Kentucky Route Zero
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''Kentucky Route Zero'' is a
point-and-click adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based me ...
developed by Cardboard Computer and published by
Annapurna Interactive Annapurna Games, LLC (trade name: Annapurna Interactive) is an American video game publisher. The company is a division of Annapurna Pictures, and was founded in 2016. Notable games released by the company include ''Donut County'', ''Kentucky Rout ...
. The game was first revealed in 2011 via the
crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...
platform
Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
and is separated into five acts that were released sporadically throughout its development; the first releasing in January 2013 and the last releasing in January 2020. The game was developed for
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
,
Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
, and
macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
, with console ports for the
Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
,
PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
, and
Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
under the subtitle of "TV Edition", coinciding with the release of the final act. The game was released for Android and
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
on December 13, 2022 in partnership with
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
. ''Kentucky Route Zero'' follows the narrative of a truck driver named Conway and the strange people he meets as he tries to cross the mysterious Route Zero in
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
to make a final delivery for the antiques company for which he works. The game received acclaim for its visual art, narrative, characterization, atmosphere and themes, appearing on several best-of-the-decade lists.


Gameplay

''Kentucky Route Zero'' is a
point and click Point and click are the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse, usually the left button (''click''), or other pointing device. An example of point and cli ...
game that contains text-driven dialogue. There are no traditional puzzles or challenges, with the focus of the game being story-telling 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, between which Conway can travel 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 go. The player also takes control of other characters at certain times.


Plot

Conway, a
truck driver A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster, or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; a HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...
, 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 around
Interstate 65 in Kentucky Interstate 65 (I-65) enters the US state of Kentucky from Tennessee, south of Franklin. It passes by the major cities of Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, and Louisville before exiting the state into Indiana. Route description Along its l ...
to locate the address, accompanied by his dog, whose name is chosen by the player. After searching around, Conway elaborates that he is lost and stops off by a 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 A circuit breaker is an electrical safety device designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by an overcurrent or short circuit. Its basic function is to interrupt current flow to protect equipment and to prevent the risk ...
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
20-sided die Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...
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 A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinatio ...
. 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 spaces 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 Shaft mining or shaft sinking is the action of excavating a mine shaft from the top down, where there is initially no access to the bottom. Shallow shafts, typically sunk for civil engineering projects, differ greatly in execution method from ...
called Elkhorn Mine. 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 begins toying with a
PA system A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...
to test the depth and length of the tunnels. Unfortunately, the sound waves cause a portion of the mine to collapse. Conway injures his leg from falling rubble, and Shannon uses a track to help them travel through the mine. While exploring the mine, Shannon reveals the mine's tragic history, involving the deaths of many miners due to flooding. 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 explaining 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 had 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.


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. 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, hallucinating about Elkhorn Mine, 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 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 Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...
. 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.


