Road 96 is one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever experienced, and it’s a game that shouldn’t be skipped by anyone.

Road 96 came out on PC in August and PS5 in April, but it took the longest to pass me. When I finally got my hands on the game, I couldn’t put it down. The way the story is crafted coupled with a very likeable cast is breathtaking in so many ways.

Road 96
Developer: DigixArt
Platforms: PCs, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation (rated on PS5) and Xbox
Publication date: August 2021 PC, April 2022 for PlayStation

Road 96 takes place over several episodes between characters. Each episode starts by selecting a “missing teen” who will have different amounts of money, stamina and also a certain distance from the destination. The goal is to get the teenager to freedom along Road 96, but there are many obstacles along the way and your decisions drastically change the route.

The story itself takes place as teenagers want to cross Road 96 to reach freedom. Meanwhile, a tyrannical government tries to keep them in the country and any prisoners who try to leave are sent to camps. There is a clear divide between the two parties that are active, and generally a very good message for political reasoning. I should point out that the game is set in the 90s and was created by French developers, so this is a general political message. It doesn’t really push a party aside, it just has a clear message to vote and be heard, or the “fighting for change” aspect. Which I really liked.

If your character runs out of stamina, you will pass out during the journey and be arrested, only to be sent to a camp and the story ends for that character. Having money helps your journey immensely by making some shortcuts available. Money also makes it easier to get help from other characters; plus food/drinks to buy are also helpful. This is a nice perk, because if you don’t spend your time getting a job, or lose money gambling, you may just be locked out of some aspects of the journey.

Along the way you will meet different characters from across the spectrum of stories. Some characters are super friendly, some not so friendly, and others can stab you in the back if you help them. It’s a careful journey to take, as every dialogue has an effect on the story and your journey. Some lines of dialogue are blunt and have a direct impact on the overall story, but most lines of dialogue only affect the specific playthrough you’re on.

This was the most interesting aspect of the game for me. The overall game is a point-and-click style adventure. Most of these games have a simple circle where if you make the “wrong choice” you will end up back on the same road again. With Road 96, you can literally accidentally deviate from the intended path and end several chapters abruptly. What’s nice is that the further you get into the game, the more danger you realize these characters are in.

For example, early in the game, my first character met a taxi driver. Although the music was creepy, I didn’t think much would happen. I walked through that part, but then a second character came up to him and I learned… well…. He kills teenagers. I had no idea I was in legitimate danger during the first game, until a second character died. This meant that when I ran into him with a 3rd character, I was extremely afraid that if I said the wrong thing, he would kill that character too. I was extra careful because by this point I had built up a lot of money and stamina to take my character to the end, so I didn’t want to lose any of it.

This is what I found so fascinating about the game. There are areas where there is legitimate danger. The more you play, the more you learn about these characters, giving you a “I don’t want to be here” feeling. You become very careful to choose wise words, and simple tasks become quite stressful. Do I want to do that? No. But will it keep me alive? Yes. I mean, at some point late in the game (for me) I had a character who was doing extremely well and I got to a hotel with the taxi parked in front of it. My first thought was immediately “oh shit!” because of the experience I had with other characters.

To make it even more interesting is the fact that no one will play the game the same. Each character you choose takes different routes to Road 96, and there are only a few “key moments” in the game that will play out anyway. Everything else is up to you to discover, and so many things are easily missed if you’re not paying attention. It’s important to unravel characters’ backstories and explore the world, so it’s important to replay the game to see if you can get more details.

As much as I enjoyed the story and message(s), I found the undertone to be the weakest aspect of the game. The general overarching story of a totalitarian government is kind of pushed aside for each individual survival story. As a result, the larger plot arc stretches a little thin.

Why is the current leader so bad? We do not know. And the game constantly tells you that this person wins votes (unless you do some key moves), but almost every adult you meet in the game doesn’t like him. There’s some doubt that the secondary leader will be just as bad, but on certain endings, the winner turns out to be just an angel and abolishes everything with an almost entirely happy ending.

The game could have gone deeper into this to give the primary ‘villain’ a thoughtful reasoning or human-like nature that leaves you wondering which side to take. Instead, it’s just the bad guy is bad, the good guy is good.

The good news is that the overall story takes a backseat to the individual stories of the characters on this journey. Each character feels like they are going on a unique adventure, and everything you do plays a part in their stories. These smaller stories really help connect with the gameplay and keep you interested until the very end. It also complicates certain easy decisions. For example, a character to choose freedom, or return and help another character, this decision could be easy based on how you played so far, or very difficult about certain things you know.

While the overall game play is easy to choose your dialogue adventure, there are several key moments with action scenes or minigames that you will encounter as well. While these games are quite fun, they can also take place at really tense moments. Like trying to win a game of air hockey so you can impress a character and the score comes down to the very last goal.

Visuals are also a real bright spot of the game. The game’s visuals are not super high-tech, ultra-realistic graphics. Instead, the character models are more like a generation-old sims game, and that’s not a bad thing. The art style makes up for it because they didn’t try to make it look realistic and instead the world has this older game art style. I loved looking at everything and exploring the world, and the art style itself fitted in really well with the game’s 90s theme. I also feel that by not spending as much time filling in little details everywhere, the team could spend a lot more time on character routes and the story itself.

The overall presentation is the absolutely awesome soundtrack in the game. Each character has a song that plays when they are in an area, and I thought that was neat. The overall theme song for the game also really draws you in and fits the story well. Each song is so well crafted to bring out a specific vibe of whatever is happening, or what could possibly happen, adding a totally new layer to the characters’ story. It’s one of the few games where I looked up the soundtrack and added it to my library.