Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition

Even if the typical story-driven adventure game isn’t quite your thing, I think the overall experience is so unique that there’s a good possibility you’ll see past the style of gameplay, and still manage to see what makes this game so affecting. So give it a shot on whatever platform you have access to, you won’t be disappointed.

Kentucky Route Zero is lost in the illusive premise of the American Dream but found in the elusive dream logic of its weird, wild, and wonderful prose. Through it all are characters who conceal pain and loss with whimsical musings of hope and escape and locations engulfed in a meditative haze where brutal reality is indistinguishable from isolated reverie. At the end lies a paradox that suggests a circuitous path was the shortest course to an inevitable destination, and the assurance that Kentucky Route Zero’s seven-year voyage knew its direction all along.

Kentucky Route Zero isn’t a game for everyone, and as a piece of art it is bizarre and gives no clear answers. However, it doesn't have to, and instead allows its characters the room to breathe and push forward its themes in a way that very few games have been able to manage. Kentucky Route Zero has a finale well worth the wait, and a complete package that stands as one of the most interesting video games ever created.

Kentucky Route Zero is about America in a way that few games aspire to be and fewer still succeed at, as its deceptively quiet story gives way to something odd, sad, and brimming with humanity.

Kentucky Route Zero is oneof the most rich and captivating experiences you'll “play” this year and maybe for many years to come.

Even with a downright cavalcade of triumphs, Kentucky Route Zero’s strongest asset is its ability to redefine itself from episode to episode. The deeper your journey goes, the stranger things get, but the more they make sense too. While the game will definitely be a bit too bizarre and densely obtuse for some, this is a game unlike anything you’ve ever played before.

Kentucky Route Zero is a game for those who are happy to slowly digest the measured nuances of a text heavy, but visually stunning and thought provoking adventure. Narrative weirdness abounds but it is anchored by a cast of charming and gentle characters who you will grow to love.

Those intoxicated by the game’s dreamy brew may argue that there are no detours—that, like the Zero, you’re either on it or you’re not. If you’re anything like me and Conway, however, you’ll be somewhere in-between.

An arrestingly surreal triumph that blends point ‘n’ click and text adventures with a unique style of storytelling and gameplay that was well worth the extremely long wait.