Kentucky Route Zero First Impressions

Act 1:

Alone in the dark, the gamer is immersed directly into an unknown environment. Even if at first sight, the game looks quite common, it isn’t. While finding ourselves in a gas station doesn’t arouse questions, the interactions with other character does as well as the scenery as the plot unveils.

At first impression, the game has a theatrical outline where it has a singular perspective where the interruptions of black screens with the white letters displaying: “Act I, Scene 1”. The fact that it is from a 3rd person perspective only emphasizes this feeling where the gamer has the impression he is a person in the audience of a theater giving a sense impersonality. This emotion is emphasized with the vague appearance of characters where the gamer has no clear detail of others.

The esthetic of the game goes along with the tone where the loneliness and depression is supported by the dark, gloomy and black and white environment. Even if we find more interactions of dialogue than the other games we have played, we still feel lonely as most of the conversations are absurd. Nothing makes sense.

The fact that the dialogue was mainly left to the gamer where we had different choices, anything that we chose didn’t affect the outcome just like in the game “Freshman Year”.

My first overall impression of the game is that it is much less realistic than any other game with not only its environment but also its situation.

 

Act 2:

As the game goes on, it becomes even more absurb. The opening scene is where there is a woman reviewing applications and the gamer continues to explore the bureau where on the third floor there are apparently bears. To continue the game, we need to obtain an ingestion card. The process of obtaining it would seem impossible as it is a vicious circle we need to overcome as to have it we need to have it initally. This may serve as  a critique of the present extensive bureaucracy.

Furthermore, the fact that the roads all have the same name is mentioned. In order for the computer to easliy file everything, all the name of the streets were named the same way which means that no one knows where anyone is which only emphasizes the absurdity of the game.

Finally, one of the major fantastical elements of this game is he hawk that takes us away into a forest. As we have traveled before in a wheel, we could see that there were figures of a feather, a nest and a birdhouse which may serve as foreshadowing elements in the plot.