Sequel to 2021’s politically charged and choice-laden adventure title Road 96, Road 96: Mile 0 situates its political intrigue within the context of a more story-focused effort than its predecessor, introducing us to two anti-authority teenagers who choose to project their youthful sense of spirit by skateboarding and breaking into offices to oogle at documents and swipe codes to use on keypads. Does Mile 0 present us with a worthy follow-up to the original Road 96, or is it on the road to nowhere?
The story follows Zoe (who you may remember from Road 96) and her best friend Kaito, both of whom hang out in a trashy hideout in White Sands, are entwined in a scintillating relationship that juxtaposes Zoe’s prosperous lifestyle in Petria, as the daughter of a political mogul, the much derided President Tyrak, and Kaito, who lives in a basement apartment and brushes elbows with a group of criminal figures known as The Black Brigades. The personal strife of both characters empowers and emboldens Mile 0’s narrative, making it an adventure you’ll be swept up by and will want to stick with until the credits roll.
Like Road 96, Mile 0 has players making decisions that form the direction the story will take, leading to startling revelations and surprising outcomes that will make you care about the choices you make; the magnitude of which will shape the fate of your surroundings. Road 96 was always captivating, whisking you away like a wayfarer who decided to hail and cab and be taken to anywhere in the wilderness. Mile 0 sheds the wonder and mystery of its predecessor, in order to settle down into a narrative where the characters and situations are focused-a trade-off that works well, but it still feels like something special is lost in the translation.
The central attraction of Mile 0 is how skateboarding and rollerblading are integrated into the storytelling. Known as “Rides”, these sections are dazzling showcases that echo the challenging high-speed levels in 2019’s indie sensation Sayonara Wild Hearts, with their surreal spectacle and obstacle-laden level designs that will have you collecting a deluge of diamonds to rack up high scores, as well as retrying levels again and again to obtain S ranks if you so desire.
As you ollie and grind through these dreamscapes, you will come across diverging paths that aren’t just separate ways forward, but separate questions and statements. It’s a clever and quirky dynamic, inviting you to pay more attention to the decisions you make, though both paths you go down don’t offer much besides a new route to take. Even so, these Rides offer up terrific sights and sounds you won’t soon forget, where you will find yourself gliding fancy-free inside the inner-workings of a blaring trumpet, subversively ripping through suburban neighbourhoods whilst jamming to ear-shredding punk rock, and many more delightfully inspired showpiece snapshots.
Tearing down some of the joys of experiencing Rides are the latency issues you will come across, rupturing the ball bearings of its seductively designed skateboard. There will be times where you’ll be weaving through tightly-condensed forest trees and all of a sudden KAPOW! Your face smacks the lumber, forcing you to restart the part again. When this happens, you will try to figure out how you can approach this steely nuisance without succumbing to the same result-but more often than not, success comes down to sheer luck rather than skill. In any game where skateboarding is featured, it’s paramount that the controls are responsive and register with each button press, so it’s particularly sour the lack of control undermines what is otherwise the best part of Mile 0– and that’s a real shame.
Outside of the skateboarding, Mile 0 doesn’t offer anything particularly engaging as far as gameplay is concerned. You will be grabbing codes from offices and perusing documents lying around, but besides mini-games like hammering nails into lumber, distributing newspapers by throwing them nonchalantly about like a post worker gone postal, and playing searingly competitive games of Connect 4 – a blatant reminder you’re entrenched in the mid-90s.
Despite its efforts to the contrary, Mile 0 sputters like a cruddy Honda Civic driving down long narrow roads in the Mojave Desert, it doesn’t have the fuel to keep you fully entranced throughout, but the mini-games and walking around neighbouring towns are pleasant distractions from the drama the story embroils you in.
Thankfully, there is always a pervading sense of youthful exuberance in Mile 0, which coheres admirably with the adventure as whole-including when the story takes dark turns and allegiances threaten to become tattered. When Zoe and Kaito play a prank on the White Sands news reporter and when Kaito sneaks into Zoe’s abode without her dad finding out, these moments demonstrate the playfulness that subsists in spite of the encroaching political upheaval swallowing up White Sands and its surrounding neighbourhoods.
Mile 0 may not impress you with its blocky visual style, but those Rides stages are all-encompassing parades of whimsy that are so delightful to look at, they more than make up for the ho-hum art style. The original Road 96 wasn’t much of a looker either, but some more polish to the character models would’ve been nice.
The soundtrack has a tempo and zing to, keeping you rolling along on the subversive highway to juvenile delinquency. Techno beats, punk rock and reflective compositions make for a pleasing mix of sounds and auras that makes Road 96 an attractive audio experience, capably highlighting both the upbeat and downbeat themes of the adventure.
Conclusion
Mile 0 is something of a pleasant surprise. The inclusion of Rides makes storytelling and decision-making riveting and fresh, underpinned by an insatiably likeable arcade hook. Mile 0 also boasts a greater focus on characters and relationships than the original, helped along by a pleasantly bite-sized price tag. The big dinger though, is that Rides can feel too on-rails for its own good despite its novel use in storytelling and decision-making. Mile 0 also fails to transmit the fervour of Rides to the rest of the experience-this despite some flashes of playful subversiveness and youthful hijinks present throughout. Ultimately Mile 0 can be softly recommended for what it does offer, but it is a lightweight entrée more than a transcendent main course-this one’s lacking the protein and bulk required to truly satisfy over the long haul.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
