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Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition

Kentucky Route Zero is a bizarre tale unlike anything you’ve played before. Although it is slow and introspective, it’s also an exceptionally engaging experience.

Game Info

Kentucky Route Zero is a magical realist adventure game about a secret highway in the caves beneath Kentucky, and the mysterious folks who travel it. Gameplay is inspired by point-and-click adventure games (like the classic Monkey Island or King’s Quest series, or more recently Telltale’s Walking Dead series), but focused on characterization, atmosphere and storytelling rather than clever puzzles or challenges of skill.

Recommended

Average Score

Total Reviews: 42

Silver TIER

26% of scored reviews fell within the range of 80 to 86 / 100

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Ratings & Reviews

42

Critic Reviews

85

Average Critic Score

Where to Play

All reviews are from professional critics. Learn more about the critics VSG aggregates.

High Score

100%

Median Score

89%

Low Score

45%

Tom Marks (IGN)

[Date Unavailable]

8/10

“Kentucky Route Zero is a beautiful poetry generator in the body of a point-and-click adventure game.”

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Oli Welsh (Eurogamer)

[Date Unavailable]

Recommended

“Cardboard Computer’s elusive adventure game gets a final episode and a console edition, but don’t wolf it all down at once.”

Read full review

Nick Gillett (Metro GameCentral)

[Date Unavailable]

8/10

“An arrestingly surreal triumph that blends point ‘n’ click and text adventures with a unique style of storytelling and gameplay that was well worth the extremely long wait.”

Read full review

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Score Ranges

Read the Reviews (42 total)

