Thoughts on Kentucky Route Zero
2022-01-08
I finished Kentucky Route Zero today. Here are my unsorted thoughts. Contains spoilers.
- The ending, Act 5, is incredibly bittersweet and sad :(
- Pueblo de Nada, "The People of Nothing", was a great prelude to Act 5. I remember it best because it's the most recent interlude I played. But honestly I loved all the interludes; I loved the play, I loved the weird art exhibit in the Museum of Dwellings, I loved being in the TV studio (they actually made the video shown in-game, download the mp4 here, but be warned, it's 192 MB), the phone thing was cool but the mechanics were a little annoying, because one couldn't skip past the dude's speech.
- It's a ridiculously beautiful game in my opinion, I love the vibe. The un-anti-aliased font, the shading and texturing, the modeling, the world.
- The story was sad but the mechanics of Act 5 were a little annoying too. I loved being the cat, and the interactions that were possible... but: listening in to a conversation, and having to wait for the text to update at the speed that it does, not being able to click past it, was annoying. Also annoying was running around in circles, not knowing where to go or what to do to trigger the next phase of the story. Not a game for the impatient.
- Themes?
- Things breaking down and falling apart, but people still holding on.
- Communities dying, but with their last members hanging around, still clinging on.
- Can we make something beautiful with no hope? A question on the minds of many.
- People living where other people used to live; people living on the bones of other people.
- Horses. Not really a theme per se, but a recurring symbol. Kentucky is known for its horses – a symbol of the land itself?
- Old technology, kept functional, or at least cared about, if not cared for. Like Xanadu the computer, or Shannon's television repair shop, or the VHS collection on the Mucky Mammoth, or all of WEVP-TV.
- How capitalism ruins everything. The Consolidated Power Company feels like a primary antagonist, the Hard Times Distillery and the skeletons/Strangers like a secondary antagonist; they're the ones who finally take Conway away. The Consolidated Power Company killed the miners. The Consolidated Power Company made the town at the end of the game reliant of them, then failed them when they were needed. Their guestures of goodwill – WEVP-TV – were the result of court orders, not actual good will. Capitalism doesn't care about the people it affects.
- I've never been to Kentucky, but after this I'd like to at least check it out. I'm curious.
- I was left wanting to learn more about these people, more about Weaver Márquez and her TV jamming, more about the man who built Xanadu and the inhabitants of the Hall of the Mountain King, more about The Neighbors (I just realized that their name is also a pun), more about the Hard Times Distillery, more about Conway's fate.
Browse some of my screenshots here.
