In ‘Route 96,’ the concept delivers, but the details are sorely lacking

Pity the poor teenagers entrusted to my care. I tried to help them escape from their totalitarian country, but most were arrested near the border. Others were shot and killed.

The few I ushered away from Petria were low on cash with vital signs that weren’t great and I have no idea if they found a better life across the border. I can’t say what happened to the one who played the musical instrument badly, or the one who played air hockey badly, or the one who served drinks badly or the one who always lost at Connect Four.

None of them had much more than an outline of personality, which made it hard to form any attachment. So, while I lacked sympathy for their plight and failed to be troubled by the hard-knuckle politics tearing apart their country, I enjoyed following their journeys because it was usually a treat to see what the next strange situation might befall them.

Set in 1996, “Route

96” is a game whose formal qualities I appreciated more than its particulars. Over ten episodes, its campaign follows ten different teenagers as they try to make their way north to Route 96 which leads to and past a border wall patrolled by triggerhappy guards. From the second episode on players choose one of three anonymous characters who start their journey with varying attributes — e.g. health and pocket money — from different points of the map.

As the teenagers hitchhike, drive or schlep their way on foot from one place to the next, they meet a small cast of characters: A kind-hearted police officer, the daughter of a noted public official, a vapid TV personality who supports the regime, a remorseful revolutionary, two third-rate criminals, a 14-year-old-computer whiz and a man with murder on his mind. The non-player charac