Shaun Munro reviews Road 96: Mile 0…
Developers DigixArt (11-11: Memories Retold) released their narrative road-trip game Road 96 in 2021 – a game that while undercut by some gratingly heavy-handed writing, made inspired use of its procedurally generated, branching narrative to deliver a diverting, character-driven adventure.
DigixArt are back now with a prequel spin-off, which though boldly ditching the previous game’s well-executed procedural elements, fails to replace them with much of real substance, ensuring Road 96: Mile 0 is an only sometimes engaging prologue.
Set shortly before the original game’s events in May 1996, Mile 0 brings us back to the fictional authoritarian nation of Petria. Players resume control of one of the first game’s principal characters, Zoe – the sheltered daughter of the Minister of Oil – alongside her less-privileged best pal Kaito, a character from DigixArt’s debut game Lost in Harmony, who is involved with the revolutionary outfit known as the Black Brigades.
Over the course of the game, with Petria’s pivotal election drawing closer and a heinous sandstorm bearing down on the city of White Sands, teens Zoe and Kaito must decide precisely where their allegiances lie – to their families and one another. After all, each has their own share of trauma to sift through; Zoe remains haunted by the departure of her mother, while Kaito is still reeling from a brutal loss he believes was caused by the regime of Petria’s tyrannical President Tyrak.
Across ten gameplay segments clocking in at around three hours, you’ll switch between Zoe and Kaito as their respective stories play out and regularly intersect. The ever-moving road trip element of Road 96 is nowhere to be seen, traded instead for a relatively linear narrative adventure set across a few small, self-contained hub areas.
Anyone keen to explore Zoe or Kaito’s neighbourhoods will surely be left disappointed by how walled-off they both feel; the overabundance of blocked paths ensure you’re guided along a very specific route. And while players can occasionally visit mission locations in any order, they soon enough circle back to the same narrative juncture. This, combined with generous fast travel options, makes Mile 0 feel considerably more on-rails than its predecessor.
Yet helping break up the fairly ho-hum exploration gameplay is the inclusion of a rhythm skateboarding mini-game; at set points in each of the game’s ten levels, you’ll have to control either Zoe or Kaito – or both – as they skate around heightened, musically-scored versions of the game’s locales while, say, escaping cops or ruminating on tough emotional decisions.
While the skating mechanics feel a bit stiff and “mobile game-y,” the surreal sights and banging music offer up a nice divergence from the otherwise not-particularly-interesting gameplay loop. Sure, it basically feels like a prototype for another game entirely, some of the finicky fail states are vaguely irritating, and I encountered some occasional glitches (like being unable to jump), but the skating levels at least lend a little added character to this title.
Other mini-games sadly aren’t quite so interesting; basic sequences where you push a child on a swing, hit nails on planks of wood, throw newspapers at unsuspecting citizens, or trace a tattoo, feel even more derived from low-effort mobile fare.
But what truly disappoints about Mile 0 is that for how much it reminds the player that choices matter, this is a staggeringly linear game with only the most superficial illusion of choice. While Zoe’s adventure is understandably set on a certain path due to the events of the first game, the precise how of her story has plenty of wiggle-room, yet Mile 0 doesn’t fill that narrative void with much nuance.
Throughout the game Zoe and Kaito both have an “uncertainty meter,” where the player’s actions will determine how committed they are to their respective causes – Zoe to her family and the Tyrak regime, and Kaito to the Black Brigades. Yet given the game’s relatively unambiguous moral throughline – Tyrak is a clear-cut villain and questioning the Brigades’ methods is about as deep as it gets – it’s fair to say that most players will plot to have both characters bite back against the regime.
Yet on my second playthrough of Mile 0 I deliberately attempted to deviate from this, having Zoe stay loyal to her family and Kaito questioning the Brigades, yet beyond some different dialogue, the story’s outcome was almost entirely the same. You’re largely shepherded along the same narrative path – a huge disappointment compared to how open Road 96 felt – and save for the final scenes of the game, everything plays out incredibly similarly. In one instance I even found myself unable to progress unless I did The Good Thing that the game so clearly wanted to me to.
As a result players who expect replay value from this game may end up feeling short-changed; unless you’re a pathological completionist, there appears to be very little merit in playing through the story more than once. As a single experience, Mile 0 is at its best when focusing on the friendship between Zoe and Kaito; the storytelling and especially the politics are extremely on-the-nose just like its predecessor, but the moments of human revelation between the two leads might make the game worthwhile enough for some.
And those who enjoyed Road 96 will at least get a kick out of the many returning characters; beyond Zoe, obnoxious GNN reporter Sonya Sanchez has a major recurring role in the game, and several others which shan’t be spoiled here.
Yet aside from hardcore fans of the previous game, it’s tough to imagine many being wholly convinced by this relatively threadbare adventure that just feels too undercooked for its own good. The road trip formula of the previous game was infinitely more fun and interesting, and this can’t really hold a candle to it.
Technically, the visuals seem marginally improved from Road 96, though even on Ultra settings on PC this is a fairly dated-looking title, where only the art direction during the delineated skating sequences truly stands out.
As for performance on the Steam Deck, it’s acceptable though not great in the pre-launch period; with the graphic menu only offering the ability to tweak brightness, you’re forced to deal with a default framerate vacillating wildly between 30 and 60fps depending on the gameplay at the time.
Aurally speaking, voiceover work from the cast is mostly acceptable though, like the original game, fairly inconsistent, unaided by some regularly wonky dialogue. The musical side of the equation however fares much better; there’s a genuinely funny, recurring parody of a cheesy bubblegum pop song, and the canny use of a certain punk banger during a skateboard chase is briefly riotous.
Road 96: Mile 0 is a classic case of a prequel that feels markedly less than what came before. You’ll see most of the content from a single three-hour playthrough, and neither some collectible gumpth nor the ability to replay the aforementioned skating sequences and improve your score will keep most hooked in for much longer.
A strictly-for-fans offering, Mile 0 offers up a disappointingly linear, middling prologue to Road 96.
Pros:
+ Compelling lead characters.
+ Skating levels are fun.
+ Great music.
+ Some decent voice acting.
Cons:
– The road trip element of the original game is sorely missed.
– Middling dialogue.
– Heavy-handed storytelling.
– Player choice is extremely superficial.
– Underwhelming visuals.
Rating: 5/10
Reviewed on PC (also available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch).
A review code was provided by the publisher.
Shaun Munro – Follow me on Twitter for more video game rambling, or e-mail me here.
