50%Nintendo Switch

I wish I enjoyed this more but I just couldn't.

40%Nintendo Switch

It was really slow and more artpiece than video game. just watch it instead i guess. Love the art and idea of the Route though.

30%Linux

Almost no audio, a lot of text to read.
Dark climate.
It was sooo boring. Game is so slow – playthrough could be even 3 times shorter than it is.

The only thing I really like is very original "map traveling".

There is a "scene" which takes forever if you don't start to skipping dialogues (with skipping it took me about ~15 minutes of spamming skip button)...

I really don't recommend it to anyone. I don't understand why this game has so many positive reviews. I didn't feel like playing game, it's more being in an art gallery.
For me it isn't "point and click", instead it's kind of "read dialogue and wait". Even if you have choices, they don't matter excluding maybe few in the whole game.
Maybe the game has wrong tags in the store? I don't know.

I expected completely different thing basing (it isn't similar to Daedalic, Artifex etc.) on screenshots/description and I am really disappointed with this experience.

3/10

75%PC

This is a very strange game. I would say it's something in between a point and click adventure and an interactive movie. You control several different characters on a their journey to deliver a package to a strange place that seems to exist in another reality. And, of course, these people encounter a lot of unexplained phenomena as they move closer and closer to the end.

Kentucky Road Zero is not hard, it's a very relaxed and even meditative game. So if you are all in an abstract storyline and some bizzare situation, I totally recommend it.

20%Xbox Series X/S

A good museum piece, a good surreal arthouse and a awful game.

80%PC

A love it or hate it game through and through... and yeah, I'm one of those people who love it.

I can't pretend to know the meaning behind every little thing in this game, but in a way, it doesn't matter. While it does have clear, coherent themes, Kentucky Route Zero is at its best when it just sits back and lets the characters muse about different topics (many related to the story, I assure you). The thing I like about this is that not every conversation is profound, and that's what grounds it and makes it so human.

But the moments where the game gets profound aren't overly preachy, which in turn, makes the cast more relatable. We're drawn into Conway and Shannon's story not because they're genius philosophers, but because they're normal people who've reached a point in their lives where conversations about purpose and meaning will naturally come about. It's certainly not the pretentious shitshow I expected it to be. More characters join as you get further in, and I enjoyed their perspectives and banter.

The way I'm describing it makes it sound more like a book than a game, so let me make it clear: the game part, while limited, is important, and part of the reason I'm recommending it. I loved exploring the locations, each unique, surreal, and wonderfully atmospheric; there were several moments where I just stopped and admired the (oftentimes haunting) beauty of the scene. The dialogue system is interesting in that, it's not about figuring out which option will give you the best outcome, but more about influencing the mood of the conversation (I.E., pragmatic, poetic, etc.). Some of the more memorable parts of the game wouldn't have had the same impact without this crucial interactive element (in particular, one towards the end of ACT IV).

I hate to be one of those people that throws up their hands and goes "woops, tee-hee, no spoilers; you just gotta experience it yourself"... but Kentucky Route Zero is a game that requires that approach because it really isn't like anything else I've played. I will say though if you go into this expecting every little mystery to be wrapped up into a neat little bow at the end... well, this ain't that type of game. It's meant to be played in bursts and pondered over, and I, for one, appreciate that, though I understand it may not be for everybody.

60%Xbox One

It was aalright. Kinda boring and took forever. Story was wierd

70%PC

Act 1 was such a strong start for this game. The setting and the dialogue system were really impressive. Unfortunately it fell off hard after Act 2, the main complaint was that the dialogue dragged on for too long.

