Eternity RPC Board
07-10-2017, 04:09 AM
Kentucky Route Zero
Title: Kentucky Route Zero
Official Site: http://kentuckyroutezero.com/
Developer: Cardboard Computer
Initial Release Date: February 2013
Genre: point-and-click adventure, text heavy
Price: $24.99 regular; I bought it on sale during Christmas of 2016 for half price.
Kentucky Route Zero (which I’ll abbreviate henceforth as KR0 because I’m lazy) is a story-rich, text-based, point-and-click adventure game about a surreal system of underground roadways in Kentucky and interpersonal relationships on the open road. I don’t want to say that this game is one of those “choose your own adventure” sorts of games, because the choices with which you’re presented don’t really seem to decide fates or outcomes, but rather you get to choose the characters’ motivations and emotions behind the actions that they perform. Your character may end up in exactly the same predicament regardless of what dialogue you choose, but your role is to decide for them how they got to that point, and how they’re prepared to respond to certain things which happen to them.
The game is split up into five Acts (of which I - IV have currently been released, V pending). We start off with the story of Conway, an aging, grizzled sort of man who works as a delivery man for an antique shop. As our story starts, Conway’s is ending; the owner of the antique store has decided to close up shop, and we’ve joined him for his last delivery run. We learn early on that our destination, Dogwood Drive, can only be accessed via Route Zero, a mysterious road that we get repeatedly warned not to take.
![[Image: 20C538358CEAACCA2DE4EFC3598670C9068A8068]](https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/839209486475585629/20C538358CEAACCA2DE4EFC3598670C9068A8068/)
We will ignore that warning, of course.
To find and traverse this road which does not seem to fully exist within our own plane of existence, we end up encountering a number of people, several of whom join our party and travel with us. Among these are a woman who repairs TVs and who has lost something dear to her, a young boy who lives in a museum with his older brother, and a pair of musicians who aren’t quite sure if they’d like to be a trio (or maybe just get a pet). KR0’s gameplay system will actually allow us to take control of these characters, and others, instead of Conway from time to time in order to complete certain scenes. And, of course, we have our ol’ hound dog with us.
We will travel through a number of different scenes in our sputtering truck (and sometimes by air, and sometimes by water!) to complete our delivery while regularly taking on new tasks - which seems to be alright; time passes differently on the Zero and I’m not sure it’s possible for our delivery to actually arrive late.
![[Image: AD6A58D1911090B1B028B21F3C5A81AAD8BE1B8D]](https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/839209691806367920/AD6A58D1911090B1B028B21F3C5A81AAD8BE1B8D/)
Horses, bluegrass and bourbon featured in a game about Kentucky? Go figure!
We don’t know much about Conway from the get-go, so as we’re learning about all the other characters and their stories, we’re learning about our main hero, too. Through a series of dream-like sequences and flashbacks, plus our dialogue with our companions on our trip, we learn that there are painful memories that he doesn’t want to talk about, and things that may become inevitable.
![[Image: 1FC94DC415940FF2D9B30FED2731AA3FA5303D70]](https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/839209486475585130/1FC94DC415940FF2D9B30FED2731AA3FA5303D70/)
One of the brightest scenes in the entire game.
I have put just about 6 hours into this game and have completed the first four acts. When Act V comes out, I will, of course, be playing that one, too. One of the interesting things I noticed about the game as I was playing it, given the slow development schedule of each subsequent act, has been seeing how much the developers improved from act to act, essentially moving from a flat side-scroller game into something much more cinematographic and dynamic. I am hopeful that Act V will be the best yet.
