Wanderlust: Transsiberian

Review

Your journey across the vast lands of Russia begins in the Tverskoy District of Moscow. It’s a glorious Sunday morning on the 11^th of September and you’re feeling energetic as your Trans-Siberian adventure is about to get underway. This is Henry’s story who, along with his brother-in-law, Vernon, will travel on the Trans-Siberian railway from Moscow to Vladivostok.

You start with you’re looking down on a partial map of Moscow and you’re indicated as a red dot in the Tverskoy district. In the top right of the screen is the Date, Time, your Mood, Stress and Fatigue Levels and how much Cash you currently have. In the top left corner is a Pause button, and while there isn’t any just yet, all text about your travels will be displayed over the left side of the screen.

To begin you must click on the blue box with “spill some sunflower oil” on it, after which some text narration about your current location will appear for on the left of the screen. Vernon had insisted on spilling sunflower oil on the tram tracks at Malaya Bronnaya Street near Patriarch’s Ponds. If you’re wondering why anyone would put sunflower oil on the tram tracks, don’t you worry; this is where you get to make your first choice and possibly find out.

As you make your way through this text-based narration, travelling from Moscow to Vladivostok, you will visit many stops along the Trans-Siberian railway, meeting and interacting with new friends (or paying no attention to them). Take in new sounds and smells as you mingle with the vendors selling their wares. Each of your decisions will have an effect on your mood, increasing or decreasing your stress and fatigue levels. Your journey is displayed on the right side of the screen on a map, where you’ll be able see the upcoming locations. At times there are images of various locations displayed in place of the map (buildings and other things). As you travel, time will pass and the screen will change colour to match the current time of day or night.

The settings in the options consist of Ambient Sounds and Music Volume Sliders (mute Sound On/Off), Text and Paragraph Delay Sliders, Resolution, Windowed Mode On/Off, Show Changes of Emotional State On/Off, Show Costs On/Off, Enable Analytics On/Off and Restore Default Settings.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!