I remember my first day working in an old folks' home as a custodian supervisor. Before I had even been there an hour, I was told that a patient had died yesterday and we needed to refresh their room. It felt surreal cleaning death out of the room to make space for new guests. But the seasoned custodians were unfazed. This was normal.

I have lots of positive memories talking with the old folks who lived there. I also have memories which I would catalogue as sad or gross. Despite the varied experiences and the fact that this was a depressing period of my life that I had that job, I cherish my memories from there.

Wayward Strand let me relive some of these memories as well as explore some new experiences. The old folks and the environment are the star of the game and are treated respectfully and realistically. They're not all delightful grandmas and grandpas. Some are bitter. Some have memory issues. At least one of them believes they have supernatural abilities. They are wonderfully realized characters, and I loved my time with each of them.

That being said, this game has lots of indie jank. One time a character sat down in an nonexistent chair to type on a nonexistent typewriter when their actual chair and actual typewriter were one the other side of the room. Characters often clip through one another and sometimes through themselves. Dialogue occasionally compounds into busy indiscernible audio. But you may forgive these issues because the base of the game, the wonderful characters and setting, is so strong.

I loved Wayward Strand. It made me want to go volunteer at an old folks' home.