“Road 96” is a choice based narrative driven game, that give the player full choice of how the story plays out. In “Road 96,” you play through the journeys of 10 teenagers trying to flee from the fictional country of Petria, which is ruled by a tyrannical president. This country is going through an election and is seeing an uprising of citizens looking for a revolution. Throughout the game you get to play through the stories of these 10 teenagers and make choices about how to get to the border, and if you do end up getting there, how you get across.
In the game there are a six recurring characters that you will see throughout each teenager’s story. You get to learn more about these characters the more you see them, and if you get to talk to them enough you can get abilities that allow you to access more choices in certain situations.
I enjoyed the game, but there were some flaws. For me, the biggest flaw of the game isn’t the game itself, but the expectations I had going into the game, for they were much higher than the game delivered. I don’t fully blame the game for this and understand that a good part of this is on me for getting my hopes up, but the way they marketed the game made it seem much more open world then the game is. The game puts you into a certain area, whether it is a party, a bar, or a gas station, and gives you the option to make a choice, but sometimes, forces you to not be able to have a say in your decision.. After that, you can walk around and choose a way to leave to get to the next area. The game, while still having a good amount of choice, has less than I thought it would.
Now for the positives of the game, which there are a lot. The soundtrack of this game is amazing, and really helps put you into the world of Petria. Another thing this game does well is world-building, and character-building. The country of Petria offers so much for players to learn about. The people you meet in this world are also very interesting and layered. The game rewards you for paying attention to what is happening around you and talking to certain characters. The last thing I want to talk about in the positives is the art style. I really enjoyed how this game looked, the world and characters have their own unique look that I really like. The game wasn’t trying to look super realistic or have the best graphics, but the world still looks great.
“Road 96” also has a lot of replay value. Just looking over the trailer I could see how much I missed through one playthrough. For the $20 price tag you are getting a game that you can put a lot of time into. Overall, I really enjoyed “Road 96” and would recommend it if you are looking for a fun narrative game with a unique world.
Mark Warren can be reached at [email protected]