A piece of art made with code and a great script: Kentucky Route Zero

Kentucky Route Zero is an adventure game, I would dare to say that it is one of the most daring video games I have ever played, it is not an experience that is conventional even for the most experienced gamers out there, no, this game feels intimate, as if it were a conversation with an acquaintance who tells us stories from their point of view and puts us in the atmosphere of the moment with its details, something that the video game has tried to do since its creation is to put itself at the same level of many of the arts that already existed and I think that with Kentucky Route Zero with one of the longest Kickstarter campaigns of the platform and with a little more than 5 episodes that detail separate stories intertwined by the same character, it scales one more link so that we can call the video game art, and I find it excellent to start from an independent game that risks everything in terms of gameplay to concentrate on the ambience of its surroundings, making us go from being in a pile of code to live and feel a space with its characters in a Point-&-Click experience that modernizes the concept of adventure games.

The controls of this game are quite direct and simple so I will not extend, point and click, there will be some moments where we will be asked for something more throughout each episode but the structure could be said to be similar to Telltale games or other retro adventures of past decades, each piece of this game is focused on its story and its setting, how we relate to their characters and we discover each message in an episodic series that does not leave us on the edge of our seat every time it ends but incites a deep reflection of what we just played, Route Zero is a constant discovery of its characters but above all of ourselves, of a magical world inspired by stories as particular as those of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and films as mysterious as those of David Lynch, our truck on the night road is our companion and where we can choose various locations to travel and let the next story surprise us and this mechanics perfectly describes what this game is, a journey in the dark, as liberating as terrifying.

Each story although it has an aspect that differentiates it in each chapter shares the similarities as well as the development of the characters similar to a TV series, the main plot takes us to the side of Conway, a truck driver deliveryman in an antique store that after several years decides to retire, but not before making his last order to a distant address that has never heard of, from here the story already breathes the mystery of the strange route Zero and how apparently much of what happens here is not what it seems, the game runs along the journey of Conway along the road in which he will have to make several stops and meet a handful of characters to find the unknown address where the package must be delivered, and from the beginning the ambiguity is present and some stops will only bring us confusing messages and life lessons but the route never ceases to be interesting throughout its 5 chapters in which every moment has an ideal weight in the protagonist and the plot.

Route Zero stands out for the moments it adds, without being a title that arouses many passions among gamers, it is a game that stands out for cooking slowly, without haste, most of the first chapter are monologues of our character and some choices but still feels shocking once we finish it, perhaps its aesthetics that leaves us many unrepeatable and spectacular scenes influences how we perceive this adventure, it is a game with a very well written script that knows how to detect the moments where to put a poetry and the moments where to shut up and let the environment elevate us, it is not an experience for everyone but if you are willing to get into one of the most introspective adventures that can offer the video game here I leave you Kentucky Route Zero.

^{Image Source
1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 . 11 . 12 . 13}