40%Xbox Series X/S

Non-gioco noiosissimo. Il voto è dato pensando all'opera come videogioco e dato che sostanzialmente manca di qualsivoglia aspetto ludico non può che essere assolutamente insufficiente. E' un peccato in quanto la grafica è splendida (molto povera tecnicamente, ma eccelsa artisticamente) e il gioco è sostanzialmente ben scritto con una "trama" narrata è interessante (o meglio lo sono gli spunti di riflessione che questi eventi al limite dell'onirico ingeneranto) e molti rimandi ad altre opere letterarie e non di assoluto valore. Il problema come detto è che, molto semplicemente, non è un videogioco, ma altro: è un'opera di narrativa interattiva dove per altro l'interazione è limitata a quasi nulla. Di contro questo essere legato ad un'interazione forzata e l'offrire una continua scelta di dialoghi multipli (sebbene generalmente ininfluenti sulla prosecuzione degli eventi) fa sì che finisca per rendere con ogni probabilità molto meno di quanto non avrebbe fatto utilizzando un altro metodo di comunicazione: con ogni probabilità un film di un paio di ore (più che sufficienti per inserire tutti gli elementi fondanti e generanti riflessione dell'opera) avrebbe valorizzato molto di più i contenuti permettendo una messa in scena più concisa (utile anche a seguire meglio i vari passaggi e link fra essi essendo il tutto molto ermetico) e focalizzata sul messaggio che l'autore vuole diffondere. Insomma un'opera affascinante, interessante sia nei temi trattati che nel modo in cui sono analizzati e bellissima esteticamente, ma che ahimé fallisce del tutto nel suo scopo principale: essere un videoGIOCO dato che come tale si presenta... come una Porsche 911 con assetto sportivo ribassato che fosse venduta come fuoristrada per la forestale.

80%Xbox Series X/S

Much less a game and more of a visual novel coupled with an interactive play. The story felt nonsensical at times but the characterization was strong and I soon became attached to the cast of quirky characters as well as haunting yet soulful soundtrack and the striking visuals.

50%Xbox Series X/S

the game is great but the glowy guys ruin the story, narrative, characters etc. just a slog when theyre around and after the plot twist

60%Xbox Series X/S

First three parts great. Lost it’s way a bit in 4, 5 was a waste of time

70%PC

Difícil descrever KRZ como um "jogo".

60%PC

Good writing and memorable moments, but a terrible pacing makes it hard to finish the game

70%Xbox Series X/S

This is by far the weirdest video game experience. Every time I thought I had a grasp on the story it would kind of shift directions and focus on someone/ something else. Gameplay is incredibly light probably less than something like Life Is Strange. There is A LOT of text to read and the max speed to read it is too slow personally. Overall I stuck with it because it was so odd and I thought the dialogues were weird too. I didn’t go back and play Act 4 again for another achievement because it was long with a lot of slow text. Music/ audio was good, graphic style was different, performance was good.

30%PC

KRZ may have been the most challenging game I've ever played to will myself to finish and truly evokes the "love it or hate it mentality." As one can see from my review score I am not one of those that fall into the love it camp.

KRZ is simply not a fun game. It isn't designed to give you an emotional experience of enjoyment or self gratification. This is purely an art game with a front end modern day text adventure, only that none of your choices really affect the world or character outcomes in the game.

KRZ released as an episodic adventure and was finally finished with it's 5th act nearly 7 years after originally coming out. I can't help but believe that experiencing the game, one slow sip at a time--like a fine wine--was the developers preferred method of consumption. The intended message of the game was lost to me in the endless dialogue trees that had no consequence, the incredibly slow, painfully boring pace of the story and characters I couldn't connect with and ultimately didn't care about. Perhaps experiencing this over the course of years, instead of days and weeks, would have awoken something that made me have some semblance of investment. As it was, going from one act quickly to the next simply made me want to get it over with all the quicker.

I will end on a positive note, and that is the surrealistic visuals combined with the minimalist soundtrack created an excellent ambience. The attention to detail for every scene, visually and audibly, is simply incredible and evokes films from Kurosawa or Fellini. It's just so unfortunate wrapped around all this is a boring text adventure where the vast majority of dialogue is seemingly meaningless.

80%Xbox Series X/S

A weird and trippy experience. You will enjoy when in the right mood. There is not much gameplay in it, feels mostly like watching a theatre play or a trippy movie. But it's interesting and well made if you are into something like this.

