Road 96
Adventure game portrays teens as a potent political force.
Road 96
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this game.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Road 96 is a downloadable adventure game with political themes for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PCs. It tells the story of a series of teens who have run away from home and are trying to cross the border to escape a democratic country teetering on the brink of despotism. Some aspects of the regime -- police brutality, manipulative newscasts, and government corruption -- are clearly meant to make players think of similar events that have taken place within the United States. Choices within dialogue force players to think about whether to use the power of democracy or revolutionary activism (including violence) to enact change, and young people are portrayed as the country's hope for the future. As teen runaways, players must decide what they're willing to do to make it to the border, choosing whether to help other kids and how far they're willing to go to survive and escape. Opportunity exists for characters to exhibit important character strengths such as compassion, integrity, and perseverance, but they can also make questionable decisions, such as stealing and lying. Some choices will lead to the player character's death, at which point the game simply moves on to the next teen runaway. There are no do-overs. The developers avoid overt violence, but characters get shot off-screen and innocents can be seen crushed by rocks from a distance in a newscast. Dialogue includes a small amount of light profanity and occasional references to the subject of sex, but nothing explicit. Parents should also note that one scene sees the player's teen avatar drinking a strong cocktail and passing out in a bar.
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What’s It About?
ROAD 96 provides a scary look at a mirror world in which a democratically elected leader of an America-like country is slowly transforming the nation into an authoritarian state. Progressive-minded teens who see no future for themselves in this land are running away from home, determined to trudge, hitchhike, bus, or even steal cars to get themselves to the border and escape the regime. Players take on the roles of several of these resolute kids, making decisions about what to do when they meet other teens on the run, stumbling upon dangerous thieves and psychopaths, meeting up with dangerous revolutionaries, and taking on odd jobs as a camera operator for a newswoman or a gas jockey at a service station. It's a first-person adventure game, which means your job is to choose options in dialogue and solve the occasional puzzle, such as looking for keys to rooms and lock boxes or using a magnet to maneuver a needed object through an electrified cage. But your actions carry consequences. Say the wrong thing to the scary-looking guy giving you a ride and he might kill you. Side with the revolutionaries and you may help a terrorist-like act of violence. Steal someone's money and you might affect how they treat you. At the heart of the story is the idea that, though it may not seem like it, young people have political will and power, whether that means simply vandalizing campaign posters or helping another kid hack into a computer. All the while, you'll likely find yourself asking: Is running away going to solve anything?
Is It Any Good?
It's a little rough around the edges, but this adventure is a thought-provoking tale of teens caught in a country ravaged by political forces over which they feel they have no control. Of course, that's the clever twist in Road 96. Every action these teens take -- whether it's stealing from a business owner or helping another kid escape custody from brutal border control officers -- is an act of political will, and their choices have rippling effects that impact the lives of other people they come into contact with. Players get a good sense of the consequences of their actions via the game's clever use of multiple protagonists. Not only does this allow for a sense of real peril -- any of these kids can die, and the game will simply move on to the next one -- but players also get to see how a handful of important non-player characters are gradually influenced by their encounters with the teen runaways. The message is clear: Kids are potent agents of personal and political change, and they wield more power than they might think.
But this bold narrative ambition would have been better served by a slightly bigger budget. Road 96 isn't ugly, but it does suffer dull textures and has plenty of reused assets (you'll see the same gas cans, spoiled hamburgers, and rusted-out cars over and over again throughout your adventure). And most of the puzzles and mini-games are pretty basic, including a Pong-clone, an air hockey table, and a shell game with plastic cups. These simplistic distractions do little to enhance the experience and at times even serve to break the player's sense of immersion, detracting from the tension and danger that slowly builds through each teen's story. Get past these minor disruptions, though, and you're bound to grow close to Road 96's cast of desperate characters as you follow their worrisome tales to conclusions both uplifting and tragic.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about screen time. It generally takes around an hour to get through one teen's story in Road 96, which makes for a good break point. Do you think stepping away from the game after each teen's story might allow you process what happened to them in a more thorough way?
What sort of advantages might an interactive medium that puts players in the roles of others have over other media in getting people to think about timely ideas from a different perspective?
Did you choose to make your characters display character strengths such as compassion, integrity, and perseverance, or did you decide to have the teens behave in more selfish and isolated ways? What led you to these choices?
Game Details
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Windows
- Pricing structure: Paid ($19.99)
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Ravenscourt
- Release date: April 14, 2022
- Genre: Adventure
- Topics: Activism, Friendship
- Character Strengths: Compassion, Integrity, Perseverance
- ESRB rating: T for Drug Reference, Language, Mild Blood, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence
- Last updated: April 19, 2022
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