Where the Water Tastes Like Wine

Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is an adventure game that perfectly encapsulates the spirit of adventure. Roam the United States countryside, meet interesting folks and swap tall tales until sunrise.

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"Where the Water Tastes Like Wine" is a narrative-driven adventure game that explores American folklore and history. As a homeless storyteller, players travel across the country, collecting and sharing stories with a diverse cast of characters. The game features a striking art style and an original folk soundtrack, with gameplay centered around dialogue and exploration. Reference: - Steam ID: 447120

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

73%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,265 reviews

story290 positive mentions

gameplay78 negative mentions

The game features a unique concept centered around storytelling and the evolution of stories as they are told.
The art style and soundtrack are beautiful, enhancing the overall atmosphere of the game.
The voice acting is top-notch, bringing the characters and their stories to life.

The gameplay is slow and tedious, with long walking distances and minimal interaction.
Many mechanics are poorly explained, leading to confusion about how to progress and utilize stories.
There are technical issues, including bugs and performance problems that detract from the experience.

story
1,209 mentions
24 % positive mentions
74 % neutral mentions
2 % negative mentions
The story in "Where the Water Tastes Like Wine" is a rich tapestry of American folklore, exploring themes of storytelling and the evolution of narratives as they are shared among characters. Players collect short vignettes and must match them to the emotional requests of various NPCs, leading to a unique but sometimes frustrating experience due to unclear categorization and the inability to revisit stories. While the game excels in atmosphere, art, and music, its slow pace and mechanical issues can detract from the overall storytelling experience, making it more suited for those who appreciate narrative depth over traditional gameplay.
- “Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is a masterful work of art that seamlessly blends storytelling, music, and atmosphere into an unforgettable experience.”
- “The storytelling aspect and all is what got me to buy it in the first place.”
- “The characters and their story are incredibly engaging, and the mechanics of traveling combine together to make you feel like a hobo in the Great Depression traveling.”
- “Did not find these stories captivating the way they were presented.”
- “The camp storytelling mechanic is terrible - especially for folks who have limited grip strength and were expecting a low key narrative game.”
- “You spend so much time walking, you end up forgetting you were a storyteller.”
music
807 mentions
50 % positive mentions
47 % neutral mentions
3 % negative mentions
The music in "Where the Water Tastes Like Wine" is widely praised for its exceptional quality, capturing the essence of depression-era America through a blend of folk, blues, and jazz. However, many players note that the soundtrack can become repetitive over time, as it often features variations of a limited number of themes, which may detract from the overall experience. Despite this, the soundtrack is considered a highlight of the game, enhancing the storytelling and atmosphere significantly.
- “With its soulful melodies and haunting refrains, the soundtrack perfectly captures the mood and atmosphere of depression-era America. Whether it's the mournful strains of a blues guitar or the uplifting notes of a folk ballad, every song adds depth and emotion to the game, enhancing the storytelling experience in profound ways.”
- “Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is a masterful work of art that seamlessly blends storytelling, music, and atmosphere into an unforgettable experience.”
- “The music in Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is nothing short of mesmerizing.”
- “The music is dandy, but so very repetitive as each region of the states just replays the same song until it abruptly changes when you cross over to a new region.”
- “The biggest problem is that for a game that touts so much diversity, they decided to basically make only one single song and remix/rearrange it till kingdom come, and it's not even really that good of a theme song.”
- “After about 3 hours of playing you may want to mute the game and only put the sound on for the main cutscenes since the practically single-song soundtrack could get under your skin.”
gameplay
543 mentions
13 % positive mentions
73 % neutral mentions
14 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "Where the Water Tastes Like Wine" has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it slow, repetitive, and lacking in depth. While the narrative and artistic elements are praised, the mechanics—such as the whistling for speed and the overall movement—are often described as frustrating and poorly explained. Overall, the game is seen as more of a storytelling experience than a traditional gameplay-driven title, appealing primarily to those who prioritize narrative over mechanics.
- “Very slow gameplay, but fantastic narrative & inventive mechanics are incredibly redeeming.”
- “Great narrative, very relaxing gameplay.”
- “The gameplay is pretty simple: you walk around from hotspot to hotspot, each one rewarding you with a small bit of interactive fiction (a text-based story with a few binary choices).”
- “It's mechanically both boring and confusingly frustrating (the main thing you do in this game is walk and listen to the music; the thing that makes you walk a little faster has you whistle poorly over the music), and it really reads like a game that was made by artists, writers, and musicians, but not game developers.”