80%PC

Kentucky Route Zero was an absolutely wild experience from start to finish. It reminded me of old folk tales that get stranger and wilder with each retelling. The writing throughout the game was masterfully done, and I found myself wanting to read every detail there was. It's a great game overall and I can't recommend it enough if you enjoy games that are weird or have some excellent writing.

One thing that I will admit is that I did find the final act a little disappointing compared to the rest of the game but overall, it was an excellent journey and I'm glad that I experienced it. I give the game a 4 out of 5.

50%PC

More art than game, Kentucky Route Zero is probably best experienced like a gum drop -- gently and slowly savoring the taste, than quickly chewed through and consumed. The episodic delivery thus suited it well, as players could peruse and review each installment, knowing that its ending could not be yet be attained. But as a single compendium, Kentucky Route Zero piques but doesn't captivate, is interesting but not compelling, is likeable but not loved.

90%PC

https://awkwardmixture.blogspot.com/2020/09/kentucky-route-zero-ending-of-seven.html

60%Nintendo Switch

I get the love the developers put on it, but it's not a product (-not a game-) for everyone. In fact, I am not satisfied: too many names ongoing and it's easy to get lost with them not having even a clear "character image" for eye matching. This is even more clear because sometimes the choices to make are just "toughts" and no actual spoken words. During many phases the narration it's becoming too slow. But most at all, from a certain point, I would say from Act3, the dialogues are filled with nonsense and it's really tiring extract the useful info from the bs. The devs should introduce at least the possibility to color the text with a different one for every character.

80%Nintendo Switch

Excellent story, with some of the best dialog I have experienced in a game. Made me think of a Murakami novel.

Loved the visuals and pacing, and the music was great.

90%PlayStation 4

Wirklich ein ganz besonderes Spiel.

Neben den fantastischen Visuals und der surrealen Story, sind mir vor allem die Zwischen-Episoden im Gedächtnis geblieben. Sei es das Theaterstück oder das Telefongespräch (ich hab mir 40min lang alle Infos angehört. Es war toll).
Man muss sich wirklich die Zeit nehmen und drauf einlassen, aber dann ist es wirklich magisch (ich sag nur Act 3, die Bar Szene).

30%Nintendo Switch

This game knows how to set the stage, for sure. Unfortunately, I did not develop any interest in the characters or the many many stories. It just wasn't for me. It felt like eavesdropping on thousands of conversations, not being able to make sense of much because of missing context, or because everything was so... off. I was missing a reference point of "normalcy" somehow.
Maybe it all went over my head. I'll never know.
At least the aesthetics were nice.

50%Nintendo Switch

Looks and sounds cool, good writing and interesting setting, but my goodness is it slow and boring. I would rather play or read anything else I've got than this.

20%PC

I don't want to be too negative and risk offending people but I think it's safe to say that Kentucky Route Zero is, at best, a divisive game. It feels like it's an experience that people are going to either love or hate with very little middle ground in between, and the side you fall on will depend greatly on your expectations, definitions and tolerations of what even constitutes a video game these days.

KRZ is primarily a narrative driven experience. You control a variety of characters across its 5 episodes and interludes. As such a lot of the mileage that you get out of this will depend on how much you connect to the story and the characters, as there's very little else to really go on. The art style is fairly minimalist though frequently quite beautiful, while the audio is mostly restricted to ambient noise, supporting sound effects and the occasional musical highlight. There's next to no voiced dialogue to accompany the pages and pages worth of spoken dialogue and descriptive text.

For me the biggest problem in finding any enjoyment out of this comes from the lack of gameplay. There is next to none, aside from casual exploration where the game allows it, and the constant requirement from the game that you choose options to progress storylines and dialogues at nearly every opportunity. This seemed cool at first until I realised that pretty much no choice was meaningful and had no bearing on how any of the events unfolded. The exploration only ends up revealing little tidbits of information that can't be utilized in any way other than to lightly flesh out a bit of story that ultimately won't be important to the overarching narrative. Again, all of this will depend on how much you care, so if you care little of the characters nothing in the world really offers anything worth exploring.

