1. I've got to say there's a lot to unpack with Kentucky Route Zero. It is both emotionally poignant and thoughtfully experimental in its design. It's a game destined to be a critics darling while still being actually good to play. Buy it now and read my last twelve points while you wait for it to download.
2. Kentucky Route Zero was released episodically but presented in its final form, it reminds me quite a bit of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath both structurally and thematically. There is an overarching narrative surrounding a group of people on a journey away from a community ravaged by unfettered industry interspersed w/ short vignettes that flesh out its setting w/o being directly related to the story being told.
3. The main narrative is a bit of a hero's quest but especially as you dig into later episodes that aspect begins to fade. You initially control the game's protagonist, Conway, in his attempt to deliver a load of antique goods to a strange, unknown address but as the world unfolds itself, you begin to control other characters, often w/in the same scene. It goes as far as to let you control both sides of a conversation at times.
4. This lends a dream-like sense of control that melds well w/ the surreal version of rural Kentucky in which the game is set. Kentucky Route Zero adds plenty of otherworldly elements but they feel more like exaggerations than outright fabrications.
5. At one point, for example, Conway injures his leg goes into debt seeking treatment. Afterwards, he says the leg doesn't
feel like it's his anymore and it turns into a skeleton leg. You don't
literally lose a body part because you can't afford
but losing a piece of your life to debt is real enough.
6. Actually, sometimes you do literally lose a body part because you can't afford medical treatment.
7. Debt in general looms large in Kentucky Route Zero, specifically debt used to entangle and exploit working people. People are driven by their debt to the local coal mine, to the power company and to the local distillery. The local distillery also happens to be housed in an old church, drawing the parallel between the use of religion and the use of substances to placate the masses.
8. Wait. Is there a Marxist theme here? Holy smokes, are they even allowed to do that in video games!? Call the police!
9. So, like I said, this is basically The Grapes of Wrath. I guess Marxist isn't quite right. Kentucky Route Zero doesn't really come at you w/ solutions but it isn't shy about showing its characters being victimized by capitalist enterprise.
10. Also in line with The Grapes of Wrath, you find the people in this strange area of Kentucky have learned to survive only by relying on each other. For however hard these people have been squeezed, you find friendly, generous faces at pretty much every turn, people who are willing to go out of their way for you just because you're a person.
11. I personally found this element comforting and comfort is much needed when exploring a world as nakedly cruel as that of Kentucky Route Zero. The kindness shown was the one thing in the game that felt concrete and like something that could exist in our own world unchanged.
12. I initially played this during the democratic primary in 2019 and wrote much of this review throughout the COVID-19 crisis and Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. As our world takes on an edge of unrealness and our own cruelties are laid bare to see, the world of Kentucky Route Zero begins to feel like less and less of an exaggeration.
13. Kentucky Route Zero is most definitely a game for people who spend time thinking about games but it never loses sight of its message and is all the more affecting for it. It uses sometimes unorthodox mechanics but always in the service of world building and telling its story. The end result is something both engaging and accessible, easy to get into but with layers of meaning rooted deeply in both gameplay in presentation. I hope you did start downloading it before you read this review and I hope you do play it.
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