Kentucky Route Zero

Kentucky Route Zero
Developer(s)	Cardboard Computer
Publisher(s)	Cardboard Computer
Composer(s)	Ben Babbitt
Platform(s)	Windows Mac OS X Linux
Release date(s)	January 7, 2013 (Act I) May 31, 2013 (Act II)
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Kentucky Route Zero is an indie episodic point and click adventure game, developed and published by Cardboard Computer, an independent studio consisting of Jake Elliott and Tamas Kemenczy. To acquire sufficient funding for the game, the project was first revealed on crowdfunding website Kickstarter to reach a goal of US$6,500, and successfully exceeded the goal, acquiring $8,583.^[1] It went into development and released a trailer on October 17, 2012. The game is separated into five Acts, following the narrative of a truck driver named Conway and the mysterious people he meets as he tries to cross the fictional Route Zero to deliver some products from the furniture company for which he works.

The first Act was released on January 7, 2013, and is available on the creator's website and Steam. It is also possible to buy all five acts as a bundle. The second act has since been released, with others forthcoming.

Gameplay

Kentucky Route Zero is a point and click game and contains text-based dialogue instead of vocal audio. There are no traditional puzzles or challenges, with the focus of the game being storytelling and atmosphere. The player controls Conway by clicking on the screen, either to guide him to another location, or interact with other characters and objects. The player also has the choice to choose Conway's dialogue, and occasionally the dialogue of other characters, during in-game conversations. The game is separated into various locations, which Conway can travel between using his truck. A map is shown when traveling on the road, and the player must guide the truck icon to the destination of their choosing, mostly areas where the player has been pointed or sent out to. At certain points, the player may take control of characters other than Conway, and the game has twisting, self-referential narrative.^[2]

Synopsis

Conway, a truck driver, works as a delivery man for an antique shop owned by a woman named Lysette. Being hired to make a delivery to 5 Dogwood Drive, Conway travels the roads of Kentucky with his dog to locate the address. After searching around, Conway elaborates that he is lost and stops off by an old, pitch-black gas station, "Equus Oils".

Act I

Conway arrives in the Equus Oils station and meets an old man named Joseph, who is the owner of the establishment. Joseph informs Conway that the only way to arrive at Dogwood Drive is by taking the mysterious Route Zero, and then tasks him to fix the circuit breaker to restore power in the station and use the computer to locate directions. Conway goes underneath the station and meets three people who are playing a strange game and ignore him completely. He is able to retrieve their lost die but soon notices their disappearance afterwards, clearing a way to fix the electricity. When asking Joseph about the strange people who disappeared, he suggests Conway may have been hallucinating. Conway uses the computer to locate the directions of the Márquez Farm to talk to Weaver Márquez, who has a better understanding of the roads. As Conway leaves, Joseph tells him that he loaded a TV into the back of the truck to take to Weaver. Conway drives to the Márquez residence and meets Weaver. Weaver quizzically asks Conway a number of questions and Conway finally asks her about directions to Route Zero. She has Conway set up the TV and when Conway looks into the screen, he sees the vision of a strange farm and passes out. When he wakes, Weaver informs him of her cousin Shannon who fixes TVs and gives him the directions to Route Zero, and suddenly disappears.

When arriving at the destination, Conway finds the area to actually be an abandoned mine shaft. He locates Shannon Márquez, who has been exploring the mines in search of something she has lost. Conway decides to help Shannon travel deeper into the mine, and begin toying with a PA system to test the depth and length of the tunnels. Unfortunately, the sound waves cause an eruption and a portion of the mine collapses. Conway hurts his leg, and Shannon uses a track to help them exit the mine. If the lamplight is turned off during the travel, ghostly visions of miners can be seen wandering the caves. Before exiting the mines, Shannon leaves Conway and travels a bit farther down the mine shaft, and comes across a heap of miner helmets. She comes back quickly without revealing anything. Conway and Shannon travel to Shannon's workshop, and then back to the Márquez Farm, where Shannon reveals that the Márquez family's debts have caused Weaver to flee. As Shannon attempts to fix the old TV, Conway looks in again. This time the picture of the farm begins to warp and separate, causing the screen to create an image of the opening to Route Zero and the truck driving down it, ending Act I.

Act II

Act II opens with a prelude in which Lula Chamberlain, an installation artist whose work is featured in the Kentucky Route Zero bonus content Limits & Demonstrations, receives a rejection notice from the Gaston Trust for Imagined Architecture. After reading this notice, Chamberlain sorts through a series of proposals for reclaiming spaces for purposes alternate to their current function, such as a proposal to reclaim a basketball court as a dog kennel.

Following the prelude, the focus returns to Conway, Shannon, and Conway's dog with a player-chosen name. The three arrive at a six-story building known as the Bureau of Reclaimed Spaces. In the lobby they are told that in order to receive directions to Dogwood Drive they must first obtain an ingestion notice from within the Bureau. The receptionist suggests they seek out Lula Chamberlain, currently the Bureau's senior clerk. After a series of bureaucratic misdirections, the three manage to meet with Lula. She informs them that the directions to Dogwood Drive are at an off-site storage facility within an old church. Additionally she suggests Conway should seek out Doctor Truman for treatment of his injured leg. At the storage facility Conway chats about hobbies with the caretaker of the building and listens to a prerecorded sermon on the virtue of hard work while Shannon finds the record they are seeking. As they leave the building Conway collapses from his injury, and Shannon decides their first priority should be to find Doctor Truman and obtain treatment.

Upon their return, the receptionist at the Bureau tells the group that Doctor Truman can be found at the his house off the highway. The group leaves Route Zero and goes back above ground in search of Doctor Truman. Arriving at the site, the group discovers that the doctor's house has been torn down and replaced with a museum—the Museum of Dwellings. While searching the Museum, they encounter a young boy named Ezra, who claims his brother is Julian, a giant eagle. Ezra tells them the Doctor now lives in the Forest, and offers to fly them using Julian. The group accepts and after traveling through the strange illusory forest, lands in the woods. As Conway's condition worsens, Shannon helps him continue, and finally locates Doctor Truman's house. Doctor Truman tells Conway his injury is severe but treatable, and prescribes him an anesthetic called Neurypnol TM. Act II ends as Conway succumbs to the drug, causing his vision to grow black and the walls of the house to pull away to reveal the forest beyond.

Reception

Kentucky Route Zero has received positive reviews from critics. GameSpot referred to it as being "beautiful and mysterious enough to grip you",^[3] and IGN called it "a damn fine example of what makes the medium of video games so special."^[4] PC Gamer stated that "Other adventures see you decide a character’s fate, their successes or failures. Kentucky Route Zero makes a point of asking you to describe their interior instead – and, by extension, yourself as well...A powerfully evocative and beautiful subversion of point-and-click rote, but occasionally opaque and disorienting."^[5]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun named Kentucky Route Zero Game of the Year in 2013.^[6]

References

External links

• Official site
• Cardboard Computer