Kentucky Route Zero (2013)

Kentucky Route Zero - First Impressions

After getting through the first act and intermission of the story, I felt several conflicted feelings over whether or not this was a great work of art in the making, or if I was in for a pretentious slowly paced drawl that would tear at my mind. I realized a day later while I was mulling over this, when my feelings had simmered, when the poor mood I was in wore off, that I was projecting my stressed self onto the work, rather than judging it fairly.

That sounds like a whole lot of nothing about the game, but what I'm trying to paint a picture of is that KRZ brought out all of my feelings at once, a visually stimulating piece filled with genuine themes set up to explore that sucked me in and cleared out all of the muck I was feeling as I was playing through the first hour.

Yeah, most games' perspectives can be completely dependent on the mood of the person giving them, but to the extent I fought over myself and realizing who was at fault means a lot more generally than just being miffed about something because "bad mood." Kentucky Route Zero seems to be a great time that gets your mind running and fully reflects on the user, attaching to your anxieties and stresses while it weaves a surreal fantastical tale of decaying feelings of midwest America.

Looking forward to coming back to it.

Bought this years ago but wanted to wait until all episodes were out before I started playing it. That was a mistake. Wish I had played that first act and tempered my expectations. There were some cool things done with light and perspective in episode one, the occasional surprising little thing that made me smile (a floor full full of bears, a whole act that consisted of watching two dogs sleeping for a few seconds...). Overall though, this was incredibly boring. Waited all this time for Act 5 and decided to quit during Act IV.

And somehow I skipped Act 3? It's cool that can happen.

KRZ is a digital dream a computerized story an experience for stormy nights.

The languid pace, the strange characters and locations and the effortlessness in which the weirdness is accepted all make me think of dreams while playing this game. The fact it abruptly stops (ACT IV) six years after the first act was published kind of fits.

The skipping between point of views, the various narrative devices and the lack of real choice or meaningful gameplay all support this is a story being told to the player. The rich descriptions and the emotional beats all make me think of literature.

The mellow atmosphere even in face of danger, the wandering about, reminiscing and the need to get into the right headspace all make me think this game fits into long, dark sittings at home, preferably one per act.

If you like weird stuff (treated as everyday), personal tales (for people you don't really get to know) and a slow, sad overtone. go to The Zero. Maybe some day Act V will come out...