The endless choices and their overwhelming pointlessness wore me down over time, since every character you control or interact with is done so through the same mechanism and choice, it began to blur together. I lost track of what choices I made with what character, who was saying or talking about what furthering my disconnection from the game.

By the end I simply could not care. I was bored to the back teeth of endless dry text and a story that demanded my constant interaction but with no respect for my input.

To me, this game barely qualifies as a game. I rate it as such alongside similar experiences as Cosmic Osmo or other early Cyan games where it's mostly just an interactive toy where you click on things and see how they respond before advancing to a new weird and wonderful location to do the same. There's very little here that feels like it required being a game to convey, that couldn't have been done perhaps even better in a movie or short film.

It does have interesting moments. Very intriguing ways of conveying themes and ideas, it just never utilized the medium to its strengths and resulted in one of the most boring games I've ever endured.

Like I said, it's a love it or hate it thing and those that love it will really find a lot of philosophical meat to chew on so to speak. Maybe on a different day I'd have loved this more but sadly I just did not.

80%PC

представьте если бы дэвид линч забабахал игру
представили? а теперь идите и пройдите этот мастерпис

100%PC

We played this game as a complete unit, from beginning to end. It takes some getting used to, but once you're in the groove with Kentucky Route Zero, it hits hard. It will be a different game to different players, both as a matter of how it tells its story and the stories being told. This game is many different games, but they all build toward a feeling that is recognizable to anyone. It is a story about jobs, about places, about the impermanence of things and of people, and about what absences mean. One thing I want to note is how well KY0 can set a scene. We lingered in every one, drinking in the atmosphere and feeling what was there. Incredible.

80%Nintendo Switch

8,7

70%PlayStation 4

Very unique. Very vague. Great character and story snippets. Each Act brings new interaction/gameplay elements. Act 5 had some dialog inconsistencies; as a "game" it surely does not succeed completely, though.

100%PC

I feel like summarizing or reviewing this game feels like an act of reduction that lessens what it is. I'll just say I love it a lot. I love the music - the song in act 3 is one of my favorite scenes in any media, but all the other songs are perfect, too. The running bit with the folk band playing in the slowly fading in foreground is so good & affecting even on replay, and when the game reuses it in different chapters. I love that each act has a distinct structure and modes of interaction, but still feels cohesive and informs consistent themes I love how wildly varied the interludes are - I didn't even know they existed when I played up to act III like five years ago - they didn't have to make them that well, they didn't have to make them at all. I love the surrealism, the weirdness, the repeated themes of humanity, strange people helping and trying to understand each other while they're all being taken advantage of. I feel calmer playing this game than I can remember ever being in the past. The vibe, the dialogue, the story and message, even the characters, who don't get nearly as much devoted time as they would in other games of similar intent and length, are excellent and I care deeply about them in a way that very few pieces of media have ever got me to do. I'm just rambling now. I can go on forever, I don't think we'll ever get anything quite like this game again, and I'm just really happy that it exists.

80%PC

Well, hard to judge. Outstanding visuals, artistic approach but especially the fourth act failed on me. Afterwards I just wan to finish it.

80%PC

Kentucky Route Zero is “a game about death, and what to feel about it.”

10%PC

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 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.

60%PC

So this is my first point & click game in years but I figured I would give it a try. The graphics are beautiful and the atmosphere is perfectly creepy. However despite these positives i couldn't get past the slow moving story as well as the lack of an interesting story at that.

80%Nintendo Switch

Really liked the story telling, music, differing game mechanics throughout all the acts. Writing was immaculate. Didn’t think it wrapped up great, introduced too many new characters late, didn’t resolve main plot lines. Weaver? Conway? Shannon?

60%Nintendo Switch

Was at its best when it dropped the surrealism and focused on the beautiful set pieces and chemistry of the main cast. Slow paced, gorgeous, and somber, the game was technically very very impressive, though I think playing it right after Mutazione soured my overall experience.

