Life is a Highway.
Road 96 sees you taking on the roles of six missing teens, each venturing north to reach a border that might end in giving them their freedom, or being caught and hauled away to a labor camp, never to see the light of day again. Along the journey, you’ll either get picked up by a cab driver that isn’t quite right in the head, to a pair of bumbling criminals always talking about that next big score. Road 96 is also a game that plays around with the world’s current political climate, creating a nation where many of its civilians feel unsafe and untrusting of their government, especially one being controlled by a ruthless dictator. Your choices will carve the path you’ll take to get to that border and those choices will impact not just the ending, but the characters and world around you.
The structure of Road 96 is something along the lines of a rogue-like survival game, where each teen will have a starting amount of energy and cash. Each choice you’ll make is fueled by at least one of those resources as calling a cab will cost you money but possibly a chance to rest, earning back some much-needed energy, or you may need to use any money you have on hand to buy food after you’ve used up energy by performing particular actions. There are countless ways to earn or come across at least a little bit of cash, sometimes finding a random scratch ticket, stealing it when someone isn’t looking, or sometimes being given it if you ask nicely.
While you can recover energy by resting, you can also find cardboard structures to rest in, rent an RV for the night or deliver some champagne to a VIP at a rundown hotel in exchange for a goodnight's rest in an actual bed. Having too little energy or cash may result in choosing certain paths that reward some of that resource back, forcing you into choosing a certain method of travel in the meanwhile. Thankfully, each new run allows you to choose from one of three teens, each with a random allotment of cash, energy, and how far away from the border they are, which can result in fewer or more stops along the way.
Road 96 takes place in the mid-’90s in the fictional land of Petria, and it also takes place ten years after a major event that placed the nation where it is today. This event is constantly referenced and is the driving force for where each character you’ll meet is at that point on your journey. The game also takes place months before a major election between the current dictator in Tyrak or the runner-up who might possibly change things in Flores; however, we never get to hear her platform, but the game makes it out as if she is the better option. You can sway the election based on some dialogue choices, which is something you are not really told you can do.
Each run will place your teen on their path to escape to the border and will need to rely on the assistance of strangers to make it there. There are seven core NPCs that you’ll meet, or at least, those that influence the story. It is possible to be picked up by random people that are merely there for one-and-done scenarios, but it doesn’t happen that often. I have to say, I was impressed by the whole cast, from a shady cab driver who is obsessed with dinosaurs, a truck driver who is in love with the woman on the other side of his CB radio, to a young tech-savvy boy who is aiding a contingent of rebels who are plotting to overturn the upcoming election. There are a lot of paths crossed and the connections between several members of the cast are honestly some of the best moments in the game. It’s also worth pointing out that some decisions will change how those connections play out, so you’ll want to ensure you make choices that can benefit both you and them when you can.
As you’ll make your way north, the scenarios that you find yourself in take place across a narrative timeline, so certain days as one missing teen may result in a scenario you’ll play later from another perspective. For example, When I met Alex, the young boy who has a handle on technology and gadgets, he needed me to adjust some antennas to check out a camera feed from a business that was being broken into. When I did that, I could see Stan and Mitch, the bumbling criminals, on the camera feed. Later on, as another teen, I helped Stan and Mitch break into that very business, only realizing this when I was in the security office and noticed the same camera feeds in front of me that were present back in Alex’s van. This situation happens a few times where you’ll be on the other side of an event running in parallel to another run or at least hear about a previous teen that someone had met; it’s a very cool feeling.
Each run should take you about an hour, and certain methods of travel will dictate when you meet certain characters. Taking a cab will always have you be picked up by Happy Taxi, whereas hitchhiking will result in being a bit more random as you might be picked up by John the truck driver, or possibly by Alex or Fanny, a cop that is dealing with her own adoptive son out on the road as well as dealing with the untrusting society that is all around her. In fact, there is a scene on a bus that sells this very scenario, and depending on your choices, turns the conversation between everyone on the bus into a very intense encounter. You also might take one of those methods and end up in certain locations like a gas station, restaurant, or truck stop. Some locations are scripted in certain ways, such as meeting a character by the name of Zoe, who was easily my favorite of the cast and more or less the main character of the story. While you’ll meet several other characters that are attempting to reach the border, Zoe has a lot more going on to influence that and her arc is damn impressive.
Each run has you starting during a taping of the Sonya show, a Fox News-like broadcast that is very pro-Tyrak. During these tapings, she will recap certain events from your previous run, ensuring that your efforts have made the news in some way. Sonya isn’t just a TV personality you’ll see on these broadcasts, as she will be present in several of the game’s best moments. She is also very interesting to talk to given she is very pro-Tyrak, meaning you can either mention your disdain for him and likely have her kick you out of her limo, or just play the system and agree alongside her to stay on the road in comfort a bit longer. She’s also a character that is the focus of several other storylines, making her involvement even more interesting and pivotal.