Act III

The Act opens with Conway dreaming of a previous conversation he had with Lysette. The two recall a tragic event involving Charlie, Lysette's son, and Lysette informs Conway of a new delivery to be made, which will be the last delivery of Lysette's antique shop. Conway awakens from the Neurypnol TM-induced sleep at Doctor Truman's house to find his injured leg replaced with a strange skeletal limb giving off a yellow glow. After returning to the Museum of Dwellings to find it closed for the night, Conway, Shannon and Ezra resume their search for Lula Chamberlain in Conway's truck. The three are quickly stopped again, however, after the truck's engine breaks down. While Shannon calls for a tow truck, two musicians, Johnny and Junebug, pass the group on a motorcycle with a sidecar, and after some discussion decide to help the group get the truck moving again in exchange for following them to the Lower Depths bar to watch their performance. The group agrees, traveling to the Lower Depths and talking with Harry, the bartender, who gives directions back to Route Zero. After their performance, Johnny and Junebug decide to accompany Conway, Shannon and Ezra on their travels. Upon returning to Route Zero, the group comes across a large cave dominated by a rock spire, known as the Hall of the Mountain King. There they find various types of vintage electronics in many states of disrepair, including a large amount set on fire. They come across an old man named Donald who appears fixated on a grand computer project involving a "mold computer" that is enhanced by black mold growing inside it, as well as a piece of software designed as a comprehensive simulation called Xanadu. Donald claims that Lula was one of the people who designed Xanadu along with him, and that she had left a long time ago, but that there may be a way to find her using Xanadu. However, as Xanadu is not working correctly after an apparent sabotage from creatures Donald calls the Strangers, the group must travel to the Place Where the Strangers Come From in order to seek out their help. Conway and Shannon talk to the Strangers off-screen and, after returning with the solution, travel back with the group to the Hall of the Mountain King and fix Xanadu, using it to locate Lula. With Donald's help, she finds directions to Dogwood Drive, and tells the group to meet her at the Bureau of Reclaimed Spaces. After arriving at the Bureau, Conway receives Lula's directions, which involve taking a ferry from the Bureau down a river. While waiting for the ferry, Conway reveals what happened while he was talking with the Strangers - he and Shannon had gone via a hidden elevator to an underground whiskey distillery staffed by odd, indistinct glowing skeletons, identical in appearance to Conway's new leg. While at the factory, Conway is mistaken for a new hire as a shipping truck driver and coerced into taking a drink of a very expensive whiskey, and is subsequently roped into a job driving trucks for the distillery to pay it off. Act III ends with the ferry arriving.


Act IV

Act IV takes place on and around The Mucky Mammoth tugboat ferry, as it goes around the underground river known as the Echo. Conway, Shannon, Ezra, Johnny, and Junebug continue downriver on the Echo with boat captain Cate, her assistant Will, and a passenger named Clara who plays the
theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...
. They make several short stops along the way - at a floating refueling station, a
tiki bar A tiki bar is a themed drinking establishment that serves elaborate cocktails, especially rum-based mixed drinks such as the Mai Tai and Zombie cocktails. Tiki bars are aesthetically defined by their tiki culture décor which is based upon a rom ...
called the Rum Colony, a waterside telephone booth, a psychological research facility called the Radvansky Center, and a cypress-covered island rich with edible mushrooms. Cate needs to deliver a package to a telephone exchange located in a flooded train tunnel, but the tugboat cannot pass through the area without disturbing a bat sanctuary, so Conway and Shannon agree to take a dinghy to reach the exchange station. They pass by a monument to the Elkhorn Mine disaster and then through the bat sanctuary. Conway, who has been drinking and whose behavior had become increasingly erratic, sees a boat full of glowing skeletons, similar to those at the whiskey distillery, and remarks that he's been seeing them repeatedly on the river journey. He tells Shannon he wants to take the job at the distillery and pass his delivery truck on to her; she is disturbed by his plan. Shannon delivers the package to Poppy, the lone remaining exchange operator, and when she turns around to re-board the dinghy, she finds that Conway has turned completely into a skeleton, and has boarded a skiff with two other skeletons, departing with them. Shannon continues down the river alone on the dinghy and rendezvouses with the rest of the Mucky Mammoth passengers and crew at Sam & Ida's, a seafood restaurant. They eat and converse with the proprietors, then travel to a neighborhood of
houseboat A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a home. Most houseboats are not motorized as they are usually moored or kept stationary at a fixed point, and often tethered to land to provide utilities. How ...
s, where Clara gives a performance on theremin. Their last stop is the Silo of Late Reflections, where Shannon, Clara, Johnny, Junebug, and Ezra all disembark and unload Conway's truck. There is no clear path to get the truck from the Silo up to the surface; nevertheless, Shannon resolves to continue trying to make Conway's delivery to Dogwood Drive.


