Road 96

Road 96 expertly replicates the thrills and trepidations of classic road trip stories. Its most obvious strength is its unpredictability, which comes from a combination of randomly arranged scenes, eclectic characters and unexpected mini-games. But behind that lies some highly cultured narrative design that weaves the disparate elements together into an impressive whole.

Road 96’s procedurally generated scenarios make each playthrough unique and yet manage to string together and become a rich, interwoven story that has heart. Because no two trips are the same, your experience will be uniquely yours and dependent on the choices you make. Regardless of what happens, each journey down its winding roads is an enjoyable ride of emotions, laughs, and surprises that is sure to please.

Road 96 weaves a colorful and deeply unique tale that never ceases to engage.

It might be a stretch to call it a piece of work on par with that of some of the most-acclaimed film directors of the modern age, but Road 96 is an incredible adventure game that succeeds thanks to a strong narrative, a superb cast of characters, one of the year’s best soundtracks and its unique procedurally-generated approach that might see you coming back after the initial eight hours or so, just to see what could possibly be on any other routes. Everyone will walk out of Petria (if lucky) with their own unique stories to tell, and they’re certain to be entertaining ones.

Road 96 tells a poignant story of those trying to escape a corrupt and dangerous country through great gameplay and multiple playthroughs.

Road 96 shows that it is possible to do a "roguelike," narrative-focused story and do it well. It's a shockingly engaging and well-written game with likeable characters. It's sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying, and sometimes thought-provoking, but no matter what, it never gets boring. Each setback or revelation made me eager to see the next, and my ending felt like a satisfying resolution to the plot that I'd been building. If there were ever a game that defined, "It's the journey, not the destination," it's Road 96, and if you're a fan of quirky, narrative-driven games, then this is well worth a shot.

Road 96 becomes, thanks to its fine writing and its ability to make you think and reflect, into one of the best independent video games of 2021. An excellent journey of encounters with your ideals and, above all, with those of others.

Road 96 is an experience that you will remember in a few years if you let yourself be absorbed by its world. His first few bars may be confusing, but as the minutes go by and the puzzles begin to fit together, you determine what he wants to tell and how straightforward his message is. All this outlined with a cast of charismatic characters written in a fantastic way.

Road 96 is a nice revelation. The slow start gives the wrong impression of a game similar to many recent narrative adventures: well written, but without that peculiar something that can make it shine. Instead, its formula based on the repetition of the paths and on the procedurality of the encounters proved to be a great strength in the long run, capable of adding depth to the game and distinguishing it from its (valid) predecessors. More than this, it's the perfect game for summertime: a good song on the radio, the long road ahead of us, sunglasses on and a future where plenty of choices await.

Just like a solid road trip, Road 96 is filled with ups and downs. As you strive to survive Petria’s worst roadblocks, you’ll find yourself making defining decisions. Even if the world of Petria isn’t as defined, the characters more than make up for the long, empty stretches of road. Road 96 is game that makes you think long and hard about both the journey and the destination.

It could be argued it’s a little pricey for a game that can be quite short… so maybe wait for a sale, but if you like storytelling then you will likely enjoy this title.

Road 96 offers a unique style and storytelling that the gaming industry desperately needs right now. I worry that this one will float under many people’s radar as it’s by no means an edge-of-your-seat story with larger-than-life actors. This is a chill game with cozy vibes mixed with a little bit of social unrest to shake things up a bit. Conflict! At any rate, if you have the need for this sort of title in your life, Road 96 scratches the itch well.

Though not entirely successful as a broad narrative experience, Road 96 presents a series of compelling individual character studies whose offbeat sense of humor and heart make for a rewarding road trip.

Developer Digixart has crafted a thoughtful look at what it’s like to live in tumultuous circumstances, and how it can affect people emotionally. It’s sadly prescient of the world we actually live in, and maybe that’s why Road 96’s message of survival and perseverance make the impact it does, at least the first time around.

More than ever the trip is more important than the destination in Road 96, a game that works thanks to its stylish artistic direction, good writing, and some gameplay that stirs and spice up the narration.

Overall Road 96 really surprised me, as I’m getting older, purely story driven games don’t grab my interest as easily. However, putting my headphones on and getting taken on this wonderful journey, that is made all the more better by the heart-warming soundtrack that coincides perfectly with Road 96, took my breath away. The only gripe I have is that later on the game can get too easy, however, I learned to just sit back and enjoy my time with these wonderful characters. I was laughing, upset, and sometimes even scared while I was playing. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Road 96.

One of the great things about the game is that you can keep on playing it until you get through the storylines of all of the main characters. The game is replayable to the point where you can experiment with different kinds of pro-revolutionary or pro-moderate behaviors. But it doesn’t judge you on the choices you make. It only makes clear that your choices matter, and your road to hell can be paved with good intentions.

Much like the real world, everyone’s hopes and dreams are different, and it’s this uniqueness that makes them so undeniably beautiful. It’s a poetic struggle, and stopping to appreciate the instances of silence on a road filled with tragedy and heartbreak helps Road 96 feel like something I’ve never played before. Road 96 feels like an experience created by a studio that understands the fragility of the world we exist in, seeking to project these issues onto a fictional world where comparing them with our own is all too easy. Subtlety isn’t the objective here, and by pulling no punches, this game manages to say something well worth listening to.

Perhaps it is difficult to explain and understand where the strengths of the Road 96 concept lie, but we can assure you that we are facing a very good game that makes the most of its curious narrative exercise, one in which the linearity of a cinematic story is combined with the procedural nature of a 'choose your own adventure', all this while it is played with making decisions that help to build a plot that we feel as our own, although perhaps not so much. At times the game's history seems too on track for that player's agency to matter, at least that's the feeling it gets, and between that and the fictional disambiguation, which makes it fall into multiple genre clichés that prevent it getting wet in the topics it deals with, subtracts points from a work that is otherwise the most interesting that has been published this year.

