Review of Road 96: Thousand 0 for Xbox

The Digixart studio returns with a prequel to the hit title Road 96, completely changing the course of the saga

In 2021, we received from the hand of the French studio Digixart a title called Road 96 which was pleasantly surprised. It belonged to the genre of graphic adventures but this time it mixed elements of roguelite, decision-making and survival. The game takes place in a fictional town called Petria, in 1996, ruled by a totalitarian president named Tyrak. There we controlled a series of teenagers who wanted to flee this country, meeting many interesting characters along the way. Two years later we get Road 96: Thousand 0, a prequel to the original title that tells us the story of two of the characters that appeared in the first title, Zoe and Kaito. Stay with us to find out all about this long-awaited episode of the Road 96 saga.

Zoe and Kaito, two very different friends

The plot of the title revolves around Zoe and Kaito, two teenagers who are best friends. They both live in the town of Petria, but they have totally opposite lives. On one side we have Zoe, a young woman who is the oil minister’s daughter and lives a comfortable life in the city’s wealthiest neighborhood, right next to the authoritarian President Tyrak. The other protagonist is Kaito, a young man who delivers newspapers and lives with his parents in the poor part of town. Our two protagonists will find themselves in an abandoned construction that serves as a base and where various mini-games will take place.

. The only thing these two teenagers share is a traumatic past, as Zoe was abandoned by her mother and Kaito lost a great friend.

The plot of the title is good, it gives context to the first game and fleshes out the story of it, giving more details about Petria, Tyrak or the Dark Brigade. And it is that during the adventure we will have to make a series of decisions that will make us position ourselves in favor of the government or the Dark Brigade (a supposed terrorist organization against the government). This decision-making is interesting, but it doesn’t really affect the development of the game. The only major plot decision occurs at the end of the game, but the others are pretty much anecdotal.

Another aspect that I didn’t like too much about this episode is that the plot tries to give it an overly comic and childish tone. The first game perfectly mixed seriousness and comedy, but in this Route 96: Thousand 0 important situations or problems are treated in a very childish and not serious way.

Good music in a rotten kingdom

If Road 96: Mille 0 has changed its tone in a very obvious way at the level of the plot, much more has changed if we talk about its gameplay. And it is that if in the previous episode we found an adventure with touches of roguelite and survival, now we find a graphic adventure where the central axis of the title are some phases of musical platform. Yes, you heard right. In this title, many situations (some of them very important) are resolved with a phase in which our characters automatically advance through psychedelic environments while quite lively music plays, while we dodge various obstacles. These phases are really fun, but personally I think it was not a good decision to make them so important. And it is that there are situations like the one where we have to infiltrate a mansion, which could have been a good stealth section giving variety to the title, but it is resolved with a musical phase.

By removing these phases, we end up with a classic graphic adventure, with decision-making, puzzles and many mini-games. This part is fine without too much fanfare. The puzzles are good and some of the minigames are great fun too, although some are recycled from the first game. Although this part is fine, it is a pity that this title is not as original as the first opus, completely removing this roguelite and survival aspect from the formula.. It is also worth mentioning that on some occasions I encountered bugs that prevented me from advancing in the adventure, and which were resolved by loading the last checkpoint. The duration of the title is around 5-6 hours, increasing by a few hours if we decide to get all the collectibles.

Petria, a rotten kingdom, but with many colors

The graphic and technical aspect of Road 96: Mile 0 is quite good. For example, Petria’s sets are very beautiful, full of colors and details that give them a very good level

. The musical phases are also an audiovisual delight. The scenarios we go through in these phases are magnificent and will leave us speechless. Additionally, the music blends very well with these scenarios, changing in time with the melody, which causes it to affect the difficulty as well. On the other hand, the characters are not as well worked as the decorations. The faces of the characters in the game are expressionless and poorly detailed. The game was played on a Series X and it runs pretty well, I didn’t notice any framerate drops or graphical issues. The game is powered by the Unity engine.

If the soundtrack of the game sticks very well and is very good, the voices are also at a very good level. The voices of the title are dubbed in English and are of an excellent level, with an excellent cast of actors who do an excellent job. Road 96: Mille 0 is fully translated into Spanish, just like the first opus. Eventually, audiovisually, this prequel is far superior to the original title, and is at a high level.

Route 96 Findings: Mile 0

Road 96: Thousand 0 expands on the lore and story of the original title, but strays too far from what worked before. Change the tone, now more childish, and even the structure of the game. The original title was highly praised due to its originality and blend of graphic adventure, roguelite, and survival. Here all this originality is lost, and it becomes a very linear adventure. It’s true that the musical phases are really very good, but they could perfectly have been an extra of the video game. It’s fun meeting characters that appeared in Road 96, as well as making decisions that seem to affect the story, but it really doesn’t change anything. This prequel is recommended to fans of the first title, even if like me they will be somewhat disappointed, because apart from the audiovisual aspect, this one is inferior in everything.