Act V

Act V begins after Shannon and her traveling companions have hauled all of the contents of Conway's truck to the top of the Silo of Late Reflections, which turns out to be a well at the center of an
effigy mound An effigy mound is a raised pile of earth built in the shape of a stylized animal, symbol, religious figure, human, or other figure. The Effigy Moundbuilder culture is primarily associated with the years 550-1200 CE during the Late Woodland Peri ...
in a small town. This town is the location of 5 Dogwood Drive – the house stands new and pristine, though the remaining the town was washed out by a
flash flood A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice or snow flowing o ...
that occurred while the characters were underground on Route Zero and the Echo River. The travelers meet and converse with the residents of this town, and learn about its history and landmarks, including a graveyard, a library, a waffle restaurant, a hangar and airstrip, and a public-access television station. Both the travelers and the residents weigh whether they will try to stay and rebuild the community, or leave in hopes of better lives. One of the residents, Ron, digs a grave to bury "The Neighbors", two horses that were fixtures of town life and who died in the flood. An impromptu ceremony is held in honor of the horses; town resident Nikki reads a poem, and Emily sings a song, "I'm Going That Way". The final view is of Shannon and the group having moved the items from Conway's truck into 5 Dogwood Drive, completing his delivery, and gathering in the house.


Development

In the early stages of development the developers were influenced by the works of
Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...
,
Flannery O'Connor Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer who often ...
and
David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...
. They also looked at theatre scripts for inspiration, which later helped in characterisation, dialogue, environment design and treatment of space, lighting and movement. It was developed using the
Unity game engine Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies, first announced and released in June 2005 at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a Mac OS X game engine. The engine has since been gradually extended to support a var ...
. The game was originally released for
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
,
Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
,
OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
, with console ports for the
Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
,
PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
,
Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
, published by
Annapurna Interactive Annapurna Games, LLC (trade name: Annapurna Interactive) is an American video game publisher. The company is a division of Annapurna Pictures, and was founded in 2016. Notable games released by the company include ''Donut County'', ''Kentucky Rout ...
under the subtitle of "TV Edition", coinciding with the release of the final act. The final act's update also included short interludes created during development, as well as audio captions, adjustable text scale, Steam achievements and localizations for French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Korean and Japanese.


Reception

''Kentucky Route Zero'' has received positive reviews from critics. ''
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' referred to it as being "beautiful and mysterious enough to grip you", and ''
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
'' called it "a damn fine example of what makes the medium of video games so special". ''
PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...
'' 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." ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' noted that "KRZ really is the masterpiece critics have been lauding it as for years" and that "anyone with an interest in storytelling, existential mysteries, and the way art can reflect our poor and hollowed world should play it". ''
Rock, Paper, Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' (also rendered ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun''; short ''RPS'') is a UK-based website for reporting on video games, primarily for PC. Originally launched on 13 July 2007 as an independent site, ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' was acquir ...
'' named ''Kentucky Route Zero'' game of the year in 2013. The game has been included on several best-of-the-2010s lists. It was nominated for Games For Impact at
The Game Awards 2020 The Game Awards 2020 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2020. It was produced and hosted by Geoff Keighley, and took place on December 10, 2020. The preshow ceremony was hosted by Sydnee Goodman. Unlike previous Game Awards, ...
and for the 2021
Nebula Award for Best Game Writing The Nebula Award for Best Game Writing is one of the various Nebula Awards presented each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy game writing, defined as "an interactive or playable story-d ...
.SFWA Announces the 56th Annual Nebula Award Finalists
. SFWA. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
''Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition'' was nominated for the Narrative award and won the Original Property award at the 2021 BAFTA Games Awards.


References


Further reading

*


External links

* {{Official website 2013 video games 2014 video games 2016 video games 2020 video games Annapurna Interactive games BAFTA winners (video games) Crowdfunded video games Independent Games Festival winners Indie video games Kickstarter-funded video games Linux games MacOS games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Point-and-click adventure games Single-player video games Video games about dogs Video games developed in the United States Video games set in Kentucky Windows games Xbox One games