Road 96 is a narrative adventure game developed and published by Digix Art, and released on August 16, 2021 on PC (Steam, GoG, Humble Store and EPIC) as well as Nintendo Switch.
Road 96 places us in a fictional country called Petria. Following certain events that took place ten years ago, this country is now under the thumb of an authoritarian regime exercising massive control of its population, on all fronts (political propaganda, media, manipulation of the information, police repression, etc.) The situation has reached such a point that the population, with rare exceptions, does not even have the right to leave the country.
It was then that very many adolescents and young adults decided to try to leave the country clandestinely, either to regain their freedom or to warn other nations of the internal situation of the country.
The game therefore puts us in control of one of these people, carrying out a roadtrip across the country in order to reach Route 96, the only land passage to leave the country.
Thus, we will have to make sure that the character we are directing can reach the border, but also manage to get him to cross it. We start the road more or less far from the border (the start being random, depending on the chosen character).
The journey is made in different stages. Each stage will allow you to “live” a random event and meet certain characters. These events and characters encountered are completely random. Depending on what you do/say, your path will advance more or less quickly, as well as that of the character you meet and, even if you are separated, you can meet him again further on the road or even find him with another character than you will embody.
Once you have reached the border and passed it (or not, because you can fail!), you will have a short summary of your choices and actions, and you can choose another character to embody in order to try to make him pass the border as well.
During the adventure, you can also obtain and unlock certain objects/skills (which are linked to your progress, and therefore available on all your characters) allowing you to perform certain actions, dialogue choices, perform hacking, lockpicking, etc. .
Once a stage is completed, you must choose a method to continue your journey and reach the next stage. There are many choices: take the bus, call the taxi, hitchhike, continue on foot, or even steal a vehicle. The possible choices will be different depending on the location, your financial means and your actions.
The game thus takes place in several chapters, allowing you to save (or not!) several random characters, while helping (there too, or not!) some important characters encountered during your roadtrip.
It will not be possible to perform and complete everything in a single game. Fortunately, once the game is over, it is possible to start over in NG+, thus allowing you to keep all the unlocked bonuses (picking, etc.) as well as the progression of the characters linked to the story.
Conclusion
Road 96 is a very good narrative game. The random aspect makes each game and "journey" unique, allowing very good replayability. Without giving away anything about the story, the latter is really good and tackles many different themes, all in a cohesive and believable world.
The game ends in about 5-6h, but if you want to complete it 100%, you need about 15-20h.
