Road 96

Before I started playing it, Road 96 was an enigma to me. I knew it was an interactive story game and, well, that’s about all I knew. So I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be one of the best interactive fiction games I’ve played in recent years.

To Americans, the world of Road 96 will feel intimately familiar and yet strangely foreign. The game is set in the country of Petria, a land of majestic mountains, quiet deserts, and endless highways. Ten years ago there was a major terrorist attack, an event which the government used as justification to impose draconian policies. Perhaps this sounds vaguely like the aftermath of 9/11, but Digixart Entertainment have taken the concept to the extreme. The country of Petria looks and sounds like America but feels like North Korea. The government controls the news, kids are trying to escape by crossing the border, and protesters are rounded up and thrown into the Pits. It reminds me of the classic novel It Can’t Happen Here in how effectively it weaves a fiction that feels close to home yet strangely distant.

It would be easy for a game of this ilk to devolve into a polemic, but Road 96 avoids being overly preachy by leaning on a diverse cast of characters who let us see Petria from multiple angles. Some are fighting for justice; others serve only themselves. Some are lawful while others are lawless. By the end of the game, you’ll understand everyone’s motivations and come to empathize with their struggles, even if you don’t always agree with their actions. To say much more would be to delve into spoiler territory. The character writing is generally strong, if occasionally awkward. A large part of this is because you, the player character, are nameless, and each NPC gives you a different nickname. Being called “homie” or “youngblood” once was fine but by the 26th time it started to grate on my ears.

In an unexpected move for a game of this type, the gameplay incorporates roguelite elements. At the outset of each trip to Petria’s border, you’re cast into the role of a nameless teenager. You race towards freedom, encountering various characters and situations along the way. Then, when your journey concludes – whether you’ve crossed the border successfully or not – you get a chance to run it back again in the shoes of a new teen. Because of this, you get to have multiple interactions with each of the characters you meet on the road – but although you’ll recognize them, they won’t recognize you. This allows each scene to function like a snapshot, allowing you to see a new facet of each character every time you meet them. It’s a unique form of storytelling that I quite appreciated. It provides space for your choices as a player to have an impact while keeping the story’s focus on the NPCs.

As a result of the story’s non-linear presentation, minor incongruities do occasionally rear their ugly heads. In my playthrough, I encountered one particular scene twice. Although it was with a minor character rather than a major one – a filler scene – it nonetheless broke my sense of immersion to experience the same conversation verbatim more than once.

Later, I encountered a timeline-breaking inconsistency in the dialogue between two major characters. At one point a major NPC and I were involved in a serious car crash. Yet in the very next scene, when another character called the injured NPC on the phone, there was absolutely no mention of the incident. Given the relationship between these two NPCs, this was totally implausible. I can understand why snafus like these happen – the narrative format of Road 96 is ambitious, especially for an indie game – but these weird moments did distract me from the story nonetheless. Additionally, I felt the ending came on rather suddenly, but all the charming characters and intrigue I encountered along my journey more than made up for the weak conclusion.

It’s always a delight when a game comes out of nowhere to surprise me as this one did. I’m glad I gave Road 96 a chance instead of just writing it off as another so-called walking simulator. If you enjoy story-focused games, don’t pass this one up.