Road 96 is an interactive story slash point'n'click adventure. (Or, on the PS4, move-the-pointer-and-sigh-and-click.) Don't expect high speed action, ray traced landscapes, or smooth character animations. It's janky, sometimes illogical, political, and might not be to everyone's liking.
But it's cheap - always a good thing - and it has style and atmosphere. So, why / why not?
Why...
... I bought it? Because it was cheap. And -- due to circumstances, especially my work -- I'm staying in a hotel in another Part of the Netherlands. And will be staying there for months... So, I brought my PS4 along, and plan to play a few old and new games. Yeah, I own a PS5 (it's still back home) and the PS4 isn't the latest and greatest, but there's still stuff I haven't played yet.
The Concept
You're a teen (yeah, why not, it's a little woke) and you're trying to escape the tyrannical reign of 'Tyrak' the tiran -- I mean, president, of some made-up country that resembles the US back in the 80's / 90's. Of course, you're on the run, on the road, and trying to escape to Canada. Or whatever is the promised land to the north of this fictive country Petria.
Each time you start with a new character, and you try to make your way to the border. On the way you are served mini-adventures and slices of the backgrounds of all the characters you meet. Your actions are supposed to affect gameplay, and how Petria's future looks like.
It's interesting. Although it claims to be 'procedural' al it really does is shuffle events, then serve you the selected events in a certain order for your current game. You can try to rescue as many teens (make them cross the border) during a 'game' (which spans a number of days up until Petria's next election).
If you start a new game, some events will be reordered... somewhat. I wouldn't really call it procedural, to be honest.
The Good
The characters are well defined and all different (although pretty much 'on your nose'). The artwork is nice. The stories are interesting (if a little soppy). The game oooooozes atmosphere.
The Bad
The animation is wonky, and the loading times (on a PS4) disgusting. How can a relative simple game waste so much time UNloading (yeah, it says it does that) and loading basically the same animations / levels?
It's not always clear what impact your choices in dialogues have, and sometimes your picks seem to trigger the opposite reaction of what you would expect. (Either the devs thought that this would be great and surprising gameplay, or they have a very weird logic themselves.)
The minigames are a bit boring. Some might like them, but I didn't.
Choice options / dialogue options sometimes 'move' and 'bounce' which makes it very hard to pick an option when you're pressed for time, and it caused me to click the wrong choice many a time.
The Verdict
This isn't the best game ever, and sometimes it's outright annoying, but let's be honest. I paid maybe $5 for both this game (Road 96) and the prequel (Road 96 Mile 0, I haven't played that one yet), and it's definitely worth that little bit of money.
Perhaps the best part is that a replay tells you more about each character, and yet, at the same time that's the worst part, as you may be exposed to those same, annoying elements yet again.
Road 96 Mile 0 is supposed to be similar, though shorter. Well, once I've played this one through (probably twice) I'll give that one a shot as well.
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