Wide Ocean Big Jacket

Wide Ocean, Big Jacket is a brief experience, perhaps 90 minutes including extra scenes recently added via patch, but it’s just the right length for delivering a richly-colored snapshot into the lives of its subjects, and as a memento of this brief camping trip where four people connect, it’s just perfect.

The game captures place and feeling through honing in on things that are singular, small, and warm.

Wide Ocean Big Jacket is a short story in video game form. With relatable themes and a cast of flawed yet lovable characters, this slice-of-life experience is worth a look for any fan of narrative-driven adventures.

The stakes aren't high, and given how ridiculously high the stakes often are in video game stories, I appreciate the humble slice-of-life premise. Still, I would have liked to see a little more ambition – something to wrap a bow on an otherwise pleasant present. I ended Wide Ocean Big Jacket feeling good, and it resonates, but at the same time, it's not necessarily an experience that will stick with me.

Wide Ocean Big Jacket is a game about what happens in between the life-changing moments. About how everyday interactions and conversations are interesting in their own way. It’s a memorable experience built around relatable characters, fun dialogue, and clever gameplay moments.

From a gameplay standpoint, Wide Ocean Big Jacket is an extremely simple game - with 'game' put between the biggest quote marks imaginable. As an experience, though, this is something else entirely. Turnfollow's tiny adventure is basically a funny, and occasionally very sweet, slice-of-life tale of four people enjoying themselves in the woods, while also dealing with some serious matters, but not in a very serious way. It's not a narrative-driven game. It is vacation in video game form - and only the good parts are included.