As someone with a self-proclaimed love of words and drawing, her constant dialogue – either to Josh or herself – is well written and often funny. Riley, based on some quips, fancies herself as an amateur investigator (that or she’s just looking for purpose while stranded) and is always quick to describe what she’s seeing, or tries to piece together journal entries, drawings, and other remnants of the islanders. When you do stumble across a location of interests – typically the ruined homes of former inhabitants – the gameplay sticks close to genre norms.
It’s a simple but effective addition that allows you soak in the atmosphere without realising your interactions with the world are extremely limited. Ghost on the Shore strikes a balance by having Riley frequently discuss what she’s seeing and thinking with Riley as they move between places of interest, allowing the player to direct her conversation with Josh (such as digging for more information or empathising with him). More impressive and immersive is the quality of the music and voice work. Ghost on the Shore offers up stylised and often pretty environments but it’s a visual style common in the genre. If you focus on the narrative and puzzles in too confined a space, the entire “walking” element feels like a pointless addition and the game might as well have been a pure point-and-click adventure. Creating a large, atmospheric environment can help set the mood and frame the narrative, but it can leave the player wandering aimlessly for long period of time with no engagement.
Walking sims always have to strike a difficult balance between the scope of their environments and their narrative beats. Stuck as a voice in her head, the two set off across the island to find clues about the island’s former inhabitants and Josh’s fate. You play as Riley, a young woman shipwrecked on the desolate “Rogue Islands”, who has somehow bonded with a ghost, Josh, who has been dead for so long he remembers little of human interaction or what happened on the now-deserted island. The second game from developer like Charlie, Ghost on the Shore, falls into the oft-derided “walking sim” genre.
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