Road 96: Mile 0

When I heard that the developers of Road 96 would be taking us back to the fascistic country of Petria for a prequel called Mile 0, I got excited. I loved the first game and went into this new installment expecting more tense-discussions, more hot-button issues, more conspiracy theories and maybe even a little more hitchhiking with strangers. What I certainly didn’t expect was for this politically-charged prequel to become a skateboarding game with a fair amount of rhythm mechanics tossed in. Trust me, that’s just the first of many baffling decisions made by Digixart Entertainment. This is my review of Road 96: Mile 0.

The first thing you need to know about Mile 0 is that it is a stand-alone prequel to Road 96. The second thing you need to know is that you’ll definitely want to play this adventure after completing the original’s story, as this adds a lot of context and information to what happens in that first game. And the third thing you need to know is that this prequel trades hitchhiking for skateboarding, a polarizing decision that we’ll talk more about in a few minutes.

But first what I want to do is introduce you to Zoe, who was one of the standout characters from the first game. I described her in my original review as “a bit of a kleptomaniac with a strong independent side,” and this prequel does a good job of fleshing her out as a real character. We discover that she’s a bit of a musician, loves to roller-skate, is a pretty good artist and hangs out with her friend, Kaito, in an abandoned construction site on the edge of town. Also, did I mention that she comes from a well-off family that is led by her father, the Minister of Oil?

I bring this up because Kaito has a very different upbringing. He comes from an immigrant family who are barely making ends meet, even with their slummy basement apartment. He’s feeling the effects of Petria’s authoritarian government first-hand, something that threatens to pop Zoe’s safe and comfortable bubble.

Despite the political differences, the two friends bond over movies, music, skating and rebelling, even if the two of them plan on sticking it to the man in completely different ways. There’s a playfulness early on where it’s just a couple of teenagers having fun and narrowly escaping trouble. But as we explore the city and interact with more people, it’s clear that everybody is treating Madame Zoe differently from her best friend, something that manifests in a lot of big ways before the story is over.

What you’ll quickly realize is that this game is split up into three parts – lengthy conversations, mini-game activities and then a musical skateboarding section. For example, after chatting with Kaito’s parents, you’ll take over his job delivering newspapers in what can best be described as an on-rails shoot ‘em up. After all that is done, Zoe and Kaito will skate through a fantastical stage that helps to fill in some of the story.

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Although they start out simple, a lot of these skateboard sections play out like music videos. These are big, elaborate set pieces that aren’t afraid of going over-the-top, even if that means skating up the side of a skyscraper with a King Kong-sized security guard chasing you. And that’s just one of the cool designs. The game does a good job of visually representing how each person feels and the emotions they are working on. The way the skateboarding bits are handled towards the end of the game are truly impressive. There’s more conveyed through a simple obstacle course than you could get from a ten-minute conversation. This is the reason to play Mile 0.

Unfortunately, everything outside of those skating bits left me extremely frustrated. A lot of the problems I have with the storytelling comes down to the fact that this is a prequel. The game would like you to believe that Zoe and Kaito are divided by politics, but they really aren’t. At best, Kaito is firm in his convictions and Zoe is on the fence, just waiting to be swayed one way or the other. She’s not necessarily for the authoritarian government, but as the daughter of the Minister of Oil, she’s not exactly seeking out reasons to be against it. I got the impression that she hasn’t really thought about it much, while it’s the only thing on Kaito’s mind, for obvious reasons.

The game would like you to believe that we have some control over the two friend’s political leanings, but we really don’t. Mostly because there aren’t really two sides being presented here. There’s no organic way to turn Kaito into a flag-waving patriot of the fascist government, especially given what is happening with his family. You can, in theory, push him that direction, but those decisions never make sense to his character.

This problem is only compounded with Zoe, since we already know what happens to her in Road 96. You can try to push her away from Kaito’s way of thinking all you want, but it never feels like we have any real control over her direction. Her fate is sealed. Perhaps that’s why she has such a weak political point to begin with. It’s impossible to see what’s happening to Kaito and then actively choose to have Zoe stay home and eat ice cream with her creepy security guard. The game really wants to use the political debate as a plot point, but it isn’t very interested in actually having that debate.

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I would also make the argument that the game has a natural ending point ... and then decides to keep going for another hour. You see, there comes a point where the game runs out of musical skateboarding sections and basically turns into the original Road 96. I understand that this is designed to seamlessly connect the two games, but it feels completely different from everything we played up to that point. It also leaves you with a lot of conflicted feelings about who to root for, with one of the options potentially being reprehensible. Instead of getting me excited to jump back into Road 96, the ending made the series feel dirty and unnecessarily mean-spirited.

The other big problem I ran into with Mile 0 is that it chugged along on my system, no matter what options I chose. After talking to other players, I realized that the game has a real optimization problem. The good news is that this didn’t affect the more action-packed skating sections, so a short freeze or drop in frame rate ended up not being that big of a deal. Still, this is one of those issues that will need to be addressed.

While I am frustrated by the shallow political debate, I do feel like Mile 0 is worth playing. I really enjoyed hanging out with Zoe and Kaito, and you can tell that a lot of attention has been put into making this world come to life. I also really loved the skating sections, especially the more over-the-top bits towards the end. I have every intention to go back and master each and every one of them, they are that good. Too bad the rest of the game isn’t quite up to that standard.