If you ever had the idea that I have my life together; gosh, do I have you fooled. I’m a walking mash of regret and shame, and as I slip into midlife, I’m always grasping for something to make me feel whole. I should maybe feel satisfied that I have video games and I have writing, and that’s already more passion than most people can fit into their life, but I still feel empty. So, one thing that I’ve frequently reached for is music.

I didn’t listen to music much up through my teenage years. I eventually started listening to bands like The Beatles before my taste became developed enough to locate the sort of stuff that really speaks to me. Guitar Hero convinced me to pick up the guitar back in college, and since then, I’ve never figured out what I want to do with that skill.

So, that’s a long lead up to say that Wax Heads, a game about working in a record store, gave me decent insight into what it’s like to work alongside other self-conscious weirdos. And that’s nice, so why can’t I shake this feeling that I didn’t like it.

SELF-CONSCIOUS WEIRDOS

Wax Head places you as the newest member of the Repeater Records staff, a record store run by a former member of a short-lived but popular pop band. You gradually meet the other members of the staff, a variety of music lovers. All of them are rather interesting, and largely believable characters. They aren’t built around typical archetypes, but rather seem like they could be based on actual people. Easily, they’re the best part of the game and primarily drive the story.

However, this isn’t merely a visual novel. In fact, despite being largely narrative-centred, it isn’t dialogue-heavy. The meat of the game is deceptively interesting. A customer comes to you with a vague description of an album they’re looking for, and you need to figure out what they’re talking about. Obviously, the game doesn’t include actual albums, so you have to discern their desires by checking things like the artwork, the tracklist, or sometimes even news articles about the album. Some are extremely obvious, and others are much more obtuse.

It’s pretty fun… for a while. It’s not enough to really support a game on its own, and there isn’t much variety, even though the store’s stock gets mixed up frequently. In practice, it’s to draw you into the narrative, and in that sense, it’s quite effective.

OUR OPERATORS ARE STANDING BY

My first impulse is to say most of my qualms are personal preference, but I think I can explain my rationale.

My main issue is with the story itself, which is an issue enough that I had difficulty actually finishing the game. I didn’t mention this in my demo dive, but early on, it’s established that the store is in a dire position because some jerk is looking to buy the property out from under them. Now, hold up, I’m about to spoil something.

Spoiler warning!

Early on, I thought to myself: “I hope that this doesn’t wind up climaxing with a fundraiser.” Surely, it couldn’t be that obvious. It’s a tale as old as time. That’s Little Rascals shit. It was made fun of in UHF and I’m pretty sure The Muppets did that plot all the time.

Sure enough, that’s exactly where things go, and it only gets more cliché from there.

Spoiler threat cleared.

It also frustrates me with the way the player character is handled. While the player is largely a passive observer to the story – just a faceless worker – occasionally, they’re brought in as the voice of reason, and it’s frustrating. It’s very rare, which makes the moments stand our more. Sometimes you’re given insight into the protagonist’s personal fears, but that’s supposed to be you. Why are you getting a look at what the developer thinks is in your mind? I’m a big proponent for silent protagonists, but I’m fine when the player is put in the shoes of a defined character. They’re two different approaches to interactive storytelling.

But there’s no middle ground, unless you count amnesiac protagonists. If the player has no defined past and is given no stake in the story and has no agency to change things, then the player is just playing as themselves. And if you go too strong with dialogue choices, you’re then putting words in the player’s mouth. It’s like walking into a waiting room, seeing two people arguing, then suddenly having them ask for my opinion. Leave me the fuck out of this, I’m just here to see the phlebotomist. Let’s not pretend my opinion suddenly matters.

PHLEBOTOMY

That’s not to say that the story is completely without nutrition. As I mentioned, the characters are fab. I think there’s maybe too many for the length of the narrative, and I couldn’t hope to care about all of them. They’re decent in terms of making Repeater a fun place to work, but when it comes to moving the narrative, there are too many chefs in the kitchen. Nonetheless, they aren’t boring. Not like the rest of the narrative.

It also stands up better from a thematic standpoint where it speaks about the value of human expression in music. The encroachment of generative AI comes up prominently, but there isn’t much said about it of value. I think the main lesson to be learned is that community is very important, especially in today’s world, and I can really get behind that.

In additional, a number of the customers have their own sub-plots, which really makes them feel like regulars. During the brief time I owned a game store, I got insight into the lives of some of the people who popped in often, and that comes across pretty well here too. It also tends to come across as too saccharine. Good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. And the good people all love each other, and the bad people alienate themselves. I’m not saying it should be pessimistic, but it could use a dose of groundedness, because my mind rejects the idea of a bright and orderly world.

NEVER TRUST A HAPPY SONG

The soundtrack wavers in quality a great deal. That’s to be expected, since it crosses a lot of styles and genres. I found a bunch of stuff to like, and I think the music that plays in the shop when you’re not listening to the jukebox is fantastic. However, some of the songs that play as part of the actual story are… not my thing. I found them hard to listen to.

The art, on the other hand, is probably the best executed facet of Wax Heads. It’s a highly stylized cartoon look that packs in just enough detail. The character designs are full of personality. Repeater feels like the sort of record store I know for the most part. Reminds me of Bluestreak Records in the town I previously lived in, run by the brother of Metric’s Emily Haines. I miss that place.

DARK STUFF

I’m kind of in this spot where I have a lot of complaints about Wax Heads. After a certain point, I stopped enjoying it. I had to consciously force myself back into it to see out the last few chapters.

However, it made me think about how music was better for me when I had someone to discuss it with. It convinced me to swap vinyls with my dad. Just as a way of expanding both our horizons. He let me borrow Little Feat’s Waiting For Columbus, a live album. As we were exchanging he mentioned my tendency toward “dark stuff.” I was handing him Elliott Smith’s Figure 8. On the mark for that one, I suppose. He should be thankful I didn’t hand him From a Basement on a Hill.

Maybe that’s why I didn’t jibe with Wax Heads.

But that makes giving an opinion on Wax Heads a bit difficult, because clearly, it had effective messaging overall. It got through to me on some level. I think its approach to retail is really creative. It’s full of likeable characters. It’s just the narrative is trite and idealistic to the point of being saccharine. And that was enough to turn me off it completely. I appreciate Wax Heads, but I don’t see myself playing it again, and I don’t know that I recommend it. It’s time to find a different job.

5/10

This review was conducted using a Steam version of the game on PC. It was paid for by the author.