As of writing, in recent gaming related news it has been announced the quite excellent video game Until Dawn is getting turned into a film. Even if we are to ignore the relatively poor hit rate of video game adaptations the reason for doing this is extremely lacking.
Until Dawn is an ode to teen slasher movies, but using the medium of video games instead of cinema allows for branching paths specific to the player, turning this thing based on a movie into a movie actually strips out what makes it unique.
Now, you’re probably wondering why you’re reading about a totally different video game but this recent story came to mind when I was thinking about writing about my experience with The Wreck.
For all intents and purposes, The Wreck is a Visual Novel. You are spending most of your time with it simply listening and/or reading while there are some usually static images, well framed and cut but I will return to that.
The interactivity is extremely low, you sometimes click on key words in text to create dialogue choices and in other sections you can fast forward and rewind with the only objective being again, to find words to click on.
I have written time and time again about my love but struggle with VNs, much like the opening argument - it could be argued that if your story is essentially a book then why use the medium of video games?
If the medium needs more than words, but no interactivity then why not pick comics, animation or live-action films?
My struggle here is that I both find this argument to be reductive but partly agree. I find it difficult getting absorbed into a game where as the player I’m not playing.
At first The Wreck was no different, I played it in very small chunks because I’ve got the 2024 attention span - I’m not on TikTok but I do feel the need to be actively doing something and it’s the same reason I struggle to get through TV series, even it is something I love.
However this game, once its emotional beats really started to hit hard (because they were hitting from the start) I had to see it through.
With a game that is 99% story I don’t want to be giving even the slightest spoilers because all I have done is change its medium and like what may (likely) happen with the Until Dawn movie, I will be stripping away a lot of what makes it good.
The Wreck has you follow the protagonist Junon who has been called to hospital because her mother is on death’s door. This alone is something dramatic but the twist and where the intrigue starts is you quickly discover that Junon and Marie, her mother who she speaks about by name, do not have the best relationship and the papers which the hospital believes Junon signed were by her mum - leaving Junon in control and to a degree her mum’s life in her hands.
Understandably this is hard for Junon to process and decides to get in her car and leave, this is where a wreck happens but I will refrain from calling it The Wreck.
During this crash items come flying out of Junon’s handbag and clicking on one sends you into one of her memories.
Within the memory Junon narrates as you fly about scenes of her past and you are then sent through again with the ability to speed through or go back. As mentioned previously, this reveals words which bring out more thoughts and eventually greater realisations for Junon.
Once she remembers and/or realises what she needs to move on, time rewinds.
You and Junon are then pulled back to a previous conversation where a new option appears and helps her move on.
As the game progresses, Junon gets into conversations with many people in her life, decides to leave, crashes, you see another memory, come to a conclusion and zip - the story moves on, and this is how it plays out from beginning to end.
As these scenes build your understanding of Junon, and the people around Her’s lives become deeper but more understandable. Without specifics, this game covers love, hate, regret, pain, trauma and a whole load of difficult things that will make many people weep as they play.
This game doesn’t have difficulty settings, but it is hard in a fulfilling way.
The final reason I started with the Until Dawn chat is that The Wreck too is a love letter to cinema.
Not as directly in terms of trying to emulate a genre specifically, but for a game with very small amounts of animation it is still extremely cinematic. Junon as a character also is a movie lover and speaks about different elements of that passion throughout.
To just read this story would lose the impact of some of the quality voice acting, the great use of sound and inventive types of framing and more used within the memory sequences and more.
Your choices in dialogue are mostly quite restrictive, very few decisions change where things end up and sadly like many VNs you are given more of an illusion of choice than a completely unique experience to anyone else who plays it.
The moving forwards and backwards in memories is interactive by definition but barely feels it, it somewhat keeps you active but sadly feels like a bad version of “Where’s Wally?” at times where Wally is a blurry word on the screen.
Deciding whether or not The Wreck would be better in another medium is tough.
I think it would lose a lot if it were a book not a game, but a film? I’m unsure if you'd lose much outside of a film, other than it would be shorter and probably less repetitive in structure.
Ultimately, I found the story powerful and affecting. The presentation was mostly really nice outside of some character models occasionally looking dead behind the eyes and limited frames for speaking being a little off-putting.
I would have liked more in the way of choices feeling as if they mattered but this game has its story to tell and I can respect it doesn’t want too many deviations.
In truth, you already know if you like this sort of game. If you’re on the fence there is a demo although it does the sinful thing of not allowing you to follow it on if you do decide to purchase the game. Give it a go, just please, read the trigger warnings before you dive into it.
