Bored out of my mind. Could barely make it through act 1. Complete waste of time.

Unlike anything I've seen or played, gentle and sublime. Play it if you are curious, and be patient, it will be rewarded.

Kentucky Route Zero didn't feel like a game to me. Not in the slightest. If anything, it felt more like a conversation between John Steinbeck, Charles Bukowski, Kurt Vonnegut, David Lynch, and Alejandro Jodorowsky, all talking about what would be the perfect Americana story.

It connected with me immensely because I know these people. I know the locations. I went to college with some of these people. The audio engineers that cling on to the old analog ways of recording. The know-it-all tinkerers that do a little bit of gardening and a little bit of home repair. The old university professors who dedicated their lives to their craft, only to see it washed away by the ever present tide of change. So it affected me deeply to see those type of characters represented so vividly here.

The game's plot, while a bit loose, is told very simply: A man is making a delivery of antiques to a house. He gets lost on the way and tries to get directions. What results is a psychedelic, haunting character study of strange and down-and-out characters shambling through the surreal Americana of Kentucky. There are real life locations, but their imagery is twisted, like something out of a grey dream.

There isn't much gameplay to this. Just walk around and press A, and choose from a million different dialogue options. How you interact and choose affects the story and ending, of course, but that's not super important, in my opinion. What is important is what you get from the story. How do you take in all the symbolism? How do you decipher what is real and what is a dream? How do you even understand what the hell is even going on?

The game has an unbelievable soundtrack as well. Ben Babbit, LA musician and frequent collaborator of Angel Olsen and Weyes Blood, fills the monochromatic palette with intensely colorful music, whether it's the Brian Eno-esque ambience of the main score, or the traditional bluegrass and folk of tracks like This World is Not My Home, What Would You Give, and You've Got To Walk That Lonesome Valley. The Junebug song is one of my favorite moments in all of gaming, Ben Babbit's voice manipulated to sound like a operatic female, resulting in a song that reminded me of some of Beach House's most dreamy work.

All in all, this is an unforgettable game, if you can even call it a game. This is more of a psychedelic movie than anything else, probably comparable to Robert Altman's 3 Women or a Jim Jarmusch movie. Is it for everyone? Absolutely not. But if you are patient and can appreciate taking things slow, you'll like this game. Check it out if you have the time.