plate. It's a very easy game to go through and I think this alongside the runtime makes it hard to truly dislike this game or want to give it a bad rating. But in the end I am unfortunately mostly left feeling disappointed and I hope that in the future something else is able to take advantage of a similar premise and present something truly special with it.