Life can be beautiful but it's also harsh.
Until Dawn is an ode to teen slasher movies, but using the medium of video games instead of cinema allows for branching paths specific to the player, turning this thing based on a movie into a movie actually strips out what makes it unique.
Now, you’re probably wondering why you’re reading about a totally different video game but this recent story came to mind when I was thinking about writing about my experience with The Wreck.
For all intents and purposes, The Wreck is a Visual Novel. You are spending most of your time with it simply listening and/or reading while there are some usually static images, well framed and cut but I will return to that.
The interactivity is extremely low, you sometimes click on key words in text to create dialogue choices and in other sections you can fast forward and rewind with the only objective being again, to find words to click on.
I have written time and time again about my love but struggle with VNs, much like the opening argument - it could be argued that if your story is essentially a book then why use the medium of video games?
If the medium needs more than words, but no interactivity then why not pick comics, animation or live-action films?
My struggle here is that I both find this argument to be reductive but partly agree. I find it difficult getting absorbed into a game where as the player I’m not playing.
At first The Wreck was no different, I played it in very small chunks because I’ve got the 2024 attention span - I’m not on TikTok but I do feel the need to be actively doing something and it’s the same reason I struggle to get through TV series, even it is something I love.
However this game, once its emotional beats really started to hit hard (because they were hitting from the start) I had to see it through.
With a game that is 99% story I don’t want to be giving even the slightest spoilers because all I have done is change its medium and like what may (likely) happen with the Until Dawn movie, I will be stripping away a lot of what makes it good.
The Wreck has you follow the protagonist Junon who has been called to hospital because her mother is on death’s door. This alone is something dramatic but the twist and where the intrigue starts is you quickly discover that Junon and Marie, her mother who she speaks about by name, do not have the best relationship and the papers which the hospital believes Junon signed were by her mum - leaving Junon in control and to a degree her mum’s life in her hands.
Understandably this is hard for Junon to process and decides to get in her car and leave, this is where a wreck happens but I will refrain from calling it The Wreck.
During this crash items come flying out of Junon’s handbag and clicking on one sends you into one of her memories.
Within the memory Junon narrates as you fly about scenes of her past and you are then sent through again with the ability to speed through or go back. As mentioned previously, this reveals words which bring out more thoughts and eventually greater realisations for Junon.
Once she remembers and/or realises what she needs to move on, time rewinds.
You and Junon are then pulled back to a previous conversation where a new option appears and helps her move on.
As the game progresses, Junon gets into conversations with many people in her life, decides to leave, crashes, you see another memory, come to a conclusion and zip - the story moves on, and this is how it plays out from beginning to end.
As these scenes build your understanding of Junon, and the people around Her’s lives become deeper but more understandable. Without specifics, this game covers love, hate, regret, pain, trauma and a whole load of difficult things that will make many people weep as they play.
This game doesn’t have difficulty settings, but it is hard in a fulfilling way.
The final reason I started with the Until Dawn chat is that The Wreck too is a love letter to cinema.
Not as directly in terms of trying to emulate a genre specifically, but for a game with very small amounts of animation it is still extremely cinematic. Junon as a character also is a movie lover and speaks about different elements of that passion throughout.
To just read this story would lose the impact of some of the quality voice acting, the great use of sound and inventive types of framing and more used within the memory sequences and more.
Your choices in dialogue are mostly quite restrictive, very few decisions change where things end up and sadly like many VNs you are given more of an illusion of choice than a completely unique experience to anyone else who plays it.
The moving forwards and backwards in memories is interactive by definition but barely feels it, it somewhat keeps you active but sadly feels like a bad version of “Where’s Wally?” at times where Wally is a blurry word on the screen.
Deciding whether or not The Wreck would be better in another medium is tough.
I think it would lose a lot if it were a book not a game, but a film? I’m unsure if you'd lose much outside of a film, other than it would be shorter and probably less repetitive in structure.
Ultimately, I found the story powerful and affecting. The presentation was mostly really nice outside of some character models occasionally looking dead behind the eyes and limited frames for speaking being a little off-putting.
I would have liked more in the way of choices feeling as if they mattered but this game has its story to tell and I can respect it doesn’t want too many deviations.
In truth, you already know if you like this sort of game. If you’re on the fence there is a demo although it does the sinful thing of not allowing you to follow it on if you do decide to purchase the game. Give it a go, just please, read the trigger warnings before you dive into it.
Life can be beautiful but it's also harsh.