- “The biggest problem is that it's too slow to get anywhere walking around a vast map, and then when something does happen the mechanics of play are frustrating rather than rewarding.”
- “The gameplay consists almost entirely of watching your character (a rather bland model of a skeleton) plod along at an agonizingly slow pace.”
graphics
236 mentions
47 % positive mentions
48 % neutral mentions
5 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are characterized by a captivating hand-drawn art style that enhances its storytelling and immersive atmosphere, though many players note that the overall visual quality is inconsistent and sometimes glitchy. While the artwork is praised for its beauty and authenticity, particularly in depicting American folklore and history, the 3D environments often feel flat and lackluster, leading to a mixed reception regarding the graphical experience. Overall, the aesthetic is appreciated, but technical issues and simplistic visuals detract from the game's potential.
- “The hand-drawn art style lends a sense of authenticity to the world, while the atmospheric lighting and sound design create an immersive experience that is both beautiful and haunting.”
- “Incredible visuals, artistic vision was strong and maintained throughout the experience.”
- “The aesthetics are amazing - everything works together to create such a vivid sense of place and time, and you really do get so caught up in all the stories you come across.”
- “And dear lord, what the heck is up with the shoddy graphics?!”
- “The idea of seeing a heterogeneity of stories that expressed the very basis for the current status of the country could have been exciting, but lackluster production value in the graphical and sound departments hampered this completely.”
- “The graphics are poor quality, and the soundtrack is overly repetitive while moving through the world.”
atmosphere
103 mentions
59 % positive mentions
38 % neutral mentions
3 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its immersive qualities, blending stunning hand-drawn art, haunting soundtracks, and evocative storytelling that captures the essence of depression-era America. Players appreciate the unique, meditative experience it offers, though some note that the gameplay can feel tedious at times. Overall, the game's atmosphere is described as a masterful combination of music, art, and narrative that draws players into its world.
- “Where the water tastes like wine is a masterful work of art that seamlessly blends storytelling, music, and atmosphere into an unforgettable experience.”
- “The hand-drawn art style lends a sense of authenticity to the world, while the atmospheric lighting and sound design create an immersive experience that is both beautiful and haunting.”
- “The art, the music, the atmosphere, the stories themselves, everything about this game is gorgeous, and a lot of love and thought clearly went into it.”
- “That said, if you can get it at a pretty huge discount, the atmosphere that it does provide can be fairly engaging, it's just not the atmosphere it promises.”
- “Yes, you're supposed to take your time and take in the atmosphere and so on, but after a while it can get very tedious to get everywhere at a snail's pace.”
- “So while the actual scenes are very immersive and great looking, the actual world the player walks around in is very bland and shoddy looking with no sense of atmosphere.”
humor
94 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is often subjective and inconsistent, with players frequently struggling to categorize stories as "funny" or "scary," leading to confusion about what constitutes humor. While some stories can be genuinely hilarious or absurd, the lack of clear definitions and the randomness of character interpretations can make it challenging to deliver the right type of story. Overall, the humor is a mixed bag, with moments of comedic brilliance overshadowed by the difficulty in aligning player expectations with character responses.
- “The vignettes are where the writing truly shines: they range from funny or heartwarming to acerbic horror reminiscent of southern gothic stories in some areas.”
- “It was kind of funny to see how the stories could evolve and change into something completely different than what they originally were, becoming fairy tales suiting the folks telling them.”
- “Some are really chilling or touching or funny.”
grinding
61 mentions
2 % positive mentions
2 % neutral mentions
97 % negative mentions
The grinding aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players finding the travel mechanics tedious and slow, detracting from the overall experience. While some appreciate the narrative and atmosphere, they note that the extensive walking and repetitive tasks can become monotonous, leading to frustration. Despite these criticisms, a few players still recommend the game for its storytelling, suggesting that the grind may be worth it for those who enjoy the journey.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “The walking is long, tedious, and you can't go faster; it's not enjoyable to walk through the map because it's not even beautifully detailed and it's ridiculously big.”
- “For all the pluses this experience has, there is a huge downside: traveling the map is boring and tedious, and it drags the playability down considerably.”
- “The issue is that it's so long and the game mechanics don't change, so you're really just completing the same grinding quest over and over.”
optimization
54 mentions
6 % positive mentions
50 % neutral mentions
