KENTUCKY ROUTE ZERO: TV EDITION
GAME OUT NOW | PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Seven years since the release of its first episode, developer Cardboard Computer’s adventure finally comes to the end of the road. A rambling journey along the titular Zero, a highway that stretches through the caves below Kentucky, it offers a daringly experimental twist on the classic point-and-click adventure. KRZ plays out as a surreal theatrical ghost story of sorts, though plot comes secondary to character in a captivating road trip that takes a number of surprising diversions.
It begins with Conway, an antique deliveryman looking for an address that may or may not exist. He’s soon joined by Shannon, a TV repairwoman seeking her estranged cousin, and Ezra, an imaginative youngster whose parents have apparently left him behind. Your band of mismatched drifters grows throughout the episodes, and at various stages you’ll get to control them all. There are no traditional puzzles here – unless you count the challenge of figuring out the more opaque exchanges – though you’re invited to find your next destination from directions you’re given rather than simply following a waypoint. You can make a few
unscheduled stops, but you ultimately head down a single path.
You’re given much more control over the dialogue. Where choices in most narrative games simply determine which story branch you head down next, here you’re given a greater degree of authorship over these characters, including their backgrounds. It starts as simply as letting you name Conway’s dog, but by the fourth episode you not only get to guide both halves of a conversation, but the memories it dredges up. While none of the dialogue is voiced, a trio of bluegrass musicians provide a Greek chorus of sorts – though the standout musical moment comes during a captivating performance from a synth-pop duo where your lyric choices are sung back to you.
It’s an exultant moment that offsets the melancholic mood, as economic uncertainty bites and buried tragedies are unearthed. But the playfulness of the storytelling makes sure it’s never too much of a downer. Five interstitial minisodes offer further experiments in form, including a VR-compatible piece of interactive theatre, a gallery showcasing artworks from a minor supporting character and an unsettling set-piece involving a local TV station filming in a rickety shack buffeted by a torrential storm. It may have taken longer than expected to reach the finish line, but in this complete and unabridged form, Kentucky Route Zero has set a dauntingly high bar for the year in games. Chris Schilling