Wailing Heights
Developed/Published by Outsider Games
Released for Xbox One (8/15/2018)
Also on Linux/Mac/PC/PS4
Wailing Heights is the first and only release for the Xbox One from Northern Ireland-based developer Outsider Games. It's a point & click game with an interesting premise that has you playing as a ghost who can "body-hop" to take control of other characters in the world. Featuring some detailed high-definition illustrations that looked like they popped right off a comic book, Wailing Heights certainly possesses some promise. Let's get right into it and find out if it's as cool as it sounds...
In Wailing Heights, you take control of the soul of Francis Finklestein, who was once the manager of a famous rock band from Great Britain called the Deadbeats. You've recently perished and the afterworld is a strange place by the name of Wailing Heights. There are no regular people in Wailing Heights, which is inhabited by a bunch of monsters. These aren't your regular scary monsters though, instead you'll meet hipster vampires, vegan werewolves and soulful zombies. Finklestein is a ghost himself, which explains his ability to hop into the bodies of other citizens. The main objective as you go about exploring Wailing Heights is to find each member of the Deadbeats band and bring them together for a reunion show.
The body-hopping ability is an interesting idea, but you can only hop into a
select few characters, so don't go imagine yourself hopping into every
character in the world (would've been cool though!) Before you can hop into an eligible body, you have to find 3 items related to that character: something depicting their name in addition to the item they both love and hate the most. Several of the playable characters have a special ability that can be used at anytime. Your starting character, the lawyer ghost, can turn into spectral form and read the thoughts of those around him. Later you'll gain access to a hipster vampire chick who can transform into a bat and a werewolf that can switch between biped and walking on all fours. These are a neat idea but never really feel like they're utilized enough.
The world of Wailing Heights is presented with 2D artwork. While the high-def artwork looks quite nice, the animation is a bit lacking. The characters only feature animations for walking sideways, which looks particularly goofy when traversing north or south. This wouldn't be so much of an issue if the game didn't place several buildings (which you'll have to access many times) tucked into the background and foreground. While it's the nice they tried to add some depth to the environment, it just looks stupid the way your character navigates this axis.
Being a big fan of point & click adventures, I really wanted to like Wailing Heights. It's got a cool concept and some nicely drawn artwork, but in the end it all ends up feeling half-baked. It can be tough to figure out what you're supposed to do even by point & click standards. These situations typically lead to some fun exploration in these types of games, but the problem here is that the environment feels too barren and just isn't all that fun to explore. The quests quickly become tedious back-and-forth affairs because of this. Another major issue comes with the "body-hopping" mechanic, which seems neat at first but quickly becomes an annoyance because you can only switch to a character that you're standing right next to, meaning you'll have to do all sorts of wandering around to find them. If this sounds repetitive, it's because it is! Thimbleweed Park, another point & click with a multiple character mechanic, easily allowed you to switch between characters on the fly at any point. Employing a similar character-switch mechanic would have helped eliminate some of the boredom in Wailing Heights.
In addition to all the previously mentioned issues, Wailing Heights completely crapped the bed when I reached the 3rd act. The first time I made it there, the game crashed to the dashboard right as it was starting. Up until this point, I had only encountered some minor bugs like a missing texture or speech bubble appearing off the screen, but nothing as bad as a crash like this. Upon attempting to start the 3rd act again, it wouldn't load the speech prompts and instead I was only able to slide my character around the screen. Upon a 3rd reload I was able to finally play the 3rd act and eventually finish the game, but it is a bit ridiculous that it took 3 tries before the game could properly load the sequence. The game is lacking in the sound department as well, which will become apparent when you spend a large chunk of the game walking down the street in silence. Some of the music isn't bad, though it gets monotonous hearing the same jingles every time you switch characters, which you'll have to do frequently.
While Wailing Heights had some nice ideas, cool artwork and lots of potential in its story, the final product ends up feeling a bit underwhelming and half-baked in many regards. If you're in the mood for a good point & click game, there are much better offerings available on the Xbox One. Wailing Heights does have a rather easy achievement list to complete, so achievement hunters might want to look into this one but for everyone else, I'd advise you to skip this one. If you must get it, I'd advise waiting for a discount before taking the plunge. It certainly feels like Wailing Heights could have been crafted into something more enjoyable with some more development time, but the game still needs some work as it is.
Final Verdict: Wailing Heights is a point & click adventure with some nice artwork and the interesting concept of playing as a ghost who can hop into other bodies. Unfortunately, several things hold the game back from reaching its potential including tons of tedious backtracking and a world that feels dead (no pun intended).
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