Wayward Strand

Wayward Strand is a narrative adventure game that allows us to take a more or less active part in the lives of patients staying on board a ship serving as a hospital. It was developed by Ghost Pattern, an indie studio.

Plot

Wayward Strand takes us on a journey to an alternative version of the 1970s. The heroine of the game is Casey Beaumaris - a teenager who decides to spend with her mother a long holiday weekend on board of a flying ship that serves as a hospital. Without parting with her notebook, the girl establishes relationships with the staff and patients, over time getting to know their intertwining stories and trying to help them. As if by the way, the girl gathers valuable information, which she later hopes to use to write an article for the school newspaper.

Game mechanics

Wayward Strand is a side-scrolling game. It lets us freely roam the deck of the ship and interact with its passengers. We can have conversations with the hospital staff and patients, trying to get as much information from them on topics that interest us. When those we talk to are not too talkative, nothing stands in the way of trying to spy on them (being careful not to get caught). Everything we find out goes into Casey's notebook, which is a valuable source of clues on how to move the plot forward.

It is worth remembering that individual characters not only have their own stories, but also desires, problems they have, and above all - personalities. The protagonist encounters both nice old ladies and some eccentric people; there are even some rude interlocutors. Apart from that, time passes independently from our actions, and with it - the lives of individual NPCs, who spend it in various ways, gossiping, joking or arguing with other characters or just... sleeping. This makes it impossible to learn everything about the passengers and help each of them in a single playthrough.

Technical aspects

Graphics in Wayward Strand is made in a colorful cartoon style.