Road trips

Games have long understood the appeal of the open road. Often it draws us to some important goal. But in 2021, it looks like we’re due a rash of games more interested in what happens along the way: the unexpected stops, the detours, the conversations that only start when there’s a long, blank stretch of tarmac ahead.

This isn’t exactly new, of course. From Jalopy to Final Fantasy XV, plenty of games have decided it’s the journey that really matters, not the destination, in recent years – but when Open Roads, Season and Road 96 (pictured) were all announced on the same day in December 2020, it was clear that something was in the air. All these games look wildly different, which as it should be (the road movie, after all, is less a genre than a loose structure). There’s plenty of room to accommodate grounded motherdaughters, wistful fantasy and the more action-oriented Road 96, with its Tarantino- and Coens-inflected style, let alone the monster hunters and posties of Titan Chaser and Lake, and whatever form Minskworks’ teased spiritual successor to Cold War journey Jalopy ends up taking.

It’s incredible timing, given that most of these titles’ development predates the locked-in world now inhabited by the players they appeal to. But most likely the reason they’ve all come along is simple recognition that games make a perfect fit for road-trip fiction, which can smooth anecdotal encounters and the lulls in between into a semblance of story. Look at any open-world game that gives you a vehicle and a horizon to point it towards and you’ll find players telling these kinds of tales themselves. It’s only natural that developers would want to take their own turn in the driving seat.