Pros: As with Botanicula, one of the most enthusiastic nods I’m giving to this game is that the atmosphere, visual and aural, are fantastic. The graphics are rendered in a low poly style with soft gradients, and generally muted or dark tones, which I find gives enough detail for scenes to be easily perceived while carrying the sense of supernatural and grittiness the game is supposed to convey - especially with regards to the visual distinction between “exploring” scenes and the “travelling” sequences. The soundscape and original music for this game are also great, and really contribute to the lonely feeling that one would have driving late at night or wandering through abandoned places where souls can’t rest. There’s no spoken audio aside from some occasional muffled radio chatter and a couple musical acts for which you play audience, so you’re never removed from that atmosphere. But probably most critical to forming my opinion of the game is KR0’s decision making style in comparison to other games that offer choose-your-own-adventure features. It’s a hard distinction to describe in writing, but essentially boils down to you getting to decide the mood of the story rather than any particular result. With KR0, the action you’re performing is going to be outwardly innocuous, say, talking to your dog, but you get to decide whether you’re talking to the dog because you’re character is nervous or wary, or if they’re excited about this road that exists on a different dimension. As with most games based on decision making, there’s a decent amount of replay value since you can get a fairly different experience each time.
Cons: There are certain points in the game which blatantly force quirkiness for no other reason than quirkiness’ sake. It’s not symbolism, it’s not an interesting character trait, it’s just the developer screaming “wow, gosh, look how cerebral and subtextual and indie I was with this scene!” (conclusion: the first two aren’t always true, the third one always is.) I don’t mind when the developers weren’t taking themselves seriously with their bountiful kookiness (spoiler:
), but the scenes where it wasn’t just a silly joke were some of the most boring ones to sit through (also spoiler:
) And of course, you’re buying an unfinished product, and given the length of time it took for Cardboard Computer to complete and release the previous chapters, it’s hard to know for exactly how long KR0 will remain as such. For context, Act III was released in May 2014 and Act IV in July 2016.
My Overall Saljective™ Rating: 7.5/10*
Kentucky Route Zero is a great game, and I am looking forward to the fifth and final leg of this journey. Even if for nothing else, the mystery of what things lie hidden along Route Zero and the need to see all the pieces fall into place will keep me coming back. With some scenes, you get a little whiff of pretentiousness from the developers, which can be offputting and may make you want to speed through that scene without digesting what’s happening, but the well-crafted atmosphere of solitude and the interesting characters and their plots generally outweigh the flaws. The price is steep when not on sale for a game that’s only about 5 - 6 hours not including the last piece (which will probably add an hour or so more play time).
In all truthfulness, I wanted to like this game more than a 7.5 - admittedly, I hyped it up for myself after having it on my wishlist for ages and reading so many strong reviews - but after having played it and considering the price, the pros, and the cons, a 7.5 feels right.
*Note: Rating is subject to change pending the release of Act V and the completion of the game. If it has a good ending, I don’t see myself bumping this up much past 8, maybe 8.5 at the most. A weak ending that doesn’t clear up a lot of big, gaping questions for me would maybe make me give this more of a 6.
Title: Kentucky Route Zero
Official Site: http://kentuckyroutezero.com/
Developer: Cardboard Computer
Initial Release Date: February 2013
Genre: point-and-click adventure, text heavy
Price: $24.99 regular; I bought it on sale during Christmas of 2016 for half price.
Kentucky Route Zero (which I’ll abbreviate henceforth as KR0 because I’m lazy) is a story-rich, text-based, point-and-click adventure game about a surreal system of underground roadways in Kentucky and interpersonal relationships on the open road. I don’t want to say that this game is one of those “choose your own adventure” sorts of games, because the choices with which you’re presented don’t really seem to decide fates or outcomes, but rather you get to choose the characters’ motivations and emotions behind the actions that they perform. Your character may end up in exactly the same predicament regardless of what dialogue you choose, but your role is to decide for them how they got to that point, and how they’re prepared to respond to certain things which happen to them.
The game is split up into five Acts (of which I - IV have currently been released, V pending). We start off with the story of Conway, an aging, grizzled sort of man who works as a delivery man for an antique shop. As our story starts, Conway’s is ending; the owner of the antique store has decided to close up shop, and we’ve joined him for his last delivery run. We learn early on that our destination, Dogwood Drive, can only be accessed via Route Zero, a mysterious road that we get repeatedly warned not to take.
We will ignore that warning, of course.
