A rare story setting

[WhiteKnightLeo]

This might sound strange, but there's a concept in fiction that I really like but don't get to see very often, and I was wondering if anyone knew of any other examples of it besides the few I'm familiar with.

The concept is that there's a wild landmass - a big island, a continent, or even a planet - in which whatever settlements exist are few and far between, but the protagonist/PC has some kind of advanced transportation technology that allows them to traverse the landscape, and they have some kind of exploration-related mission or goal in mind. Think Lewis and Clark, but with just one guy (I'll accept pairs but I prefer a solo story, or perhaps with a man and his dog/robot/etc).

EDIT: I need to add to this that the kind of story I want has a protagonist who wants to be in the wilderness setting.

I don't have many 'pure' examples of this, but the two closest ones that come to mind are:

Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind
Subnautica

There are a few games that come close to satisfying this kind of itch, but a lot of those are much more combat-focused and less exploration-focused. I want more of a Man-vs-Nature story than a Man-vs-Man story. Honestly I really don't have many great examples of this.

I'm mostly asking simply in the hopes of finding a purer example than I've currently got, but also because I'm working on a story idea for this setting and I'm hoping for inspiration. Hopefully if I can actually put fingers to keyboard I'll be posting it here.

 

[Biigoh]

Have you tried the classical Call of the Wild? Or Robinson Crusoe?

If you don't mind a touch of horror mixed in with exploring the environment that is very much man against environment/nature?

http://web.archive.org/web/20080624042113/www.thekeep.org/~lara/bliss/bliss.html

 

[Amberion]

Have you ever played Firewatch?

 

[WhiteKnightLeo]

Have you ever played Firewatch?

Click to shrink...

That's the walking simulator game about the temp park ranger in Wyoming?

I watched a bit of a LP back when the game first launched. Thanks for the reminder - that might actually fall under this heading.

 

[Amberion]

If survival sims are your jam, I also kinda like The Long Dark, the survival mode has no NPCs, though the story mode(wintermute) does.

 

[WhiteKnightLeo]

If survival sims are your jam, I also kinda like The Long Dark, the survival mode has no NPCs, though the story mode(wintermute) does.

Click to shrink...

The Long Dark doesn't really qualify for this, since that's more about a survivor of an apocalypse picking through the ruins of an inhabited world (or at least that's what I get from the gameplay I've seen).

It's not that I'm looking for survival settings, really - I'm looking for exploration. Subnautica is mostly focused on exploration: while there is a 'survival' mode, food and water are plentiful on 4546B; the only thing in short supply is breathable oxygen. Turning it into an actual survival game requires mods.

 

[WhiteKnightLeo]

Have you tried the classical Call of the Wild? Or Robinson Crusoe?

If you don't mind a touch of horror mixed in with exploring the environment that is very much man against environment/nature?

http://web.archive.org/web/20080624042113/www.thekeep.org/~lara/bliss/bliss.html

Click to shrink...

I've actually read Robinson Crusoe, once upon a time, and it's more of a survival story than an exploration story. Moreover, the prose is pretty dense and dated for my tastes. I much preferred The Swiss Family Robinson.
I also read the abridged version of Call of the Wild around the same time.

They are in the ballpark of the kind of story I'm looking for, sure, but one of the elements that's important to the setting I want - which I now realize I failed to include in my original explanation - is that the protagonist chose to be there, at least in some capacity. That's why I referenced Lewis and Clark - their expedition was literally a job they took on for the United States government. While Subnautica doesn't meet this criteria (at least at the start, though it does the moment you deactivate the laser cannon and decide not to leave yet), Below Zero does: the protagonist goes to 4546B to find out what happened to her late sister.

My story idea revolves around a geologist working for a space mining company who is surveying an undeveloped planet the company has laid claim to. He's there for several reasons - the pay, the adventure, furthering his research, etc - but he's in the wilderness on an alien world because he decided to go there. That's different from someone who survived a shipwreck and has to survive in an alien environment, regardless of what technology he has access to. A survivor can have basically any kind of personality - not so an explorer.

 

[Unilateral]

Pokemon Colosseum/XD might just qualify.

 

[WhiteKnightLeo]

Pokemon Colosseum/XD might just qualify.

Click to shrink...

Now that you mention it, Pokemon itself is a pretty good example.