While We Wait Here First Impressions: The Diner At World’s End

When the world is about to end and people need comfort, what choices will you make? Those are the questions that While We Wait Here attempts to answer. Walking around the diner and talking to people gives you a good sense of what you must do when disaster strikes. Thankfully you don’t experience much of that in the demo.

Your work in the diner combines regular diner operations and dealing with customer issues. It’s easy to learn the basics of the game while getting exposed to the decision-making process. There’s also no pressure to rush an order or attend to a customer, letting you take your time. It’s a pity that you don’t get to see some consequences of your decisions to see their impact. The demo also ends early, but with the hope that there will be more to come.

While We Wait Here will be coming soon to Steam.

Story – Just A Regular Day

Just like The Mortuary Assistant, your day at the diner starts normally. You know that something terrible is going to happen but it hasn’t started. You are running the diner with your partner and attending to some customers. It looks like a typical day at the diner, but some strange events begin to occur. Eventually, it becomes clear that your typical day isn’t real and something is wrong.

The premise of While We Wait Here spoils the surprise but it doesn’t make the experience less jarring. In the back of your mind, you know that the idyllic plans and idle chatter won’t last long. You expect everything to be thrown out the window when the end of the world arrives. It’s not clear what or how the world will end, but you can’t prevent its arrival.

Everything looks calm now, but you know it won’t last.

That contrast holds your interest in the demo as you learn how to play. You dread the inevitable arrival and want to enjoy the peace while it lasts. But the end will come and you are doing your best to remain steady. You meet some members of the cast and are interested in how they deal with the inevitable end.

It’s a pity that you don’t get more of the story as the demo ends on a vision. Expanding on the backstory or introducing the actual end of the world would be nice to see. Having characters react and respond to the consequences of your decisions would also highlight the importance of decision-making. But you get enough details to know that something isn’t right and you must hold on.

Gameplay – Simple Diner Operations

Diner operations play out similarly to Chef Life: A Restaurant Simulator. You take orders from customers, prepare the order, and then deliver it to them. Just like a regular diner, part of the appeal comes from interacting with your customers. You get some exposure to the difficulty when you have a few kind customers but also one grouchy troublemaker.

Even when you know trouble is brewing with the grouchy customer, you must continue preparing food and checking orders. Fortunately, you can take as much time as you need to prepare the orders. Grabbing the ingredients and learning where the utensils are won’t provoke too much of a reaction. It’s about becoming familiar with the gameplay and knowing where everything is.

You still have a diner to run even if the world is ending.

Suspending the timer helps while you learn how to play. You shouldn’t get used to taking forever, but it doesn’t penalise you if you are learning ingredient locations. The demo doesn’t always highlight essential ingredients or tell you where they are. Taking your time helps calm you down as you learn, which will be useful when things get more chaotic.

The real meat of the gameplay comes from decision-making, where you can only choose from a few responses. What you choose will have consequences as the story progresses. Some decisions have an obvious result while others may not be as apparent. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t introduce that mechanic in full, which feels disappointing.

Decisions – Not Shown Well

While you do make decisions during the demo, none of them have consequences as the ending demonstrates. It wouldn’t be possible to show far-reaching consequences in a demo, but seeing no consequences does hurt the potential. Without knowing how your decisions have an impact, you don’t get a taste of the story’s potential.

Will this even matter later on? Unfortunately the answer is no.

While We Wait Here will put you in situations where you must make tough decisions. Getting some practice or seeing an example of consequences would help hammer home the importance of choosing wisely. Knowing that whatever you pick in the demo doesn’t have meaning weakens the power of the gameplay mechanic.

That doesn’t mean that the full game won’t have crucial decisions or tough choices. But it is a shame that you don’t get an early taste of it in the demo. The game ends on a vision which means whatever you choose doesn’t matter. But it is exciting to consider the harrowing situations that you might find yourself in.

Audio & Visuals – Simple Models With Low Audio

While We Wait Here doesn’t have the greatest 3D models, but it’s sufficient to know what objects are and who is who. Characters aren’t expressive but the tone of their voice and movements help you figure out how they feel. It’s clear what objects are and there are labels to help you identify what objects you are taking.

The weakest part of the demo is the audio as it isn’t loud enough at crucial moments. Without subtitles, it would be difficult to understand what some characters are saying. Volume seems to increase and decrease at random moments and it’s not easy to tell why. Some moments aren’t tense or require whispers, which makes the volume decrease odd.

While We Wait Here was previewed on Steam with a code provided by Bad Vices Games.