Road 96: Mile 0 Review (Xbox One)

STAFF REVIEW of Road 96: Mile 0 (Xbox One)

Wednesday, April 5, 2023.
by Peggy Doyle

In April of 2022 I was introduced to a game that has still left an impression on me almost a year later, Road 96. It was an ever evolving, story-driven game inspired by the likes of Tarantino, The Coen Brothers and Bong Joon-ho. It’s often one of the first games I will recommend when someone asks me for hidden gem games. The soundtrack was perfect and it’s still frequently on my listening rotation. When I had heard that they were making prequel, Road 96: Mile 0, I couldn’t wait to play it and see what the story was before we met Zoe and the other teens from the first game. Prequels are tricky at times since you already know where the story goes. Let’s see if lightning strikes twice for the developers at French studio DigixArt and the publishers, Ravenscourt.

Fair warning, I will compare Road 96: Mile 0 to the original Road 96 frequently in this review. It is almost impossible to separate them completely.

Road 96: Mile 0 reunites us with one of the first games protagonists, Zoe, well before she decides to flee her home. She lives in a beautiful and affluent neighbourhood of White Sands; her father is the Minister of Oil and she has a privileged life. She is friends with Kaito, who lives in a less wealthy area and whose parents work in the community of White Sands. They are unlikely friends with vastly different backgrounds and beliefs. They challenge each other and through conversations and spending time together, open each others eyes to alternative opinions on the world around them.

Kaito wasn’t in Road 96 but is from another of DigixArt’s games, Lost In Harmony. Born in the polluted capital city of Petra (Colton City), he lost his girlfriend to cancer at age 15. Kaito believes this is because of the pollution and the lack of proper medicine for poor citizens. He harbours a deep resentment and anger towards the government. When his parents moved to White Sands to give him a better life, all he sees is corruption and can’t wait to get a job and get away.

Since Zoe was born into wealth, she doesn’t know any different life and believes the government is doing their best to help their people. As Zoe and Kaito learn more about the world around them, they both come to new realizations of what they want and what they should do. These are not mutually exclusive, nor do the two teens agree with one another on their plans.

Road 96: Mile 0 opens in a very different game play style than Road 96. You are tossed into what can only be described as a psychedelic skateboarding ride. You are not given any explanation as to why, only that you have to collect gems and avoid hazards. This was a very strange opening compared to the first game and really caught me off guard. This gameplay style is taken from the game Lost in Harmony where we get Kaito from. These dreamlike rides help to fill in some of the story and are replayable. There is a scoring system in place like that of most rhythm games and there are achievements related to these scores as well. There are some narrative choices available as you move through the Rides, and they are linked to strong moments in the minds of Zoe and Kaito. You often switch between them in the middle of the Rides. They tackle things like their fears, joys, and trauma. The music choices in each Ride blend well into helping determine the feelings involved. Some of these are very dark moments and impacted me just as much as the traditional game play and story.

As jarring as the opening sequence was, it came to an abrupt end and I was back into the gameplay I was more familiar with from Road 96. Walking, talking, making narrative choices in dialogue. Finding clues, solving mysteries and the collectible cassette tapes are back as well. Each character has a morality meter if you can call it that. The decisions you make when playing as either Zoe of Kaito will move the bar one way or the other solidifying where the story will eventually take you. Although you alternated between Zoe and Kaito, Road 96: Mile 0 is primarily Zoe’s story and you spend most of your time as her. Her main story line is trying to figure out what Kaito is up to. Trying to determine what he’s hiding and if he is involved with the Black Brigades (a terrorist group from Road 96). Of course, like all political stories, whether you believe them to be good or bad depends on what side you are on.

Because there are so many options in how to choose to move through the story, there are multiple endings. In fact, there are more than 30 endings. There are no details on all of them as the developers want you to play and discover them for yourself. Multiple playthroughs will be required to discover everything in the story. One thing that appears to be missing from Mile 0 is the ability to skip to certain chapters to just replay them and find missing collectibles. You can replay any of the Ride sections at any time, but the only way to play the story sections appears to be if you start a full new playthrough.

Along your journey you see familiar characters from Road 96, including the famous news anchor, Sonya, who owns a home in White Sands. Other cameos are substantial, others are a blink and miss them occurrence. It was nice to see some familiar faces to pull the two games together. I can’t really name them for fear of ruining potential storylines, but all your favourites are likely there. The old is well rounded out with the new, a highlight for me was a particular bratty rich kid.

The biggest complaint I have about Mile 0 is the mechanics of the game, the same complaint I had in Road 96. It feels like a game prioritized for PC. Using an analog stick to select dialogue feels slow and cumbersome and even more frustrating when trying to do some of the minigames, like playing your trombone or delivering newspapers. It didn’t ruin the game for me, but I do feel like there are better ways to select and move around in games than this. Perhaps assigning to buttons instead. The other complaint is the Ride sequences, just being almost impossible for me to get S rankings on them (needed for achievements). That’s a personal issue though, based on age and reflexes and skill, nothing that the developers can change. Speaking of the Ride sections though, after multiple ‘fails’ you get the option to skip the dream sequence without affecting the story. So, if you’re not interested in these sequences, or just not as skilled at them, you can skip by them.
Graphically, Mile 0 is a nice low poly cartoon style. While the world and environment had lots of areas to explore, it wasn’t too large as to feel overwhelming.

The star of the game for me, and no surprise to those who know me, is the soundtrack. I was absolutely blown away by the Road 96 soundtrack and Mile 0 managed to somehow meet my lofty expectations. From the moment I heard that The Midnight was involved, I knew it would be fantastic. Their song “Land Locked Heart” is undeniably a hit. I am so glad it released before the game, and it was already on my frequent played lists before the game launched. Other than The Midnight, it was lovely to hear some local French talent on the soundtrack. Arslan Elbar is featured numerous times. Each song has a very distinct feel emotionally and when I hear them now, I can see the Ride sequence from the game in my mind. These Rides are the emotional breaks between chapters and very impactful. I still prefer the Road 96 soundtrack for its nostalgic road trip feel to me, but both are on my favourites list now and I’d encourage you to check them out even if you don’t play the games.

Road 96: Mile 0 was deceptively dark. Over the 6-8 hrs it takes to play one run through, you’ll see the world through two different sets of eyes. It’s very political, and how you play will inherently be skewed based on your personal choices and beliefs. While I knew where the story would eventually end up since we meet Zoe in Road 96, how I got there took a few turns I was definitely not expecting. What I thought was the backstory was more emotional and complicated than I originally thought.

I played through the story three times before writing this and will play a few more to see additional details for sure. If you only play through once, you are shorting yourself from finding out more of the world of Petria. Road 96 was one of my favourite indie games of last year as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, and although Mile 0 doesn’t hit me in the same way (I think that is often the case with prequels), it’s a solid game and brought new elements and stories to a world I already loved. It’s clear that DigixArt loves this world and the characters, and I hope we will see more of them in the future.

**Road 96: Mile 0 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**

Overall: 8.0 / 10
Gameplay: 7.5 / 10
Visuals: 8.0 / 10
Sound: 10.0 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of Road 96: Mile 0 (Xbox One)

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