Kentucky Route Zero

 PC
Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. PCWorld
    Feb 12, 2020
    100
    A magical adventure almost a decade in the making, Kentucky Route Zero is every bit as good as you've heard—and maybe more.
  2. USgamer
    Jan 27, 2020
    100
    Melancholic, all too real, but in the end, hopeful, Kentucky Route Zero is a reflection of what it's like to survive as an everyday American. It's an adventure concerned not just with our country's endemic issues, but with the people at the center and their undying perseverance in the face of economic cruelty. As an adventure game, it is perhaps one of the finest games ever written, ebbing and flowing between the perspectives of not just other characters, but the lens we see it through. All considered as the sum of its many, equally magnificent parts, Kentucky Route Zero is a game I won't forget for a long, long time.
  3. Multiplayer.it
    Feb 3, 2020
    93
    Quotation forthcoming.
  5. Everyeye.it
    Jan 31, 2020
    92
    Cardboard's work is an incredibly rich, complex, personal experience, but for which it is very easy to feel empathy, since it manages to tell from the popular and human perspective greater events of each of us. A piece of video game history.
  6. Gamer.nl
    Feb 18, 2020
    90
    This special Kickstarter project, which spanned five episodes over seven years, comes to an end. This point-and-click sequence is bursting at the seams with creativity and strange happenings. There is no better writing in video games.
  7. Edge Magazine
    Jan 30, 2020
    90
    By the final cut to black, we're looking forward to making more connections like the ones we find here, before we take our final turn off Interstate 65 and fall into the Zero's dark, enveloping embrace. [Issue#342, p.102]
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  8. PC Gamer
    Feb 12, 2020
    87
    A compelling story about rural America that is both surreal and thoughtful, if a little disorienting.
  9. 4P.de
    Feb 3, 2020
    75
    Stylistically impressive story about fates and memories. One that lacks a central theme as well as gameplay direction, though.
  10. Jeuxvideo.com
    Feb 2, 2020
    75
    Kentucky Route Zero offers a unique narrative but somewhat frustrating experience that must be enjoyed at a slow pace.
  11. CD-Action
    Feb 18, 2020
    50
    Exceptional dialogue served even in most exquisite forms (mini-games, different perspective, mixed chronology) are still not enough for the story to be compatible with this medium or to be worth telling altogether. The result is slow and difficult to ingest and sometimes even unpleasant in its archaic mechanics. [03/2020, p.54]
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Awards & Rankings

15
#15 Best PC Game of 2013

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 70 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 70
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 70
  3. Negative: 19 out of 70
  1. Mandulum
    Feb 27, 2020
    1
    Playing Kentucky Route Zero makes me feel like I'm back in high school reading a book no human actually wants to read and I'm expected toPlaying Kentucky Route Zero makes me feel like I'm back in high school reading a book no human actually wants to read and I'm expected to write an essay afterwards on the actual meaning. In this case I'm not so sure there is a deeper meaning. Kentucky Route Zero stays intriguing after the first chapter, falls off a bit during the second and third chapters then quickly loses any semblance of a coherent story.
    If I hadn't known it was such a short game I would have abandoned it after the first couple of hours. As it was, I struggled to have the desire to finish it.

    Date Completed: 2020-02-27
    Playtime: 7h (feel asleep while playing a few times)
    Enjoyment: 1/10
    Recommendation: Please, no, don't.    … Full Review »
  2. Sinestauta
    Aug 24, 2014
    10
    Even though I have only played the first two acts, I have to say that Kentucky Route Zero is one of the most wonderful gaming experiences I'veEven though I have only played the first two acts, I have to say that Kentucky Route Zero is one of the most wonderful gaming experiences I've ever had. Apparently a point-and-click graphic adventure, this is actually much closer to an interactive graphic novel. It's really good literature, or art, or however you may categorize it. Obviously, though, the "game" dimension is only the method used to put the player in the middle of the story. The difficulty is trivial, and it consists merely in finding the way through the different locations on the map and sorting out the meaning of the quest, which is but an excuse for a compelling story about lonliness, frailty and oblivion.

    Now, about the script: it's more than excellent, it's really over the scale. Whoever has written the texts in this game has obviously read a lot and written a lot, and knows who Don Delillo or Faulkner are. Very often the choice of dialogues does not have any consequence on the development of the story --- it's just meant to let the player co-author the story, add and choose the details that frame the main characters.

    You won't like this game if you're looking for shiny entertainment and action, for real-time emotions where you can prove your gaming stamina. You will love this game if you enjoy art, design, reading a good story, and obviously if adventure games were your favorite genre. It's very hard to explain how fabulously original, simple, light and complex is the graphic aspect of this game. The map interface is a great idea and the medium by which minigames find their right place into the game, creating a spiraling sensation that destroys the common notion of space as the story approaches the zero. Slowly, also the environments lose features of reality and represent in a fascinating way the tricks of immagination, irrationality, oblivion and selflessness.

    Just play the game, you won't ever forget it. Especially if you like good literature and contemporary art & design!    … Full Review »
  3. Riibiax
    Apr 4, 2020
    3
    Kentucky Route Zero is a boring animated comic book. Although the graphic design is appealing, the most interesting thing in the story is toKentucky Route Zero is a boring animated comic book. Although the graphic design is appealing, the most interesting thing in the story is to discuss with the dog Homer...
    Nothing to solve and the interaction is basic.    … Full Review »
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