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RPS GOTY Revisited: 2013’s Kentucky Route Zero goes nowhere fast, and that’s why we love itTruck Driving Simulator ‘13
Truck Driving Simulator ‘13
Image credit:Cardboard Computer / Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:Cardboard Computer / Rock Paper Shotgun
Today, we’re looking at our 2013 Advent Calendar winner,Kentucky Route Zero.
When RPS awardedKentucky Route Zerothe title of Game Of The Year in 2013, only two episodes out of an eventual five had been released. If this sounds like a bland statement of fact, just think about it for a second. I can’t recall any other time an episodic adventure game has received GOTY-level praise before it was even concluded, let alone only 40% done.
Kentucky Route Zero: PC EditionWatch on YouTube
Kentucky Route Zero: PC Edition
It’s an interesting reaction to have, because Kentucky Route Zero is at once highly plot-driven, and not really at all about advancing through a story. On the one hand, it’s one of the most classic hero’s journey narratives I’ve played in a while, with a protagonist who is both literally and metaphorically driven (ba-dum-tish) to reach his destination against increasingly improbable odds. But if ever there was a point-and-click game that wanted you to slow down and soak in the atmosphere, it’s Kentucky Route Zero.
Kentucky Route Zero has been described as “Twin Peaks inspired” or, more accurately, “Lynchian” thanks to its surrealist portrayal of Americana. And, well, I’ll leave this screenshot here to speak for itself. |Image credit:Cardboard Computer
However, the opening minutes of Kentucky Route Zero’s first episode do an incredibly elegant job of demonstrating what you get to do instead of taking a guided tour. Almost every spoken interaction in the game comes with multiple dialogue choices, allowing you to very quickly develop and reinforce your sense of main protagonist Conway and his character. A few of these choices have consequences, including the very first one in the game, which allows you to choose whether your elderly canine companion is a male dog named Homer, a female dog named Blue, or a nameless stray. It’s a minor decision in the grand scheme of things, but one that will subtly permanently alter your experience for that playthrough.
Most choices in this game, however, don’t directly affect anything. But they’re the opposite of unimportant. I once heard it said that modern narrative adventure games prefer to judge you on your attitude towards making decisions rather than the decisions themselves, and KRZ definitely has overtones of that. But the most important thing is how your dialogue choices shape the narrative in your mind, something that the game itself can’t measure for you.
For example: is Conway laconic or chatty? Terse with strangers or open and friendly? More inclined to crack a joke and move on or curiously pursue an intriguing statement? Or any of the above, depending on the situation? The array of options is always there, with nothing locked off even if your earlier choices render them technically untrue. Within a very short while I had a strong sense of who I thought Conway was, and almost always found a way to play him accordingly.
While Conway is the nominal lead, KRZ features frequent perspective flips that see you controlling one of his companions, often within the same scene. Sometimes you’ll even be given a dialogue choice determining who leads a conversation. This is, to the best of my knowledge, a feature unique to KRZ. |Image credit:Cardboard Computer
Kentucky Route Zero is, of course, melancholy and spooky and surreal and weird and moody and also has really great music, so it taking pride of place makes sheer mathematical sense, even if I still feel like giving a GOTY badge to a less-than-half-finished game is unusual and probably shouldn’t happen too often. But I’m glad that Kentucky Route Zero got to be an exception. Of course, I have the benefit of knowing something the RPS staffers of yore didn’t, namely: what happens next. And oh, there’s some good stuff still to come, past denizens of the treehouse. I hope you managed to keep up.
