June 18, 2020
Jason Oda

Waking

Perhaps with a couple of in-depth quality-of-life updates, Waking can be something special. For now, the reality is its unique narrative is held back by some fundamental design oversights.

44%Game Brain Score

gameplay, graphics

story, grinding

39% User Score Based on 83 reviews

Critic Score 51%Based on 8 reviews

Platforms

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About

Waking is a single player action adventure game with horror, fantasy and comedy themes. It was developed by Jason Oda and was released on June 18, 2020. It received neutral reviews from critics and negative reviews from players.

Combining third-person action and guided meditation, Waking is an emotional adventure through your dying mind. Battle the forces of oblivion, conjure the memories of loved ones, and join them in the fight for your life.

+13

Skip User Reviews

39%

Audience ScoreBased on 83 reviews

gameplay10 positive mentions

grinding2 negative mentions

Unique, artistic, and deeply personal concept that encourages self-reflection and meditation.
Beautiful, immersive graphics and moody, atmospheric music enhance the gaming experience.
Emotional and thought-provoking storytelling that resonates with players on a personal level.

Controls and combat mechanics are clunky, unintuitive, and frustrating, severely hindering gameplay.
Game is plagued by technical issues such as bugs, crashes, poor optimization, and missing subtitles.
Repetitive and directionless gameplay with slow pacing and unclear objectives diminish player engagement.

gameplay
41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
24%
59%
17%
The gameplay is widely criticized for being clunky, frustrating, and poorly polished, with issues including awkward controls, unreliable mechanics, and repetitive level design. While some aspects like smooth movement and integration of puzzles are noted, overall the gameplay is perceived as boring, unengaging, and detracting from the game's potential. Technical problems and slow pacing further hinder the experience, making it a disappointing element despite interesting concepts and visuals.
- “Smooth gameplay complemented with smooth movement mechanics, stunning visuals, and incredible music.”
- “If you can look past the minor issues, a good gameplay awaits you.”
- “The game learns about you by asking you questions about your experiences and caters the gameplay to reflect your choices.”
- “The telekinesis mechanic is clunky and feels bad to use.”
- “In return, it offers an experience low on interactivity, with poorly polished gameplay (for example some of the worst object hitboxes I've experienced in a 3D game).”
- “A fascinating set of ideas, which are unfortunately absolutely gutted by horrid character controls, a frustrating controller scheme/layout making an already janky telekinesis game mechanic far more difficult, art assets such as Unity heightmaps and what look like free models, long stretches of time sitting still waiting for the four big words on the screen to go away.”
graphics
23 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
52%
35%
13%
The game features stunning, unique, and artistic graphics with a meditative and atmospheric aesthetic that greatly enhances its thematic experience. However, it lacks graphical customization options and optimization, particularly on PC, which can lead to issues like high mouse sensitivity and blurry UI when not matched to native resolutions. Overall, the visuals are widely praised for their beauty and distinct style despite some technical limitations.
- “A real interesting style game, beautiful graphics and cool world, where it's almost meditative at times and made me self reflect many times.”
- “Waking has a very unique feeling and atmosphere to it, supported by both the graphics, the audio, and the way that various concepts of the mind shape both the game world and the interactions in it.”
- “So here is the thing, Waking is an incredibly artful game with mystifying visuals and a very personal approach to storytelling, and calling it thought provoking would be an understatement.”
- “The game isn't optimized very well, and there's literally no graphical options aside from resolution. The font and UI do not scale properly when you downsize your resolution, so if you can't meet your monitor's specs to run smoothly, you will be dealing with blurry text.”
- “I was really interested in this game because of its art style and concept, but an hour in I was literally bored to tears with absolutely no idea how far into the experience I actually was.”
- “I know most of the time I'll find that a game isn't up to a high-quality standard because the visuals are poor.”
music
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
20%
20%
The music in the game is generally praised for its atmospheric and enjoyable qualities, with many reviewers highlighting it as a strong positive aspect. Although some find certain tracks, like the battle music, a bit odd or cheesy, the soundtrack and ambient sounds significantly enhance the immersive experience. Overall, the music complements the visuals and gameplay well, contributing to a meditative and captivating atmosphere.
- “As I started moving forward into the unknown, not knowing what to expect, my only companions were my thoughts and the fantastic atmospheric music that the game has to offer.”
- “Smooth gameplay complemented with smooth movement mechanics, stunning visuals, and incredible music.”
- “The art style is great though and the soundtrack, as well as the ambient sounds, are great.”
- “Movement feels terrible, level design is lame, and the music/SFX are really cheesy.”
- “The 'pop' battle music was kinda weird; it also often caused nausea.”
- “Soundtrack is just okay.”
story
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
60%
20%
The story is generally seen as deep and immersive with a personal, thought-provoking approach, though some find it confusing or lacking clarity about characters and enemies. Storytelling is occasionally hindered by inconsistent subtitles and gameplay issues, which can disrupt narrative engagement. Overall, the story concept is appreciated for its uniqueness despite some execution flaws.
- “Waking is a game with very appealing art and an immersive story.”
- “So here is the thing, Waking is an incredibly artful game with mystifying visuals and a very personal approach to storytelling, and calling it thought provoking would be an understatement.”
- “Being the main character of the story, you will fight your way out of a coma by killing mobs and rebuilding memories.”
- “The story elements that are supposed to involve the player are often too specific - for example, if you never had a cat or a dog, you are stuck with strange alternative choices for the hero in later stages.”
- “Not sure what the enemy is or who the bosses are in the context of the game's story.”
- “The game's controls feel horrible and completely stopped me from getting into any story it had.”
atmosphere
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
89%
11%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its unique, moody, and surreal qualities, enhanced by thoughtful graphics, audio, and thematic elements. However, some find the fast-paced animations and added combat clash with the intended immersive walking-sim feel, and repetitive level design slightly detracts from the overall experience.
- “Waking has a very unique feeling and atmosphere to it, supported by both the graphics, the audio, and the way that various concepts of the mind shape both the game world and the interactions in it.”
- “An atmospheric adventure that took me to a very uncomfortable and surreal place, in which I wouldn’t dare to expect what might come before me.”
- “As I started moving forward into the unknown, not knowing what to expect, my only companions were my thoughts and the fantastic atmospheric music that the game has to offer.”
emotional
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game aims to deliver a unique and personalized emotional experience by blending various genres and tropes, which some find heartfelt and compelling. However, others feel the elements fail to cohesively come together, leading to emotional fatigue rather than engagement.
- “Emotional/personalized experience to each player.”
- “The idea is admirable, and if you have a soft spot for deep emotional stuff, this is going to pull at your heartstrings a bit.”
- “Emotional/personalized experience.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is considered tedious and repetitive, with combat lacking variety and novelty from mid to late stages, which may diminish player engagement.
- “Grinding can be a factor for some as it lacks novelty in most of its elements from mid game to end.”
- “Combat is tedious.”
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, with frequent bugs that negatively impact the overall experience.
- “Unfortunately, I hate to say this but it is way too buggy.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game arises unintentionally from the fast-paced, exaggerated movement and jump animations, which contrast humorously with the serious atmosphere and narrative, leading to unexpected laughter.
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from poor optimization, offering minimal graphical settings limited to resolution only. Additionally, UI and font scaling issues cause blurry text at lower resolutions, negatively impacting the experience for players with less powerful hardware.
- “The game isn't optimized very well, with literally no graphical options aside from resolution. The font and UI do not scale properly when you lower your resolution, leading to blurry text if your monitor's specs can't run the game smoothly.”