What if you could turn back time, for just a moment, to make things right? It’s a story you’ve likely heard and seen before. In the first Life Is Strange game, for example, you can turn back time to a certain point to make a different, and hopefully smarter, decision. But what is the importance of going back? In reflecting on your past? Does that really make a difference in the end, or is it actually all for naught? We get our answers in The Wreck, a game developed and published by The Pixel Hunt, through a beautiful, yet gut-wrenching story.
The Wreck is a fully voice-acted visual novel where we follow Junon, a woman in her late thirties who’s struggling with a difficult decision as she grapples with memories that have haunted her for the past five years. Just like in Life Is Strange, we take Junon back in time, but we go back months and years into her past experiences rather than just a few moments.
Focussing on the visuals for a minute, The Wreck has a very unique style. It’s a 3D game, and everyone moves frame-by-frame. As someone who’s used to the more typical 2D style, this one is certainly eye-catching. At times, it can get a little clunky and distracting, and some of our characters look a lot better than others, but I got used to it fairly quickly. Still, there are some absolutely gorgeous scenes scattered throughout the game. Environmentally and lighting-wise, The Wreck does an amazing job. I found myself in awe at certain points, and there are some flawless transitions that I’ll talk more about later.
Junon’s journey starts with us reading the beginning of a script written by Junon herself. The script depicts Junon on her way to the hospital, and then it fades as we’re transported into her world. In her thoughts, she speaks to someone unknown (at least for now) and we learn that we’re on our way to the hospital in order to visit Junon’s mom, Marie, who is in critical condition.
Junon and Marie don’t have the greatest relationship, and that’s putting it lightly. When Junon finds out her mother forged her signature and signed her name on important documents, she is furious. Now Junon is burdened with a heavy decision to make—does she leave her mother on life support, or does she pull the plug? Overwhelmed, she runs away, marking the true start to our story.
True to visual novel fashion, The Wreck takes you through a linear plot while offering you choices along the way. There’s inner dialogue that you can continue by clicking on any red words that appear in a sentence, or dialogue options to choose from at the bottom of the screen. Most times, you can unlock a new dialogue option through entertaining Junon’s thoughts instead of ignoring them. Other times, the “right” option won’t appear until after you’ve gone through a memory, and that is how we progress through this story.
The Wreck pushes forward with the same types of scenarios. Junon will get into an argument with someone, whether it’s her sister, Diana, or her ex-husband, Alex, before storming out of the hospital and, ultimately, running away from her problems. While she’s driving away, she more often than not thinks about how maybe she shouldn’t have left after all. The sun shines in her eyes, and as she reaches up to pull down the sun visor, she misses the deer that walks onto the road. But when she does notice, it’s too late. She swerves away from the deer and off the road, only to hit a stone wall and flip her car. This is when we get thrown back into Junon’s memories. As the car flips, time slows down, and multiple items fly out of one of the car’s compartments. A specific item will light up, and when we click it, back in time we go.
The first time I saw the crash scene, I was intrigued. It felt like a “life flashing before my eyes” type of moment, and I was curious as to what memory each item would lead us to. But then it happened again…and again, and again. The repetitiveness of getting into an argument two minutes after getting out of one, storming away, and seeing the same exact scene play over and over became old. It almost made me wish there was a skip button, or that the scene would play out at 2x speed. I do think that if there was a little variety in this specific repeated scene, I’d have stayed interested in it for longer.
Once you do get into the memory, you can left-click to move the memory forward, and right-click to rewind. In most of the memories, there’s a transition between the beginning and the end of the memory, and it loops, so you don’t have to worry about missing anything. These transitions are done beautifully, and there are specific ones near the end of The Wreck that I’m still thinking about. As you go through the memory, words will appear, and after clicking on them, dialogue plays. Through this, we learn more about Junon and her past, and we listen to her talk herself through the negative emotions she’s feeling. After her eureka moment, we go back to present time, and handle things a different way. We continue to do this until we get to the root of Junon’s feelings and try to work through them.
Something else that The Wreck does amazingly is how it talks about traumatic happenings. Child loss, self-harm, divorce, and parental relationships are only a few of the important topics that are covered. It’s uncommon for games to really dive deep into these topics, typically only using them for shock value, and it really isn’t often that we have the opportunity to experience such trauma through the eyes of an adult. It’s truly a breath of fresh air and a friendly reminder that adults feel pain too. Adults go through grief and trauma and they are not exempt from the feelings and struggles that these traumas come with.
Besides the repetition, there were a couple of other things that took away my immersion. First, I want to talk about the dialogue. There were some amazing lines said with undeniable, raw emotion, with some scenes even bringing me close to tears. But there were also many times when the lines both read and sounded extremely awkward, especially when spoken between two characters. Sometimes the tone was off, not lining up with what a sentence was supposed to mean. Other times, the delivery just wasn’t there. It wasn’t completely immersion-breaking, but it didn’t elevate my experience either. It also didn’t help that sometimes dialogue overlapped, making things hard to understand.
I also want to mention how there was one time when a memory was experienced differently. Instead of rewinding or advancing time the usual way, you click to move through the scene, and the images advance like a stop-motion film. It looks amazing, and though the transition was done differently, it was still perfect. I’m not sure why, but this mechanic was only used once. It was honestly a shame since it was a break from the repetitiveness of the usual way things were done.
Before I had finished The Wreck, there were times when I thought Junon was being a little too much. Whenever she solved a problem, it wouldn’t take long for her to get angry at someone else. It almost felt like her emotions would do a complete 180. But then I talked to my friend about this, and he told me that when you don’t have an amazing relationship with your mother, sometimes the smallest thing is all it’ll take for you to explode. As someone with a great relationship with her mother, this comment really opened my eyes, and I saw it. I saw the stress and anxiety that Junon was facing, and it made her so real. It made me realize that even if I don’t understand everything, someone else definitely will. I didn’t realize this in the beginning, but The Wreck will reach and touch the right people—of this, I’m sure.
While I definitely believe that there were things that would’ve made The Wreck a better experience, I know that it is a game that will stay with me for a long time. It’s a beautiful story of loss—lost love, lost family, and loss of self. A story of grief and a story of pain. A story of someone so raw and human who’s finally learning how to pick herself back up after everything she’s been through. This is a experience I believe anyone, especially older adults, should play through at least once. You might learn something important. A life lesson that will stay with you, always.
Inanna played The Wreck on PC with her own copy. The Wreck is also available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and Playstation.
