Kentucky Route Zero

Kentucky Route Zero is an episodic game, which plays a lot like Sword and Sworcery, has a much different feel.



Rock Paper Shotgun has been doing a series of articles about it, including a two part interview with the creator.

I think I'm most of the way through the first part. I like the adventure sans puzzle style of the game[1], and found it had a bit more exploration than Superbrothers, even though some of it was only text.

About that text. While S&S was more of a combination of mystical wonder with a dreamlike landscape, KRZ is a lot darker. And more about death. Not death in the standard video game standpoint (skulls everywhere, ULTRA-KILL), but in the more allegorical sense, of how a place can die, as well as a person. For example:

This was done entirely in text, and has nothing to do with the plot. It's also creepy as hell without using the aforementioned trappings of foreboding that most games like to indulge in.

The music and art style help with that. The art style is that 3d textureless out-of-this-world style. For KRZ, it obscures as much as it shows, fading things in and out as you walk around. The is soaring semi-ambient music and a couple scene specific tracks.

I don't know if you can sustain a sense of foreboding through this many chapters, and having them be one hour installments in three month increments will be frustrating.

Thanks for starting this thread. I kept meaning to, but just haven't.

I LOVED the first chapter so much that I converted to the full season. I suspect that I missed a few things, so plan on playing it again soon, something I generally never, ever do. The writing and the atmosphere are absolutely wonderful.

Played the first episode so far, and it's great. The best description that comes to mind is "Another World, but without the arcade gameplay parts" (the graphics style probably has part in that impression, too)

The biggest fear now is whether the next installments can stay on the same level, yeah.

Also, kinda have to quote a bit from the patchnotes, just because:

A friend was so in love with it that he offered me the game so i could see for myself. I'm not the biggest fan of magical realism (I find Garcia Marquez really overrated), and I was kinda skeptical at first because the game didn't seem to make much sense, and I sensed a bit of pedantry when the game talked about poetry.

But then, as I went on, I felt more and more immersed in the world, the little touches made that whole surreal environment pretty believable. I loved how the player defines the background of the characters, and some of the dreamier sequences are very beautiful to look at. I wasn't sold on the artwork at first, but it definitely works, especially the way the game uses slow zooms to convey the unreality of the visions the character is having.

Chapter one is rather short though, so I'd like to know where they're heading, but that was a weird, emotional and overall very pleasant ride. It reminds me a little bit of Home with a bit more polish, and I think that like TWD the choices won't really affect the outcome but will help the feelings along the way.

Does this have a better interface than S&S? That was a game where zero effort was put into the port. Oh yes, use our click and hold method which is inferior to what point & click was doing in the 90s.

No S&S, no I will not.

I meant it the "Low puzzle adventure game with interesting visuals/music/art". It's classic point and click. If you need to interact with something, large voice bubbles appear overhead with the name of it, and icons for different actions. I haven't seen more than two. The only time you have to hold after a click is when the background scrolls, and you don't want to keep clicking to keep moving, ala Lucasarts.

Cardboard Computer released a demo of sorts, entitled "Limits and Demonstration". Its main purpose is for people to see if their aging graphics card can handle the Kentucky Route Zero engine, but only tangentially ties into the game.

Great art style. Do they have a date on steam release yet?

The insider email says they're working on it. Sounds soon-ish. They've recently moved to the Humble store, if that matters. And Amazon.com "any day now". I often forget that Amazon sells downloadable games.

I finished Act 1, but I don't think the game is for me. The pacing is so slow in some areas, which I assume is deliberate, but instead of the intended effect it just makes me annoyed. I like some magical realism, but I wasn't really able to get into the first Act. Maybe if the game gets glowing reviews I'll check out the finished product.

Cardboard Computer has done away with the ability to buy a single episode for $7, and now the only option is to buy the whole series for $25. The upside is that they're upgrading everyone who already bought the first episode for $7 to the full game for free. The say they're doing it because it'll be difficult to manage selling individual episodes on so many platforms. While I understand the reasoning, I can't help but think this will work against them. I know that I wouldn't have given it a shot if I had had to buy the whole series outright, but was happy to spend $7 on the first episode to see how I liked it, which caused me to upgrade to the entire series.

Oh yeah, I had that e-mail but didn't read it since I thought it was another receipt-type e-mail. So, disregard my last post - I guess I'm in for the long-haul now. I'm surprised the $25 pack was much more popular - it's definitely not a game for everyone and I would have thought there'd be a lot of people like me on the fence who'd be willing to shell out $7 just to see what it's about. Glad my timing was perfect on that - the game is interesting enough that I don't feel like I wasted $7 on one episode, but $25 would have been a bit much.

So it's out on Steam, and it's interesting. I got annoyed early by all the 100 Years references, which I guess is "deep magical realism" to some and "the Colombian John Grisham" to others. You can guess which camp I belong to. Anyway, I really like the art, and some of the key moves so far. Hopefully I get back in there and stick with it.

Good bye, pretender thread.

I'm amused that you can duplicate thread titles.

I have no doubt you will never use this power for evil.