Review - Kentucky Route Zero

A while back I picked up a strange indie game that was on sale. It would be a while before I played it, but eventually I made a few videos on Kentucky Route Zero. After another break, because I guess that’s just how it goes, I decided to finally finish what we started. Kentucky Route Zero is a narrative point and click adventure that is made by the developers Cardboard Computer. It follows the story an old man and his dog as they deliver antiques to a strange address.

The gameplay is fairly standard for a point and click experience. The player can move the characters around by clicking on the ground and interact with different interactable objects. Unlike most others of its genre, Kentucky Route Zero does away with two features: puzzles and pixel hunting. All of the interactable objects are clearly presented to the player as pop ups on the screen, eliminating any of the random clicking that occurs in other point and click titles. The gameplay is then streamlined by removing the puzzles that are so common in the genre. These choices definitely helped the game by removing down time where the player is mindlessly searching for things and allowing the player to focus on narrative instead of esoteric puzzles, Kentucky Route Zero allowed more time for character development, easier immersion into the story, and eliminated some of the most frustrating elements of other point and click titles.

The one issue is that, by removing the puzzles, a large portion of gameplay disappears. The experience is streamlined to the point of being a simple matter of moving from one object to another. The game presents few, if any, challenges. While in most titles this would be a deal breaker (as nothing would be left for the player to do), Kentucky Route Zero presents an interesting, if not quite niche, method of engaging the player through it’s narrative.

The narrative is interesting in a few ways. Since I mentioned it previously, we might as well start with the engaging feature of the narrative, that being the dialogue options. Kentucky Route Zero engages dialogue differently from most. Instead of dialogue being a clear right and wrong ordeal, wherein the player is trying to succeed at some check or simply responding with a yes/no answer, the different dialogue options succeed at presenting the player with different paths to learn about the characters and the world around them. This is most exemplified when Conway, the first character the player meets, talks to his dog. There are a few options to choose from at each juncture and, on the face of it, it doesn’t really matter what the player chooses to say. However, each option paints the relationship between Conway and his dog in a different light or reveals some small tidbit about their past. This system is used throughout the entire game to really make the characters feel built by the player rather than thrust upon them by the developers.

The overall narrative was in a style that I’ve come to call “casual surrealism.” The world that the player enters is like our own but different. The farther that one travels, the more the differences become clear until they are in a completely different space. However, neither the characters nor the tone of the game itself reflects the strangeness of the world. It is all another strange day for the characters. The casual surrealism was both a boon and a bust for Kentucky Route Zero. On the one hand, the world felt very real, even in the face of a giant mechanical mammoth boat or non-euclidean highway. It allows the player to enter the world and feel neither alien to it nor overwhelmed by it. However, the matter-of-fact nature of a lot of the game leads to a simple and monotonous tone to the story. To me the tone was not bad and was, in fact, quite nice. The game is a laid back experience that rolls along with all of its strange and interesting twists and I found that the game succeeded at conveying that. While I liked it, that experience is certainly not for everyone. Action is limited to drama and tragedy, not chases or crazy climaxes. Due to this, it is very understandable that some would find it boring to play. As a player, one has to be engaged in furthering the story of they won’t be likely to find anything of value in it.

It must also be noted that the story is quite expansive. It is built like a novel with numerous subplots and side characters. While characters come and go often, there is rarely a time when they feel out of place. The world and the story is meticulously crafted to place every piece in its rightful position. In this regard, Kentucky Route Zero seems quite a ways ahead of many of its competitors. Everything that occurs ends up being finely crafted to fit into a greater narrative even if that doesn’t appear to be the case in its initial appearance.

So, what is the narrative about? It is focused around loss and finding ones place in the world. Every character has either lost something dear to them or have nothing to anchor them in the world anymore. The interactions focus on understanding the character’s positions in the world or how they can find something to hold onto in the world; whether that be a job or another person. Due to the many subplots it is very hard to go into detail about the various iterations of these themes, but every story focuses on these in one way or another. Not only does the dialogue succeed at conveying the theme, but the world itself does the same thing. The non-euclidean nature of some areas and the empty, sombre tone all work to continually impress the concept of loss upon the player.

All that is left to remark on is the aesthetics. They are interesting. I found the art style to be good, if not a bit too simple at times. As the game progresses towards the later acts the characters and environment do become more clear, but the earlier acts are often dark and pulled out to the point of obscuring what is occurring. That being said, much of the camera work in the game is very interesting. Kentucky Route Zero plays with liminal space (the area outside of the player’s view) to make environments seem more expansive, to hide entities that don’t want to be seen (hinting at their existence by having them creep onto screen), and to allow more mysterious and dynamic backgrounds. Especially in the fourth act there are masterful uses of liminal elements that are rarely seen if not completely ignored by most other games.

In the end, Kentucky Route Zero is a very interesting narrative piece that is seriously ahead of the curve in many ways. It’s use of character creating dialogue and liminality is worth taking note of. That is not even to mention the way that the game pioneers parallel dialogue. Coupled with a quite interesting narrative, it is a great choice to pick up. However, it is not for everyone. It is what one would call a more “artsy” game and it does not accommodate those who are not interested in its sometimes lackadaisical and matter of fact storytelling. Also, the game is not finished. The final act is yet to be released, so that should be noted. If what I’ve said so far sounds intriguing, you should definitely pick up this piece. If the last act plays out like the prior then this will likely be a masterpiece of gaming. If you’re not interested, do with it as you will.

Cardboard Computer, Kentucky Route Zero. Cardboard Computer, Feb 22, 2013.

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