Review: A game where you do nothing

While the game’s main objective is to wait, and it is all about letting the world go by, the side objectives are finding and completing all the hidden tasks

While Waiting
Rating: 4.5/5
Developer and Publisher: Optillusion
Platform: PC
Price: Rs 792

All you have to do is do nothing for most of the scenarios in this new game, While Waiting, and eventually, it will move on to the next stage. The game’s graphics are very simple. They look like art drawn on paper; the colours are muted, and the game gives you a zen-like feeling. It weaves its story of the main character’s life without spoken words as you follow them through seemingly mundane tasks. Like trying to sleep, waiting for toast or waiting to be born. To go with the graphics, the game has a bunch of Western classical piano pieces and, when the scene requires it, the full symphony orchestra. It goes well with the overall tone of While Waiting.

While the game’s main objective is to wait, and it is all about letting the world go by, the side objectives are finding and completing all the hidden tasks. The side objectives in the game are denoted as blank patches in a notebook that has to be filled with stickers. These tasks have names, so you know where to look for them, but there are no real instructions. Figuring out how to finish all the side objectives in your limited time with every scenario is very challenging. That said, you can still move on to the next one without completing the task, and this makes the game very relaxing. I bet there is an achievement to be had if you manage to go through the entire game without doing anything.

During the course of the playthrough, you can’t really retry a scenario. However, the developers aren’t mean if you exit the current game: you can start again on any of the previous levels. Its replayability is the beauty of the game, which can otherwise be rather short at just six to seven hours with around 100 scenarios. 

I love While Waiting, and that said, I do find the controls a bit frustrating at times as they are not very intuitive. Trying to frantically move your hand to touch things or trying to shoot all the targets to finish an achievement can be very annoying. Would I do it again? Yes. With its price under R1,000, it is a sweet deal. Definitely go and get this game.

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