Road 96: Mile 0 Reviews

awesome story as always

Game do be good But Road 96 is better

It better to play this first before the main game

Both Road 96 and Mile 0 have a very interesting and engaging storyline, and I really enjoy how the games build up tension and character development. But no matter how many times I play them, I will always judge Zoe!

Nice game, wouldnt say it was amazing but wouldnt also say it was the worst. Should you play it, yes. It was nice to see what happened before the first game and it was okay imo. The ending was kinda good somewhat. The Subway Suffers kinda mode thingy was not for me. Overall it was that bad, Zoe and Kaitos story was well done.

First off, NOT as good as the first one. The choices mattered far less (in fact, only 2 choices actually matter for the ending, so just play how you want) and the gameplay is broken up by autorunner segments that while fun are a bit annoying to S+ rank due to awkward hitboxes. The Tyrak speech run was probably the most annoying of these for me. The story was pretty good for what it was; as it was a prequel it couldn't go too off the rails from establishing the canon of the first game, but it was cool to see some old and new faces in the Road 96 world. Zoe was my favorite character in the first game, so getting more of her backstory was pretty dope and the soundtrack was great. Do I recommend it? Not at full price, but it goes on sale often and at time of writing is less than $3.50. I thought it was more than worth it at that price point with the caveat being you have to have really enjoyed the lore of Road 96. I think standalone it doesn't work as well, Kaito is kind of annoying and *SPOILER ALERT* his heel turn/betrayal in the third act came out of nowhere, and it felt a bit short. Still, I enjoyed it.

Road 96: Mile 0 takes everything great about the original and enhances it with deeper character stories, more emotional depth, and a stronger sense of connection. The narrative feels more intimate, the choices more impactful, and the art and music hit even harder. To me, it surpasses the original, offering a richer, more personal experience that stays with you long after you play. It’s a beautiful evolution of the Road 96 journey.

Weird choice to make it subway surfers/temple run-esque. But the story is good and it's road 96 so I can't complain. I love this series, can't wait for Tides of Tomorrow.

Step off a cliff from the original game. Graphics got slightly better but the level design and story feel unoriginal and uninteresting.

Honestly, Mile 0 pales in comparison to the first Road 96. It feels like the devs took the main issue with the original game, Road 96, and amped those up without adding much positive to balance it out. The same over-the-top, sometimes bordering on nonsensical, writing appears here in an almost incoherent manner. Some plot points are set up only to be brushed over/sidelined, and even the main story hardly makes any sense. Spall's review spells out the specifics of the latter, if you're interested. Furthermore, the characters all feel rather one-note and boring, except for the protagonists, who have their own issues. Zoe is better written, being largely one-note when you aren't playing as her. That said, because Mile 0's narrative revolves around meaningful choices and multiple endings, you can decide how she will react to events in the story as you control her. The problem is that only one of the options actually feels in-character, and the rest feel forced on to forge the branching narrative the game promises. [spoiler] I'm not sure if most of these character-breaking moments even matter, since all the endings seem to revolve around what you do at the end of the game? Idk tbh. [/spoiler] Kaito suffers from a similar issue, but that's not all. For the first ~2/3rds of the game, he comes off as overbearing and almost creepy, yet neither the narrative nor Zoe seems to react to this in any meaningful way. The narrative then ends with [spoiler] his sudden, seemingly unnecessary betrayal of Zoe that could've been entirely avoided if he'd waited, like, thirty seconds for her to catch up. Maybe a little longer if he wanted to let her read the files before he handed them off to the Black Brigades. Once again, Spall's review also adds some useful context so go check that out.[/spoiler] Thus, not only is Mile 0's branching story built on character-breaking moments, but even when the narrative takes a more linear approach, it still doesn't make much sense. Beyond that, the gameplay's just kinda boring. I actually like walking sim style games, so that wasn't much of a problem for me. The skating sections, however, felt awkward. The camera is locked and sometimes gets put at odd angles that don't let you see what you're doing very well. Additionally, some of the hitboxes seemed a bit jank, leading to me being hit by obstacles I'd clearly dodged. The conversation minigames were one of the more fun aspects of the original game, yet in Mile 0 they're scarcely featured. When they are, they're so simple that it often seems like you'd have to intentionally choose the wrong answer. Failing these minigames just resets you to the last checkpoint, so it's not even like purposefully failing them would cause you to have a different ending or something. I did like how interacting with the world could lead to your character's 'moral meter' shifting, but these also felt like only one option was in-character, and I'm also not even sure if they affect the narrative of the game beyond aesthetic changes. Being able to draw on the walls and tattoo other characters was fun, though.