(Skip to the bottom for my advice to survivors or anyone hesitant about the content of this game)
Wednesdays... how do I do this game justice in a review. Wednesdays manages to portray child sexual abuse masterfully using what has to be the most difficult medium out there: a video game. As a survivor, if you had asked me whether it was possible to do this well, or if it should be done at all, I would have told you no. That there was no way to sensitively gamify CSA. Thank god I didn't consult on this game because I would have been so wrong.

As a basic gameplay breakdown:
In Wednesdays, you play as Timothée, returning to a childhood video game: Orco Park. The game (Orco Park) itself is essentially a theme park tycoon. Every time you build a new ride, you unlock a childhood memory. Within these memories, the player is able to make choices within the dialogue as the story develops. You can clean up your park, place decorations, and review memories attached to previously built rides in the Orco Park segments of the game.

I genuinely really enjoyed the actual gameplay. This is obviously not a strategic game or anything like that, but I got far more out of the game elements than I anticipated.


Content warnings, upsetting content, and my advice for anyone unsure about this game:

Wednesdays has the best executed content warnings I have ever seen in this medium. I can assure you that YOU WILL NEVER BE BLINDSIDED IN THIS GAME. There are content warnings literally every step of the way here. For every ride/memory there is both a general content rating (? - no warning, ! - some themes are referenced more generally, and !!! - which are the most potentially triggering scenes in the game), and a very detailed summary for those who aren't sure whether they want to view the scene or not. You are able to skip and return to scenes, so if you can't handle something in the moment you don't have to worry about missing it. Truly, the dev team thought of everything here.

If you are a survivor yourself/nervous or unsure about this game, I highly recommend it. If there is anything, in theory that the dev team could do that would make it playable for you, they have likely already done it.

Although intense, Wednesdays is very well paced with a beautiful and uplifting ending. I am so glad I played it.