Road 96: Mile 0 Preview

On March 6, 2023By Garmin Philip

Road 96: Mile 0 is a prequel to a very interesting game, the original Road 96, a game that was pretty much an experiment, combines politics with a great narrative driven road trip.

Road 96: Mile 0 brings us much more context of this interesting story, by the way, you can read our review of the original game here.

Road 96: Mile 0, this time we only bring you a preview of how little we managed to play. The game takes us deeper into context, so it is extremely important to have played the original game, to feel even more interested in this one.

This prequel is a bit simpler than the original game, I can say that the game is a bit linear (So far) and has a very limited center. Mile 0 has a little less going for it, especially since it’s a shorter experience that doesn’t seem like it’s trying to top its predecessor. Games don’t always have to be bigger – follow-ups can sometimes fail when trying to top what came before – but taking a step back is disappointing. This lack of a more tangible narrative gimmick highlights the game’s cruder elements, like its rudimentary animation and presentation that were a bit more excusable last time around.

This change, according to its creative director, has to do mainly with the approach of two established characters, Zoe and Kaito. In Road 96, the protagonist was not the focus of the game, as he was more of a vehicle to explore the many characters in his world. However, shifting the focus from supporting characters to named playable protagonists meant that the game could not support so much branching.

But hey, going back to the positive, we can say that the relationship between Zoe and Kaito has potential because their very different origins give the game a way to examine and test their opposing ideologies.

Zoe’s journey, however, has to be at least somewhat rigid in the end, as she always needs to transform into who she is on Road 96. Being a prequel gave the writers more freedom as to where they could start the journey, but that meant that the team was limited in another way: all Mile 0 finishes had to drive to the same place.

But hey, we played very little and I understand that this game has much more to offer, so I look forward to seeing you soon in our review of the game. Where if we will have played many more hours and we will have a lot of fabric to cut from. In the meantime, I keep my expectations low.