Outlet	Author	Score	Date	Quote	Read
3DNews	Александр Бабулин	10 / 10	02-15-2020	A melancholic magical realism adventure, and a funeral song over the coffin of the American dream.	Read review
COGconnected	Paul Sullivan	95 / 100	01-30-2020	Kentucky Route Zero is a brilliantly told story that takes chances, and unapologetically is what it is. Sounds suspiciously like art to me. Damn good art.	Read review
Daily Dot	AJ Moser	4.5 / 5 stars	01-27-2020	At the end of a tumultuous decade, it’s only natural to reflect on the years gone by. And here comes a great game to cap the previous decade—and signal the start of something new. If I hadn’t already spent the last several years being told that Kentucky Route Zero was a special game, I’d have known it immediately.	Read review
Digital Chumps	Eric Layman	10 / 10	02-02-2020	Kentucky Route Zero is lost in the illusive premise of the American Dream but found in the elusive dream logic of its weird, wild, and wonderful prose. Through it all are characters who conceal pain and loss with whimsical musings of hope and escape and locations engulfed in a meditative haze where brutal reality is indistinguishable from isolated reverie. At the end lies a paradox that suggests a circuitous path was the shortest course to an inevitable destination, and the assurance that Kentucky Route Zero’s seven-year voyage knew its direction all along.	Read review
DualShockers	Cameron Hawkins	7.5 / 10	02-11-2020	Kentucky Route Zero is a one of a kind storytelling experience, but I’m not entirely sure what story it is trying to tell.	Read review
Eurogamer	Oli Welsh	Recommended	01-28-2020	Cardboard Computer’s elusive adventure game gets a final episode and a console edition, but don’t wolf it all down at once.	Read review
Everyeye.it	Claudio Cugliandro	9.2 / 10	01-31-2020	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 bigger events of each of us. A piece of video game history.	Read review
Game Informer	Joe Juba	8.5 / 10	01-27-2020	Though it seems to be a traditional adventure game at first, this is an enticing and bizarre tale unlike anything you’ve played before	Read review
Game Revolution	Jason Faulkner	3.5 / 5 stars	01-27-2020	Kentucky Route Zero is a coffee table book of a game. I don’t feel like you’re really supposed to try and take it all in as a whole. Instead, KRZ, with it’s myriad of references and views, seems like it’s supposed to be taken a piece at a time. Some players are sure to absolutely love that, while others, like me, would prefer something more grounded.	Read review
Gameblog	Filipe Da Silva Barbosa	8 / 10	02-05-2020	Developped during nearly a decade, the last episode of Kentucky Route Zero has finally arrived, and with it the complete edition of the game. It can almost be considered as an interactive fiction, but with a real attention given to the player and the meaning of its actions throughout the game. As a subjective experience, it also questions the connections between video games and other forms of art.	Read review
GameCrate	Nicholas Scibetta	8.3 / 10	02-28-2020	Kentucky Route Zero tells a story unlike anything else you’ll find in gaming. It uses a point and click adventure format that’s pretty basic, but hits high notes with its dialogue, themes, and music.	Read review
GameSpew	Becca Smith	7 / 10	02-03-2020	More than being a video game, Kentucky Route Zero is a work of art	Read review
GameSpot	Justin Clark	9 / 10	02-05-2020	After seven years, Kentucky Route Zero reaches the end of the road, and the full portrait it paints is melancholy and sorrowful but also absolutely beautiful.	Read review
Gaming Nexus	Randy Kalista	9.5 / 10	03-31-2020	Part point-and-click radio play, part adventure game audiobook, Kentucky route Zero is as much of a journey in sound as it is a meditation on surrealism. I’d nominate it for the Booker Prize in literature before I’d hand it a Keighley statue at the Video Game Awards.	Read review
Geeks Under Grace	Michael Mendis	7 / 10	04-24-2020	Kentucky Route Zero tells fascinating tales about its world and the people who inhabit it, but fails to connect its many threads into a cohesive whole.	Read review
God is a Geek	Nicola Ardron	9 / 10	02-12-2020	Kentucky Route Zero is a masterful piece of interactive storytelling. Mysterious, mercurial, and exquisitely beautiful.	Read review
IGN	Tom Marks	8 / 10	01-27-2020	Kentucky Route Zero is a beautiful poetry generator in the body of a point-and-click adventure game.	Read review
IND13	Rahul Shirke	5 / 5 stars	02-17-2020	With its sombre mood, innovative narrative design, and deeply poetic writing, Kentucky Route Zero is one of the most unique and important games ever made.	Read review
Jump Dash Roll	Rob Kershaw	7 / 10	02-26-2020	Kentucky Route Zero is a maddeningly obscure visual novel, both beautifully dull and mundanely fascinating. It will no doubt split opinion, but if you enjoy an abundance of metaphor and some quirky introspection, it will definitely tick your boxes.	Read review
Kotaku	Riley MacLeod	Recommended	01-27-2020	I’m mainly a PC gamer, so the thought that there is no longer more Kentucky Route Zero to expect is strange. But if you primarily play on consoles, it’s possible you’ve never played, or even heard of, Kentucky Route Zero before. You’re in for something special. It’s a game that reminds you that you can only do so much, but there will always be things—maybe too many, maybe not enough—left to do.	Read review
Metro GameCentral	Nick Gillett	8 / 10	01-31-2020	An arrestingly surreal triumph that blends point ‘n’ click and text adventures with a unique style of storytelling and gameplay that was well worth the extremely long wait.	Read review
New Game Network	Alex Varankou	45 / 100	02-06-2020	Kentucky Route Zero is an incredibly dull and over-embellished text adventure that fails to engage, entertain, or provide much value to anyone but perhaps the uppermost art connoisseurs.	Read review