Act 1: 7/10
Act 2: 4/10
Act 3: 6/10
Act 4: 8/10
Act 5: 7/10

40%PC

Steam Review: https://steamcommunity.com/id/theoneb/recommended/231200
Twitch Play Through: https://www.twitch.tv/collections/YwxnMCXQAhUF2w

60%PC

Many aspects of this game are great, but wow, this **incredibly slow-paced story** is just not for me.

I have made it through to the end of Act III (spoiler-free), but I had to push myself to make it that far.

The Positives:
+ Beautiful artwork. Just love it.
+ Art style.
+ Graphics / Animation. Everything is super smooth, fluid movement, and beautifully drawn.
+ Unique perspectives. The game is played a lot like a 2D flat game, but it's in a 3D world that can slowly shift perspectives as you move around. It makes for a very cool effect.
+ Music. Some of the music was fabulous.
+ Story Telling. Some very cool mechanics used when telling the story at times; as if choices and story being told is from 3rd person; another showing the progress of time.

The Eh:
~ The sound / music. It's a very quiet game in general, but some background sounds were annoying enough multiple times I had to nearly mute the game.

The Bad:
- Story / Pace. This. This is a slow-paced, very slow-paced drama in a story I found confusing and I couldn't care anything about. It made it unbearable to continue further. Almost all of ACT III had me going "Whhyyyy?? Why are they doing this? Why am *I* playing this?"

- Slooow. Every is slow-paced in this game. The story. The characters physically moving across the screen.

- Not Explained Story. Way too much not explained. I understand they were aiming for "mysterious", but they missed it and hit "confusing" instead.

- Whaaat kind of world is this? Adding to the confusion, the player should know something about the world the game is taking place in. Way too many "Whhaaaat just happened?" moments. This doesn't add to any "mysterious appeal" to me; it adds to my confusion and frustration with the game.

Overall: This is a beautifully crafted game, but...the story. To me, the story is just far too slow-paced. It's a little like watching a movie with almost no sound or dialog. Some people love it, some don't. This one, I don't.

70%Mac

In point-and-click sidescroller Kentucky Route Zero, you play as Conway (and, later on, Shannon), an antique store devilery man, searching for the seemingly unknown Route Zero. Accompanied by your dog (in a sombrero, I might add), you travel along the 65 to seek Zero. You don't get an introduction, you don't get a starting cut-scene, the game just throws you right into the gameplay.

When I started Act I, the first thing I noticed was the lack of music. The first sounds you hear are the rumble of a car engine, followed by the screech of the car pulling into a gas station car park. In fact, throughout the game, there is no soundtrack (minus the playing of a guitar and miners singing, but boht of these are optional so not actually part of a soundtrack). Just an eerie quiet.

The graphics are cartoony but the character movement feels somewhat realistic.

There are no cinematics, no cut-scenes. All the gameplay, all the dialogue, all the EVERYTHING, is done without a loading screen.

Speaking about dialogue, the script is very well done, making you genuinely feel for the characters. With the use of optional dialogue (games like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, where the things you say could have an impact on the rest of the game) you can create stories from your characaters. For example, you create the tale of how Conway had breakfast with his boss that morning, or that Shannon's dad was allergic to dogs, thus being the reason she had never owned one, even though she had always wanted one. These little things may not matter now, but during the game it gives you a sensation of power over the outcome of the game, a sense of choice that many games are yet to accomplish.

The gameplay was fairly simple and easy to understand. The controls were all based around the power of left click. You click where you want to go on the screen and click the different to talk to people/look at things/drive elsewhere etc. However, there were some parts, like when you are in the mines that, despite uncovering some interesting things, were quite boring to navigate and I found myself with my head rested on my hand for quite some time, waiting for something to happen.

Act I of Kentucky Route Zero was a spooky, unique experience that I will continue to play, but it tripped up at trying to intrigue me with the plot and, at some points, the gameplay failed to engage me and left me (dare I say the most sinful word in all of gaming) bored. I give this game a 7/10 in a hope that the next parts will improve the game as a whole.