Road 96 Reviews
On the whole, though, Road 96 remains a genuinely innovative game. It’s approach to storytelling and narrative branching is unique. Despite a few relatively minor issues, playing Road 96 is an engaging experience. The moral ambiguity of its characters and their choices feel true to life, even if the game’s conceit is a little less compelling.
A small amount of texture pop-in aside, a very strong visual style makes Road 96 a delight to look at. Striking character art enunciates facial features, while environments and background vistas look beautiful. With a great soundtrack to boot, the game has an incredibly strong style. When the characters you meet along the way are just as striking in their conversations and political and social beliefs, Road 96 succeeds at weaving multiple tales through the lives of teens that just want to get the hell out.
Road 96 is a special title well worth checking out for anyone with an itch for adventure.
Road 96 is a road trip that doesn't feel as procedural as it makes itself out to be, which is a compliment to its unpredictability and strong writing. Player dialogue decisions and actions shape the outcome of the teenage protagonists attempting to flee to the border and the wonderful characters you'll meet along the way. Varied and fun scenarios keep the game feeling fresh and engaging from one scene to the next. However, on Nintendo Switch myriad technical problems hold the game back from reaching the full potential that its fantastic premise and characters create. It's a journey worth taking, but unless you're willing to put up with its shortcomings, it's one that I'd recommend you play elsewhere.
Road 96 offers a non-Manichean adventure on the roads, looking for a brighter future on the other side of the border. Despite some uneven mini-games and some brutal cuts in its narration, the game still offers some interesting cast and landscapes, carried by a strong soundtrack with delightful 90's vibes.
Review in French | Read full review
Road 96 offers a non-Manichean adventure on the roads, looking for a brighter future on the other side of the border. Despite some uneven mini-games and some brutal cuts in its narration, the game still offers some interesting cast and landscapes, carried by a strong soundtrack with delightful 90's vibes. Too bad this Switch port suffers from such a big downgrade once grabbed on the go.
Review in French | Read full review
Road 96 is a difficult experience to frame, and perhaps lacks the emotional impact of Valiant Hearts or the artistic delicacy of 11-11 Memories Retold. However, some ideas remain worthy of being discovered, such as the courage to give the role of the protagonists to a small number of co-stars and the messing up of their stories along the lines of Pulp Fiction.
Review in Italian | Read full review
As it stands, “Road 96” feels like a preview of a better future in which another game grafts more sophistication onto its sturdy template.
Thankfully, 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.
Adventure game lovers will have a good time with Road 96, though. The cast is a lot of fun, and it has enough twists and turns to make for an entertaining play. It’s definitely unique, and I hope that DigixArt continues experimenting with the genre.
Road 96 takes us to a country ruled by a totalitarian dictator. While you run looking for a better life, you will try to change Petria's fate with your decisions. A title that is definetely worth playing.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
As such, Road 96 is incredible. It was an indie hit on its release for PC and Switch last year, and that success has easily converted over to other home console platforms. This is a fascinating, compelling, and immensely replayable experience that is certainly worth exploring.
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.
Clocking in one whole run of about six episodes took me seven hours. After dabbling in New Game+ for a little bit to complete my relationship bars and discover all of the collectibles, I expect to invest another seven hours. 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.
Road 96 is an intriguing on-the-go experience with interesting characters and a well crafted sense of adventure.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Strong themes and good writing can't save the game from itself. Procedural-generation ruins what would otherwise be a great narrative adventure.
Road 96 is a procedural narrative adventure that stretches across different protagonists and several miles. Travel through Petria’s corrupted landscape and make decisions that will determine your freedom and survival, and the fate of your country.
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.
Overall Road 96 really surprised me, as I'm getting older, purely story driven games don't grab my interest as easily.
Making your way from point A to point B with a lot of personal exploration along the way.