Nintendo Enthusiast	Dan Thompson	10 / 10	02-08-2020	A work of art that I can’t recommend enough.	Read review
Nintendo Life	PJ O’Reilly	9 / 10	01-27-2020	Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition is the full and complete Kentucky Route Zero experience. A magical realist point-and-click adventure that takes you on a beguiling journey to a place that exists both below and beyond. It’s a trip to be savoured, ruminated on; no need to rush.	Read review
NintendoWorldReport	Joe Devader	9.5 / 10	02-03-2020	Those looking for a challenge or something a bit more action packed won’t find what they’re looking for here, but those looking for a surreal and mysterious tale will have come to the right place.	Read review
PC Gamer	Unknown	87 / 100	02-12-2020	A compelling story about rural America that is both surreal and thoughtful, if a little disorienting.	Read review
PlayStation Universe	Alan Strawbridge	8.5 / 10	02-07-2020	Kentucky Route Zero is a game for those who are happy to slowly digest the measured nuances of a text heavy, but visually stunning and thought provoking adventure. Narrative weirdness abounds but it is anchored by a cast of charming and gentle characters who you will grow to love.	Read review
Push Square	Graham Banas	9 / 10	01-30-2020	Even with a downright cavalcade of triumphs, Kentucky Route Zero’s strongest asset is its ability to redefine itself from episode to episode. The deeper your journey goes, the stranger things get, but the more they make sense too. While the game will definitely be a bit too bizarre and densely obtuse for some, this is a game unlike anything you’ve ever played before.	Read review
Rock, Paper, Shotgun	Alec Meer	Recommended	01-30-2020	For it was – it is – unforgettable.	Read review
Skill Up	Ralph Panebianco	Recommended	02-26-2020	Kentucky Route Zero is a videogame. Probably. Maybe.	Read review
Slant Magazine	Steven Scaife	5 / 5 stars	02-01-2020	Kentucky Route Zero is about America in a way few games aspire to be and fewer still succeed at.	Read review
SomHráč.sk	Jakub Bjaček	70 / 100	02-29-2020	Kentucky Route Zero is a work of art that rests solely on its literary qualities and atmosphere. Good thing is that both of these aspects are very solid and the long wait for the final act was worth it. A worthy conclusion of a remarkable video game.	Read review
TechRaptor	Samuel Guglielmo	7 / 10	02-11-2020	I tried so hard to love this game, but in the end, I only really liked it at best.	Read review
TheSixthAxis	Aran Suddi	9 / 10	02-07-2020	Kentucky Route Zero is a game that I’m still thinking about days after reaching its conclusion. Though it’s slow (maybe too slow for some) and introspective, it’s also an exceptionally engaging interactive experience. If you are into the slow burn kind of story then this is definitely for you, but if you’re not then you may bounce off of the Zero.	Read review
Too Much Gaming	Joseph Choi	9 / 10	06-24-2020	Because it is rather obtuse at times, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone, but if you’re anything like me and you love carefully-constructed, paradoxical art that is enlightening and entertaining, haunting and hopeful, melancholy and magical, perceptive and pointed, you might really fall in love with the existential irreverence of Kentucky Route Zero.	Read review
USgamer	Caty McCarthy	5 / 5 stars	01-27-2020	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.	Read review
VideoGamer	Joshua Wise	8 / 10	02-11-2020	Those intoxicated by the game’s dreamy brew may argue that there are no detours—that, like the Zero, you’re either on it or you’re not. If you’re anything like me and Conway, however, you’ll be somewhere in-between.	Read review
Wccftech	Dave Aubrey	9.5 / 10	01-30-2020	Kentucky Route Zero is a fascinating story with a thick atmosphere and themes which will leave you thinking longer after playing each act. It’s one of the best stories I’ve ever played or read in a video game, and I implore everyone to play it. Kentucky Route Zero is something special.	Read review
We Got This Covered	Eric Hall	4 / 5 stars	02-10-2020	Although its moment to moment gameplay might not always hit the mark , the captivating story and colorful cast of characters make Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition a journey worth taking.	Read review

Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition Credits

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Developed by Cardboard Computer. All titles, content, brand names, trademarks, logos, artwork, and associated imagery are trademarks and/or copyright material of their respective owners. © All rights reserved.

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Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition

Critics Consensus (Play It)

Game Info

Silver TIER

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Ratings & Reviews

42

85

Where to Play

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Find the games you're looking for

Popular Keywords

Platforms

Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition

Critics Consensus (Play It)

Game Info

Silver TIER

Where to Play

Ratings & Reviews

42

85

Where to Play

Embracer Group CEO Takes Responsibility for Restructuring, Announces Major Company Split

Assassin’s Creed Jade Release Likely Delayed to 2025 as Tencent Shifts Focus

PlayStation 5 Pro: Leaked Specs Reveal a Major Upgrade, Release Hinted for Holiday 2024

Xbox Games Hit New Platforms: Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded Coming to Other Platforms

Xbox Reaches Beyond Consoles: 4 Games to Rival Platforms, and What It Means

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