The Great Escape
Road 96: Mile 0 from developer DigixArt is a prequel to their critically acclaimed Road 96 and I never played that game. Going into prequels can be a blessing and a curse, for the blessing being that everything is new, you are experiencing the adventure and the characters at the beginning. The curse though is that players will miss various jokes or threads that tie together with the original release and I am sure I have missed some of the in-writing.
MSRP: $12.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $12.99
Mile 0 presents a grim world to players, a world that is ruled by an oppressive president. Players will control two characters who happen to be best friends, Zoe who is the daughter of a high-ranking officer in the government and as such she has a pampered life. Kaito on the other hand comes from a working-class family who lives in the slums and both friends have bonded over escaping from the nation of Petria. I liked that their friendship was portrayed as being realistic in that it shows that these best friends have disagreements over things at times.
The pairs bond was one of the biggest things I loved about Road 96: Mile 0, as I said I loved the way it was reminiscent of friendships that we all have or have had at some point in our lives. My biggest problem however is the writing in the game, it was a rollercoaster ride of emotion and not in a good way. I liken it to the way Tyler Perry’s writes his Madea movies, one moment we are laughing at some hilarity on screen and the next we are watching a scene about class inequality. This sort of thing is COMMON throughout the short jaunt that is Mile 0, while I understand the need to add some levity to super serious subjects but the way its handled here is very bluntly and it becomes off putting at times.
Gameplay in Road 96 Mile: 0 consists of minigames and musical skating sequences that illustrate a form of escapism for the duo. Other than that, it plays like a ‘Telltale’ game in that players will choose dialog options and will have to be wary about decisions because they matter and will affect the outcome of the story. The designs for the environments in the skating sequences are some of the most striking in the game. They range from mystifying to psychedelic but it’s the musical tracks that accompany these sequences that will leave the lasting impressions upon players as each of the beats are pretty dope.
Road 96: Mile 0 wasn’t a very long game at all but I mostly enjoyed what I played. As I said it’s a prequel so I know there are things that I would have appreciated more had I played the original; that being said those fans looking forward to this will find a decently developed game. No real bugs are issues other than the juggling of the tone of the game, the rollercoaster ride of emotions wasn’t necessary in my opinion.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
