Kentucky Route Zero: The Game That Defined (And Was Defined By) A Decade

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away.

- Hayden Dingman

It’s said that Velvet Underground’s first album sold dismally, but that everyone who bought a copy later started a band. Kentucky Route Zero didn’t sell quite so poorly, but it’s destined to take up a similar position in the game industry’s psyche I think. It defined a decade, and was in turn defined by that decade.

I hadn’t touched it until this week. The first chapter released in 2013, before I got paid to write about games. I naively thought, “I’ll play it when it’s done.” Now I’m seven years older and coming up on my seventh anniversary at PCWorld. Everything has changed. Kentucky Route Zero has finally finished.

And oh, what a journey.

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

Coming to Kentucky Route Zero this late is fascinating because there’s a sense of familiarity that I doubt existed in 2013. It is still one of the strangest and most ambitious games I’ve ever played—and yet slightly less so, because like the Velvet Underground, Kentucky Route Zero has gone on to inform so much that came after. Even if you’ve never played a single moment of it, you’ve probably played something made by someone who did.

Disco Elysium (go.pcworld.com/dsel) seems like an obvious heir, its prosaic and dreamlike writing very reminiscent of Kentucky Route Zero. Where the Water Tastes Like Wine (go.pcworld.com/wine) and its Americana folklore and fascination with the open road, that’s another. Inkle’s games (go.pcworld. com/inkl), and the idea that lots of small choices are more important than a few massive ones. Celeste (go.pcworld.com/ celt), and how it handles conversations. And the list goes on, a list that includes Night in the Woods (go.pcworld.com/ntwd), Paratopic, maybe even Control (go.pcworld.com/cntl).