All seven NPCs have a percentage system in the bottom right of the main map, showing you the percentage of their scenarios you’ve encountered so far. During my first full playthrough, I reach 100% on Zoe as well as saw everything that Stan and Mitch were up to. Overall, for the rest, I hovered more or less around 60-70%. Road 96 also has a newgame+ that allows you to hopefully see those additional scenes, but sadly, it is very possible to miss them all over again since there isn’t anything programmed to prioritize scenes you haven’t seen yet, you’ll simply have to remember to make different choices at key moments to push the story in other ways.
LIkely my favorite aspect of Road 96 was just how different my options became each time I reached the border. My first time there I was instructed to climb into the back of a truck, and while I didn’t have a snack to throw off the scent of a police dog, I managed to climb through a trap door in the truck, barely escaping in time. The next chance I had I was presented with the option to either enlist as a guard and use that privilege to get across the border or hire a coyote to get me to freedom, and thankfully, I had the cash for the latter. Other options presented themselves as well, although, your six character’s ending is a bit more scripted; however, your choices throughout the game will change a lot of what happens within that moment.
When you're visiting truck stops or sitting in the back of a cab or taking the bus, the gameplay of Road 96 is that of dialogue choices and a bit of point and click. The point and click stuff is pretty self-explanatory but there are small twists to that formula. During certain situations, you’ll be granted a few abilities, such as being able to pick a lock, hack a safe, or gain better odds on certain choices. Encountering the scenarios that grant you these perks are a bit more random than I’d like, but it does give you something to work on when you jump into newgame+
Dialogue choices are pretty straightforward but also align with a few of the political choices of either supporting one of the presidential candidates or being undecided, which does give sway to how the election ends up going, or at least it did in both of my playthroughs. I will say that the biggest issue I have with the dialogue choices is the way the dialogue boxes move around with the person offering them up. I lost track of how many times I selected the wrong option because of this, spiraling my conversation in ways I simply did not want. I would love to see a patch either lock them in place or have buttons represent those choices. Given that the game has been out for quite a while on PC and Switch, I am convinced this issue won’t be addressed.
Occasionally, some characters you talk to or encounter will offer up a minigame to play. These range from simple things such as tuning a radio and placing batteries into a stereo, a shoot-out on a dark highway, playing soccer, or a game of competitive air hockey. The more “game” like events are fun, if a bit hollow in features, but are still pleasantly enjoyable, with some of them allowing you to keep replaying them. On my second playthrough, I found even more, making me really come to terms with just how little I had actually seen on my first go-around.
If there is one thing people are going to notice about Road 96 right from the jump is just how low poly and cartoony its visuals are. While some of the lack of detail and model work can be less impressive than I would have liked, especially in some of the NPCs and continuously used backgrounds, I found the cartoony aspect to really work in contrast to the deep political themes at play as it caused a lot of the darker and more mature themes to not feel too heavy and is something I truly respected about the game. While I would have preferred slightly improved character models, and especially better animations, I can understand that not being a factor given how small the team is.
While I certainly see similarities between this and Life is Strange, it is the musical choices that really gave me those kinds of vibes given the synth-rock and pop flavors given to the soundtrack. One of the collectibles to find in the game are a series of cassettes that feature the game’s music, and despite my two full playthroughs under my belt, I am still missing a few cassettes to track down. When it comes to the voice acting, there really isn’t a bad voice among the cast when you realize what they were shooting for. At first, I wasn’t sold on some voices but ended up really enjoying what everyone brought to the table, especially John and Zoe, who were my favorite of the cast.
Despite the simplicity of much of its visuals, I really enjoyed my time hitchhiking and being introduced to the cast of interesting personalities present here. The variety in events, mini-games, and choices pulled me in, making me care about the moments this game had on offer, wondering what I would find on my next run. Interacting with each of the cast, making choices that affected them as much as myself, made me really take pause to choose what I would pick as my reply, even if the jittery prompts moving around would often result in the wrong response being clicked. Still, Road 96 is a game I vastly enjoyed, an adventure I was fully invested in, and a story and collection of characters that I adored. It’s certainly rough around the edges but was still a damn impressive journey nonetheless.
Developer - DigixArt. Publisher - DigixArt, Ravenscourt, Koch Media, Plug In Digital. Released - April 14th, 2022. (August 16th, 2021 for Switch and PC) Available On - Xbox One/SeriesX/S, PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch, Windows. Rated - (T) Drug Reference, Violence, Use of Alcohol/Tobacco, Suggestive Themes, Mild Blood, and Language. Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.