Truck Driving Simulator ‘13

Today, we’re looking at our 2013 Advent Calendar winner,Kentucky Route Zero.

If this sounds like a bland statement of fact, just think about it for a second.

But I’m also quite relieved that I didn’t have to exercise that kind of patience.

A screenshot of the Equus Oils gas station in Kentucky Route Zero, with a text banner over the image reading GOTY Revisited in bright pink letters.

But I like doing it on my terms, you know?

I initially attempted to do something a bit clever with this retrospective.

Actually, that might be a good impression to just let stand on its own merits.

Cover image for YouTube video

Most choices in this game, however, don’t directly affect anything.

But they’re the opposite of unimportant.

For example: is Conway laconic or chatty?

In a dimly-lit forest, a giant eagle looms over a group of much smaller humanoid figures, all of whom are sitting companionably on the same log the eagle is perched on.

Terse with strangers or open and friendly?

More inclined to crack a joke and move on or curiously pursue an intriguing statement?

Or any of the above, depending on the situation?

Conway and Shannon stand in the upper floor of the Márquez Farmhouse at night in an early scene from Kentucky Route Zero. The farmhouse is shown in cut-away like a doll’s house.

But I’m glad that Kentucky Route Zero got to be an exception.

And oh, there’s some good stuff still to come, past denizens of the treehouse.

I hope you managed to keep up.