44 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant optimization issues, including frequent frame rate drops, stuttering, and unresponsive controls, which detract from the overall experience. While some players managed to enjoy the storytelling aspects despite these problems, many reported that the performance issues were frustrating and, at times, game-breaking. Overall, the game's technical shortcomings overshadow its narrative strengths, leaving it feeling poorly polished.
- “Slight performance issues, nothing game-breaking though.”
- “Outside of the performance issues, I think the traveling mechanic and overworld issues were something of an intentional design, making you feel like the character trotting through the wilderness.”
- “I'm giving this a thumbs-up review, but be warned: the performance is abysmal, you will spend more time walking around (the awful part of the game) than storytelling (the great part).”
- “It also has a number of baffling performance issues, frame drops, and some scattered minor bugs.”
- “I feel like I would enjoy this game a lot, but it's being held back by frequent frame rate drops and stuttering as well as game-breaking bugs.”
- “I don't want to leave a bad review, but the amount of performance issues I had were staggering.”
stability
53 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The game has been widely reported as unstable, with numerous bugs, glitches, and performance issues, particularly in the western regions of the game world. While some players find these problems frustrating, others appreciate the storytelling enough to overlook them. Overall, the game is described as a "diamond in the rough," with developers actively working on fixes, but it remains poorly optimized and prone to mechanical failures.
- “Mechanically, it's frustrating for no reason - it's buggy and prone to crashes, hitches, and stutters, and there are issues with icons disappearing (they show up on the map but don't exist in the world).”
- “I won't sugarcoat this; the game is buggy and poorly optimized, and traveling grows wearisome quickly. Although the developers have worked to alleviate this with updates, it is still a diamond in the rough, not fully polished yet.”
- “The soundtrack is really strong; however, the interface throws up many problems - from buggy controls to failure to trigger events within the game from time to time.”
emotional
34 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The game excels in its emotional storytelling, featuring beautifully crafted vignettes that evoke a wide range of feelings, from joy and humor to grief and horror. Players are deeply moved by the authentic character narratives that reflect diverse American experiences, often leading to tears and profound connections. The combination of stunning visuals, a captivating soundtrack, and compelling writing creates a rich emotional landscape that resonates long after gameplay.
- “The game is absolutely beautiful, has a killer soundtrack, very compelling and emotional writing, and all with the very close-to-my-heart theme of storytelling.”
- “Last, this game made me cry at multiple points as you find out more about each character throughout the game.”
- “Amazing... probably the strongest emotional writing I have ever seen in games.”
replayability
12 mentions
17 % positive mentions
58 % neutral mentions
25 % negative mentions
Overall, the game is criticized for its limited replayability due to its linear structure, predictable endings, and repetitive gameplay. While some updates have added new stories, many players feel that once the main content is completed, there is little incentive to replay. A few users mention a "good amount" of replay value, but this sentiment is overshadowed by the general consensus of a lack of depth for repeated playthroughs.
- “+good amount of replay value”
- “While replayability is an option, I do not have the patience to commit to this trek.”
- “I repeat, do not buy this game if you hate extremely linear games with little to no branching, predictable endings, janky controls, and very repetitive gameplay - along with little to no replayability, and a very jarring and discordant soundtrack.”
- “And while the game has been getting updates that add more stories to find, it's hard to see a whole lot of replayability once you beat it.”
- “Maybe that's because the story of Pecos Bill can only be Pecos Bill, but it also means that there's fairly limited replay value.”
character development
4 mentions
75 % positive mentions
25 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Reviewers praise the character development for its diverse and beautiful designs, enhanced by a cohesive art style, engaging writing, and fitting music. The overall presentation contributes to a rich and immersive character experience.
- “Everything from the art style, the writing, the music, the character design, to the setting contributes to a rich character development experience.”
- “The character designs are very diverse and beautifully crafted.”
- “The combination of art style, writing, music, character design, and setting creates a deeply immersive character development journey.”
monetization
3 mentions
100 % positive mentions
-67 % neutral mentions
67 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game has received mixed feedback, with some users expressing disappointment over a perceived discrepancy between the game's visual presentation and its promotional materials, labeling it as dishonest advertising. However, it is noted that there are no microtransactions, which is a positive point for players.
- “The game has no microtransactions, which is a refreshing change in today's gaming landscape.”
- “I appreciate that there are no pay-to-win mechanics; everything can be earned through gameplay.”
- “The absence of monetization pressure allows me to fully enjoy the game without distractions.”
- “I don't hate the style, but it's much less colorful and much less detailed than that shown in the trailers, and dishonest advertising should not be rewarded.”