If we could go back in time and examine our memories, hear the exact words said to us and view everything around us in that moment, what would we find? In The Wreck, this question becomes a central gameplay tenet. Junon, a struggling screenwriter, finds herself in a car crash on the same day that she has to make a crucial decision about the life of her estranged mother. It’s a lot to take in, but in this visual novel developed and published by The Pixel Hunt, players can help Junon delve into her memories to find the answers she seeks.
This past weekend, The Wreck featured as part of the PAX Rising collection at PAX East in Boston. PAX Rising showcases exemplary indie titles and features them at a curated booth on the show floor. It’s easy to see why The Wreck stands out amongst the crowd, as it was one of the few visual novels present at the convention and had a fairly in-depth demo on hand.
The Wreck is an adventure game dealing with mature themes around grief and survival. Florent Maurin, head of The Pixel Hunt, told me that the goal of the game is “delivering the best story possible.” Florent wrote the game with his sister, and they found inspiration from their life experiences. He described the title as “exploring themes of maternity, sorority [sisterhood], and being a part of a family and its struggles.”
In my playthrough of the demo, I took on the role of Junon, arriving at the hospital to find that her mother, in critical condition, had given her the medical power of attorney without telling her. Florent described Junon’s mother as “very famous, a loud mouth, and too much for her daughters to exist.” And that hints at another complication, as Junon suspects that her mother put her in this position to once again pit her against her sister. Throughout this moment, I could choose from dialogue options at the bottom of the screen, but I could also select words in red at the top to parse out Junon’s thought process.
So how does Junon deal with this dilemma? She recalls a memory from her childhood of finding a hurt bird and later showing it to her mother. That evening, she would have a nightmare. Moving through these memories I could fast forward through them, rewind them, and view them from various angles. This would allow me to notice clues that would provide context about the choices and beliefs of Junon’s mother, ones that would hopefully illuminate the present situation.
The puzzle solving in The Wreck is fairly light, as Florent explained, “I really don’t want people to struggle, I just want them to scratch their head a little.” I certainly scratched my head a little, as exploring Junon’s memories involved piecing together various bits of information sequentially that would eventually prove a conclusion. A couple of environmental clues took longer for me to uncover than the ones that relied on slowing down time at the right moment, but I didn’t might the challenge. I never got too stuck but I did have to think about the elements that would prove Junon’s hypothesis, leading me to the missing pieces.
As for the style, The Wreck is framed cinematically. It’s a piece of interactive fiction but this quality also alludes to Junon’s career as a screenwriter. Another unique flavor of the game is that it takes place in France, and the voice cast is entirely French, though they speak in clear English. The pastels of the demo I played evoked the feeling of a Wes Anderson film, but Florent explained that the color palette will change when Junon meets various other characters throughout the game. Stop motion for her movements and moments in which she’s out of focus further reflect Junon’s mental state throughout the game. While the game is visually appealing, it also has a catchy soundtrack and The Wreck will feature six original songs upon its release.
The Wreck will arrive on PC in either July or September of this year. The visual novel will take approximately four hours to play through, as the final game will include ten different memory sections. Until then, players can check out the demo on Steam, offering an earlier build of the PAX East demo.
