Road 96 Review – GameSpew
Highway 96 might fall in need of a number of the lofty guarantees it makes about its choice-led narrative, however it hardly issues when the general image is as distinctive as this.
Let’s get this out of the best way first: Highway 96 eats, sleeps and shits politics. In the event you can’t bear the considered a recreation making you contemplate real-world conditions, this in all probability isn’t the sport for you. Certain, it’s set in a fictional nation – Petria – and offers with fictional characters. However its narrative of a corrupt political social gathering that’s driving younger individuals to illegally cross the border in quite a few harmful methods is all too actual. Maybe it’ll be the pull of proper wing versus left wing politics that may stir one thing inside you. Or perhaps it’s the plight of the individuals making an attempt to flee the nation. However one thing right here will contact a nerve. Even between the humour, over-the-top drama and schlocky characters that makes Highway 96 what it’s.
Highway 96 guarantees an “ever-evolving story” that includes “hundreds of roads”. We didn’t get that impression as we performed. Every chapter of the sport places you in control of the journey of 1 teenager making an attempt to flee the nation. Ranging from as much as 2,000 miles away, you’ll have to beg, borrow and steal your means north to achieve Petria’s border. Certain, every journey is completely different, however you’ll meet the identical faces alongside the best way. And when you do have some selections to make, they’re not as powerfully consequential as Highway 96 would have you ever consider.
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Nevertheless it doesn’t matter. This isn’t a recreation that lives or dies on the narrative selections it offers you. You could possibly take away all participant selections altogether, and Highway 96 would nonetheless carry a significant, gripping journey that you simply’d wrestle to place down. Not solely does it inform the story of the individuals you’re making an attempt to get throughout the border, it tells the story of the individuals you meet alongside the best way. There’s a handful of them, and with every journey, you’ll be taught a bit extra about them and their plight.
There’s Sonia, a information anchor and nationwide movie star. She’s maybe essentially the most annoying character to ever grace a online game, however she’s so well-written in her over-the-top, in-your-face angle that it’s arduous to thoughts. Her political leanings – or a minimum of those she holds publicly – put her on the facet of the despotic President Tyrak, nevertheless, so the characters you’re taking management of might not take too warmly to her.
Elsewhere, there’s Alex, a younger teenager with a unprecedented thoughts. His hacking abilities will come in useful, and should you’re pleasant to him and supply to assist when he wants it, he may lend you some helpful instruments. And there’s Zoe, one other teenager seeking to escape however one from a really completely different background: her father is the Minister of Oil, so she’s grown up surrounded by Tyrak’s politics, up shut and private.
Different characters embrace Fanny, a police officer, Stan and Mitch, a pair of criminals which are confusingly lovable, shady taxi driver Jarod and truck driver John. Every particular person you play as will come throughout a variety of these characters, interacting with them in several methods. Perhaps Sonia will decide you up from the facet of the highway. Or perhaps you’ll run into her at a political rally. And perhaps you’ll meet John at a truck cease, or seize a experience from him. Every time, you’ll be taught slightly extra of their story, which change into extra advanced and fascinating as the sport progresses.
A few of these encounters are full of humour, which can appear at odds with the gravitas of Highway 96‘s overarching narrative. Nevertheless it works. Chances are you’ll be making an attempt to flee an evil authorities, however there’s nonetheless time for some light-hearted enjoyable. Every journey holds one thing barely completely different: perhaps a highway chase offered like an arcade minigame. Or perhaps you’ll be tasked to shoot a pursuing automobile from the again of a truck. Or maybe you’ll merely get pleasure from a recreation of air hockey in a diner. The moment-to-moment gameplay of Highway 96 is stuffed with surprises, and it may be totally pleasant at occasions.
It’s equally devastating, too. It’s unimaginable to separate Highway 96 from the true plight of migrants making an attempt to flee their international locations, and while it doesn’t fairly present the tough actuality of it, there’s a sense of it working by the sport. Get caught making an attempt to flee, and chances are high you’ll wind up thrown in jail, possible despatched to a piece camp for the remainder of your days. And fleeing in itself is harmful. Do you sneak into the again of a truck and hope you don’t get caught? Or perhaps you need to danger your possibilities of surviving the treacherous mountain-top path? Offering you make it that far, every chapter of Highway 96 cumulates in a tense try to cross the border. It’s right here the place you’ll actually really feel the burden of your actions. Whether or not you succeed or fail is all the way down to you.
Whereas Highway 96 doesn’t have fairly the extent of freedom of alternative that it advertises, it doesn’t matter. This can be a shifting, thought-provoking journey that’s full of obscure moments, darkish comedy and characters you gained’t neglect in a rush. Its heavy political slant gained’t be for everybody, but when that doesn’t put you off, you’re in for one hell of a journey.
Highway 96 assessment – GameSpew’s rating