To find and traverse this road which does not seem to fully exist within our own plane of existence, we end up encountering a number of people, several of whom join our party and travel with us. Among these are a woman who repairs TVs and who has lost something dear to her, a young boy who lives in a museum with his older brother, and a pair of musicians who aren’t quite sure if they’d like to be a trio (or maybe just get a pet). KR0’s gameplay system will actually allow us to take control of these characters, and others, instead of Conway from time to time in order to complete certain scenes. And, of course, we have our ol’ hound dog with us.
We will travel through a number of different scenes in our sputtering truck (and sometimes by air, and sometimes by water!) to complete our delivery while regularly taking on new tasks - which seems to be alright; time passes differently on the Zero and I’m not sure it’s possible for our delivery to actually arrive late.
Horses, bluegrass and bourbon featured in a game about Kentucky? Go figure!
We don’t know much about Conway from the get-go, so as we’re learning about all the other characters and their stories, we’re learning about our main hero, too. Through a series of dream-like sequences and flashbacks, plus our dialogue with our companions on our trip, we learn that there are painful memories that he doesn’t want to talk about, and things that may become inevitable.
One of the brightest scenes in the entire game.
I have put just about 6 hours into this game and have completed the first four acts. When Act V comes out, I will, of course, be playing that one, too. One of the interesting things I noticed about the game as I was playing it, given the slow development schedule of each subsequent act, has been seeing how much the developers improved from act to act, essentially moving from a flat side-scroller game into something much more cinematographic and dynamic. I am hopeful that Act V will be the best yet.
Pros: As with Botanicula, one of the most enthusiastic nods I’m giving to this game is that the atmosphere, visual and aural, are fantastic. The graphics are rendered in a low poly style with soft gradients, and generally muted or dark tones, which I find gives enough detail for scenes to be easily perceived while carrying the sense of supernatural and grittiness the game is supposed to convey - especially with regards to the visual distinction between “exploring” scenes and the “travelling” sequences. The soundscape and original music for this game are also great, and really contribute to the lonely feeling that one would have driving late at night or wandering through abandoned places where souls can’t rest. There’s no spoken audio aside from some occasional muffled radio chatter and a couple musical acts for which you play audience, so you’re never removed from that atmosphere. But probably most critical to forming my opinion of the game is KR0’s decision making style in comparison to other games that offer choose-your-own-adventure features. It’s a hard distinction to describe in writing, but essentially boils down to you getting to decide the mood of the story rather than any particular result. With KR0, the action you’re performing is going to be outwardly innocuous, say, talking to your dog, but you get to decide whether you’re talking to the dog because you’re character is nervous or wary, or if they’re excited about this road that exists on a different dimension. As with most games based on decision making, there’s a decent amount of replay value since you can get a fairly different experience each time.
Cons: There are certain points in the game which blatantly force quirkiness for no other reason than quirkiness’ sake. It’s not symbolism, it’s not an interesting character trait, it’s just the developer screaming “wow, gosh, look how cerebral and subtextual and indie I was with this scene!” (conclusion: the first two aren’t always true, the third one always is.) I don’t mind when the developers weren’t taking themselves seriously with their bountiful kookiness (spoiler:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
My Overall Saljective™ Rating: 7.5/10*
Kentucky Route Zero is a great game, and I am looking forward to the fifth and final leg of this journey. Even if for nothing else, the mystery of what things lie hidden along Route Zero and the need to see all the pieces fall into place will keep me coming back. With some scenes, you get a little whiff of pretentiousness from the developers, which can be offputting and may make you want to speed through that scene without digesting what’s happening, but the well-crafted atmosphere of solitude and the interesting characters and their plots generally outweigh the flaws. The price is steep when not on sale for a game that’s only about 5 - 6 hours not including the last piece (which will probably add an hour or so more play time).
In all truthfulness, I wanted to like this game more than a 7.5 - admittedly, I hyped it up for myself after having it on my wishlist for ages and reading so many strong reviews - but after having played it and considering the price, the pros, and the cons, a 7.5 feels right.
*Note: Rating is subject to change pending the release of Act V and the completion of the game. If it has a good ending, I don’t see myself bumping this up much past 8, maybe 8.5 at the most. A weak ending that doesn’t clear up a lot of big, gaping questions for me would maybe make me give this more of a 6.