Kentucky Route Zero
Kentucky Route Zero
Sorti initialement le 7 janvier 2013 avant de se déployer jusqu'en 2020, Kentucky Route Zero est une aventure narrative en point-and-click développée par le studio indépendant Cardboard Computer, fondé par Jake Elliott et Tamas Kemenczy. Publié notamment par Annapurna Interactive, Cardboard Computer et Netflix, le titre propose une expérience de réalisme magique centrée sur une autoroute secrète nichée dans les grottes du Kentucky. Le joueur y incarne Conway, un chauffeur de camion âgé tentant d'effectuer une ultime livraison pour une boutique d'antiquités en faillite, croisant la route de personnages marginaux tels qu'une réparatrice de téléviseurs hantée, un enfant accompagné d'un aigle géant ou encore des musiciens robots, le tout sous le regard d'une compagnie d'électricité omnipotente.
S'éloignant des codes classiques du genre, le jeu délaisse les énigmes complexes et les défis d'adresse pour privilégier la caractérisation, l'atmosphère et la narration, structurée en cinq actes. Son esthétique singulière, rendue via le moteur Unity, puise ses inspirations dans le théâtre, le cinéma et l'art électronique expérimental autant que dans l'histoire du jeu vidéo. La bande-son, composée d'une partition électronique originale signée Ben Babbitt et d'hymnes bluegrass interprétés par The Bedquilt Ramblers, accompagne une écriture explorant les thèmes de la dette, des destins brisés et de la quête de communauté. Disponible sur PC (Windows, Mac, Linux), iOS et Android, le jeu est proposé au tarif de 22,99 euros.
Côté réception, l'accueil critique a été très favorable, reflété par des scores agrégés de 81 sur Metacritic et 86 sur OpenCritic. La presse a salué une œuvre « mélancolique, trop réelle, mais in fine porteuse d'espoir » (USgamer) et une « aventure magique près de dix ans dans la fabrication, tout aussi bonne qu'on l'a dit, sinon plus » (PCWorld). En revanche, une partie des joueurs exprime des réserves : certains estiment qu'il ne s'agit « pas vraiment d'un jeu » mais davantage d'un roman visuel à l'intrigue peu engageante, tandis que d'autres jugent l'approche artistique trop subjective, la jugeant « vide et superficielle ». À l'inverse, des avis positifs sur Steam soulignent un « chef-d'œuvre, non pas sans faute, mais tellement marquant », malgré une narration parfois ardue à suivre qui pousse à chercher des clés de lecture externes.
Médias
Avis des critiques et joueurs
Critiques de la Presse (Metacritic)
« Melancholic, all too real, but in the end, hopeful, Kentucky Route Zero is a reflection of what it's like to survive as an everyday American. It's an adventure concerned not just with our country's endemic issues, but with the people at the center and their undying perseverance in the face of economic cruelty. As an adventure game, it is perhaps one of the finest games ever written, ebbing and flowing between the perspectives of not just other characters, but the lens we see it through. All considered as the sum of its many, equally magnificent parts, Kentucky Route Zero is a game I won't forget for a long, long time. »
« A magical adventure almost a decade in the making, Kentucky Route Zero is every bit as good as you've heard—and maybe more. »
« Quotation forthcoming. »
« Cardboard's work is an incredibly rich, complex, personal experience, but for which it is very easy to feel empathy, since it manages to tell from the popular and human perspective greater events of each of us. A piece of video game history. »
« By the final cut to black, we're looking forward to making more connections like the ones we find here, before we take our final turn off Interstate 65 and fall into the Zero's dark, enveloping embrace. [Issue#342, p.102] »
« This special Kickstarter project, which spanned five episodes over seven years, comes to an end. This point-and-click sequence is bursting at the seams with creativity and strange happenings. There is no better writing in video games. »
« A compelling story about rural America that is both surreal and thoughtful, if a little disorienting. »
« Kentucky Route Zero offers a unique narrative but somewhat frustrating experience that must be enjoyed at a slow pace. »
Avis des Joueurs (Metacritic)
« Personally I don't get why this so critically acclaimed. It's not really a game at all. It's a visual novel with some point and click aspects. The plot isn't that great, doesn't go anywhere or have much of a coherent story. Yes you could spend about an hour thinking about the meaning of it afterwards, but that's not really what gaming is about. The devs behind the game are art students, who were clearly more interested in making something that should be an arthouse film than a game. It's not unplayable or the worst thing out there but I just don't get the critics who believe this is the best thing ever. »
« If the art relies too much on the viewer to interpret its meaning, it is too subjective, therefore becomes empty and shallow. »
« First off, this is not a game. It's an interactive novel. There is no skill, or luck, or strategy. There's certainly no goals to achieve — which is very much the point. This is a story about people whose lives have been deprived of purpose by the corporate takeover and deindustrialization of the rural American south. It's a southern Gothic magic realist ghost story in which the characters do find a semblance of meaning and community in their broken lives, but not in the ways they expect. I think the experience is enhanced if you go in knowing that Conway will never make that delivery which is the game's inciting incident, that none of the characters will find what they are nominally looking for, and that relationships and authenticity matter far, far more than extrinsic goals. Video games are often fantasies of control but this is very much a story about finding meaning in a world that we cannot control, a world that has left us behind. It didn't totally work for me; I found it a bit too surreal and elliptical to be really emotionally resonant. The sudden shifts of setting and the introductions of whole new casts of characters from one chapter to the next threw me off. But the world that it conjures still lingers in my memory three years later and I might even replay it one day. »
« Inconsequential, drab, and unsubstantial story that hopes people will misread its disorganized ramblings as something deeper that it is. »
« I can't say that I understand all the hype about this game. For being an interactive narrative ("walking simulator"), there's no coherent plot to speak of, and the vast majority of it is stream-of-consciousness rambling that makes no sense at all. Along the journey of these poorly-established characters, expect to deal with scenes revolving around the life cycles of bats, extinct Pueblo peoples, whiskey factories, feral horses, incomplete text-based video games, arcane phone help lines, a modern art exhibit, an incredibly long and boring scene from a play, a small restaurant's unusual menu, and more. None of it connects to anything. None of it makes sense. The "story" has no real ending, the characters have no real resolution. Your choices are, of course, meaningless. Even the art is crude and low-poly. There's some good voice acting, though. If you're into trippy art experiments that you have to work to find meaning in, you may enjoy this. I did not. »
« Who ever says the game is boring, then this is not for you. I guess this isn't your tastes in game. The game is a journey. A journey which we create ourselves. People with the taste for a minimalist story telling will enjoy it. If you want something else, buy that rather than berating all the negativity which you couldn't enjoy. The game has its beauty. If you don't like it, don't buy it then. »
« Choices don't matter, there are no mechanics that make it a 'game', and the characters are mostly boring and uninteresting. Most of the early reviews really loved the first two Acts, but the only thing that they had going for them was that they were short. The first thing that I would call a plot point doesn't happen until chapter 3, and even then is pretty weak. Ugh. I finished this game, and regret wasting my time. Watch the Zero Punctuation review, I did after I played it, and my feelings were aptly summed up there. Avoid. »
« An absolute slog to get through and way too artsy for me. I would rather read a good book. While I understood most of the themes the characters did not do it for me. You really have to be in synch with the writers to get something out of this and I clearly wasn't. »
