As I played Wide Ocean Big Jacket I found my thoughts were drawn to the notion of the pastoral. If you’re unfamiliar, we use pastoral in literary analysis to describe works that idealise the countryside, giving rurality an almost mythical quality in contrast to the hurly-burly cynicism of urban life. It’s a traditionally European style of literature, one clear in works from ancient Greece through the centuries to the modern day, and in those spaces it typically focuses around the image of the shepherd as a beautiful piece of calm, a character at one with and in communion with the natural world.
I also happen to think that the pastoral style is alive and well in the modern American tradition. Rather than idealising the life of a cowherd, in the present day America instead seeks a sense of tranquillity within the vast expanses of its own stunning areas of natural beauty. It’s settings are often nature reserves and the great wide parks and forests that span the country, and the stories it tells typically revolve around souls that feel lost and worn thin by the never-ending grind of life, the hustle and bustle mandated by the unforgiving demand of the American Dream. Its heroes are outsiders and the broken, the beat poets and drifters; all the folk that the nation has so little time for.
Wide Ocean Big Jacket (PC [reviewed], Switch)
Released Jan 2020 | Developed: Turnfollow | Published: Tender Claws
Genre: Interactive narrative | HLTB: 1.5 hours
With that in mind, let’s begin with Wide Ocean Big Jacket. Our protagonists here are a pair of couples; we have Brad and Cloanne, a young married pair taking their niece Mord and her new boyfriend Ben out on an overnight camping trip. Brad and Clo are experienced campers, but the kids aren’t, and as such are a bundle of nerves and questions about the trip – after all, what about being eaten by bears at this popular camping spot? The adults, naturally, grin and bear (har har) with it all.
I said the modern American approach to the pastoral loves an outcast protagonist, and here we get four of them. Mord is by far the most “out there” of the quartet; she’s an eccentric young teen, constantly bouncing between topics and thoughts, and all carried out with an air of slightly zany curiosity and excitement. Ben, on the other hand, is a shy and reserved lad, clearly ill at ease in the outdoors. The pair cut a fairly straightforward “opposites attract” figure but this pair are a rare thing indeed: well-written child characters! As the story trundles along we get more and more dialogue between them that gives both depth and emotive weight to their relationship, but in ways that feel appropriate for kids their age.
Brad and Cloanne are a slightly more tense couple, although not in the sense that they constantly argue or anything. Right from the beginning there’s a strange “off”-quality to their interactions; partly this is because sections of the game feel like we’re seeing them from Mord’s perspective and as such the chatter between grown-ups feels distant and slightly harder to fathom, but even so it’s impossible to miss the tension that clearly bubbles between them. The question of what the cause of that tension is, I’ll leave for the game to answer; suffice it to say it’s not what I expected but once it was placed in front of me I suddenly found a lot of my sympathies redistributed and shared around.
Relationships are a central theme to Wide Ocean Big Jacket. Much of the game centres around Mord’s efforts to explore her feelings around her best friend-turned-boyfriend, done in that erratic, odd way that tweens do. The way it reflects on Brad and Clo, and gives shape to their own fears and problems, is elegantly done. It’s also done in an entirely gentle and kind manner. This is a peculiarity to more modern games – usually indie ones, as AAA games development can neither handle the notion of leaving cynicism behind nor approach topics so bravely – that I’m finding myself yearning for more and more. The way in which Turnfollow have handled their narrative and characters is to do so tenderly, and it pays off in a really beautiful way.
You’re probably getting the sense that Wide Ocean Big Jacket is one of those narrative-heavy games that doesn’t do much in the way of gameplay, and I guess you’d be more or less correct in that assumption, but to do so doesn’t do the game justice. There’s a wonderful indie film vibe going on here, with plenty of moments that will feel instantly familiar; that’s in part because they are both part of the traditional “camping story” that exists in American literature, but also because it’s simply a cascade of deeply nostalgic real-life moments. The bustle of unpacking, the joy in exploring one’s surroundings, the stillness of the forest, the crackle of a fire as you slowly turn food over it. These are all points in time that are perfectly emblematic of the experience of the perfect camping holiday, distilled into a timeless celebration of the escape into nature that typifies the modern American pastoral. The focus here isn’t on creating a cavalcade of exciting “videogame” moments, it’s on creating and sharing (and sharing in) a tangible emotional landscape.
Look, this is all getting a bit pretentious from me. You’ll know – I’m certain of this – whether or not you’d care to try Wide Ocean Big Jacket from the screenshots here alone. What I’d like to impress on you is the sheer care put into it though. Every piece of dialogue is sharp and crafted with care and thought. Each of the filmic moments that pops up does so with purpose, immersing ourselves in a familiar story in order to let you connect on a greater level with the central quartet. It’s not especially long – maybe the length of a short film – and it tells a lovely, resonant story; it’s well worth picking up.
5/7 – GREAT.
Damn fine stuff, a game that doesn’t quite make the top echelon of games but sparkles regardless and holds the interest expertly. Make the time to give this a play.
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