Road 96 is a brilliant and clever take on choose-your-own-adventure game. Thanks to its complex, but coherent narrative which works on multiple runs, Digixart succeeds in telling the story of pride, revolution and hope through intimate moments and an interesting cast of characters.

Certainly Road 96 isn't a game for the masses, it's a bit of a niche. But this does not mean that it cannot please those who want to try something new and special. If you like compelling and captivating stories, backstories and slightly daring adventures, if you love the fact that every choice made has a weight on the unfolding of events, then it is a title that you could and should try. It is certainly an experience different from many others that in the end they all look a bit alike.

Road 96 is a special title well worth checking out for anyone with an itch for adventure. Its replayability may be limited, but for its budget price tag, this is one narrative-driven, decision-based adventure that almost completely delivers on its ambitious vision for the genre.

Road 96 is a fascinating and frequently tense adventure that manages to keep its story on track despite the odd bump in the road.

The randomizing order of narrative sections mixed with the more traditional choice-based elements of Road 96 made for a compelling experience. Adding in wacky but ultimately human characters really fleshed out the world of Petria and gave some moral dilemmas weight. The occasional mini-games were also enjoyable to break up the dialogue. If you are looking for a narrative adventure that deviates a bit off the normal path, Road 96 is definitely a trip you should consider embarking on.

Varied road trip with memorable encounters and lots of emotions.

The official description of Road 96 promises “thousands of roads across the authoritarian nation of Petria.” One might think that this is a truly non-linear game with a highly replayable campaign, but in reality you’ll get one full playthrough, with maybe a smidge more. Still, this playthrough, despite some flaws in logic and overall simplicity of the game, will bring you joy and a dozen awesome songs for your playlist.

Road 96 is an intriguing on-the-go experience with interesting characters and a well crafted sense of adventure.

Quotation forthcoming.

The icing on the cake: the whole thing is accompanied by a very nice artistic direction and a nice soundtrack (repetitive in the long run). A great success.

The beauty of Road 96 isn’t that it’s thematically or mechanically well-executed, because it’s sometimes not. Every so often, you’ll hit a rough patch that just doesn’t jive and jars you out of your immersion. Sometimes that’s mechanical, other times a character will act against their established motivations. I think that can be forgiven, but there will be some who can’t move past the awkward moments. Yet, I can’t help but feel entranced by Road 96’s framework; the depiction of a journey as being a bunch of moments. Moments where you dig into a character’s psyche or just have fun playing air hockey. It’s lightweight, effective, and I can’t think of another place where it’s this well-executed. If you’re willing to stomach the rough patches and politics, there’s a rich game within. One that explores how people affect and are affected by the world. Personally, I think it’s worth the trip.

Toothless as political commentary, and with its, supposedly, big focus on choice being almost non-existent, it would be alright to assume that this isn't a big recommendation - and yet it is. Digixart's anti-fascist indie might not be as good it thinks when it comes to politics, and the choose-your-own-adventure layer under it all is paper-thin at best, but simply as an experience, as a road trip across a beautiful land, filled with interesting (to say the least) characters, yes, this is one of the best indies that have been released this past month, warts and all. Its replay value is, unfortunately, very low, but do yourself a favour, and try it out when you get the chance. Road 96 is a flawed but undoubtedly memorable journey.

Road 96’s story is very interactive and all of our choices have consequences that can be very small or completely change what’s going to happen. Because of that, the replayability is immense. However, the texture quality is bad and gameplay-wise, Road 96 is nothing more than a walking simulator. So you better be in for the story!

Road 96 tells a political story through short but intense adventures with fascinating characters. Your choices shape the story and that ambitious set-up works surprisingly well.

Even with some messy execution on its political themes, Road 96 succeeds at capturing a fractious journey on the road and the turmoil of modern American politics. A deeper exploration of Petria’s history may give more context to the game’s narrative of taking change of your own destiny. But without this background, it ends up oversimplifying its premise by positing that the only barrier to equity and justice is a strongman in a suit. In reality, injustice runs far deeper.

Road 96 is, ultimately, a successful adventure, which, however, never manages to get to the bottom, limiting itself to exposing its vision in the most didactic way possible.

Road 96‘s mesmerizing landscapes, unique characters and chilled soundtrack will allow players to kick back and enjoy some really good storytelling in a world that feels strangely familiar to many.

Road 96 is an emotional character-driven game that is unfortunately marred by heavy-handed attempts to evoke real-world politics. It is still very much an enjoyable experience with fun mini-games, a beautiful visual style and soundtrack, along with the interesting mechanic of having to make the trip to the border multiple times. It’s upsetting that the game loses itself when it tries to tackle politics when it really should have focused more on the relationships between the characters and their journeys on the road. Despite this, it was still great fun to play the whole way through.

Road 96 sets out to ask hard questions such as "when is violence the right response to a despotic regime?" and "is voting alone enough to fix a broken system?". But by the end, it never quite manages to answer those questions. While its politics take center stage, it's actually Road 96's interpersonal drama that I came away most fond of.

The execution can be uneven, but in all of Road 96's wild ambition there is a touch of genius. This doesn't feel like the endpoint of all these ideas, but the marking out of a route forward. It's one we'd love to see explored further. [Issue#362, p.102]

Road 96 tries to strike the right balance between randomization and the emphasis on the story and kind of succeeds at that, but fails in many other aspects, e.g. there’s no challenge here at all and your actions lack actual consequences. I was also unable to get through the new game+ without the impression that I had already experienced most of the events during my initial playthrough. [11/2021, p.44]