Road 96 is a 2021 adventure video game developed by DigixArt. Set in the fictional authoritarian nation of Petria in Summer 1996, the player controls a series of nameless teenagers attempting to flee the country by reaching its northern border as political tensions rise with its upcoming election. The player navigates procedurally-generated journeys composed of various segments in different locations, traveling between them by walking, hitchhiking, or using vehicles including buses, cars, and taxis. In each, the player interacts with eight recurring non-playable characters and engages in minigames before resuming their journey. Each journey can end in success, arrest, or death, which in turn influences the narrative of subsequent runs. The game culminates on Petria's election day, in which the result is based on the player's actions throughout.
Road 96 was developed by DigixArt, with the goal of creating a narrative-driven adventure that offered a different experience with each playthrough. The team spent two years designing the storytelling system for the game's procedural structure. They drew inspiration from road trip films of the 1990s and the works of filmmakers like the Coen brothers, Bong Joon Ho, and Quentin Tarantino. Many characters were based on those from films and television from the 1980s and 1990s, and aspects of the gameplay, including escape methods, were inspired by real-life stories from people who lived behind the Iron Curtain. The development team of 15 sought to combine action, exploration, and human encounters, with each segment designed to last 30 to 50 minutes to emulate the feel of a television series.
The game was released on the Nintendo Switch and Windows on August 16, 2021, being published by the developer in partnership with Plug In Digital. It was later released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S on April 14, 2022, by DigixArt and Ravenscourt. Road 96 received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its storytelling, characters, and soundtrack. Reviewers responded negatively to the game's handling of its political themes and occasional performance issues. A prequel, titled Road 96: Mile 0, was announced in January 2023 and was later released on April 4.
Gameplay Road 96 is a single-player, procedurally-generated adventure game played from a first-person perspective. The player controls a series of nameless teenagers who attempt to flee their corrupt home country of Petria by traveling to its border and illegally crossing.
Each journey begins hundreds of miles from the border, with the player aiming to reach a mountain checkpoint near it. Journeys are composed of various segments that take place in different locations. The segments see the player interact with one of the game's eight core non-playable characters and often incorporate strategy video game elements and minigames. The player must manage their energy throughout the game, which can be replenished by buying food or resting. Energy functions as health; if it reaches zero, the player will pass out on the side of the road and be arrested. Once a segment is completed, the player travels to their next location, which they can do by catching a bus, hitchhiking, ordering a taxi, stealing a car, or walking. Travelling by bus or taxi allows the player to rest and recover lost health but costs money. Walking or hitchhiking are free travel options, though walking gradually depletes the player's health and hitchhiking is unpredictable, as it can lead to hostile encounters or violent situations. Depending on the player's actions or dialogue decisions, their journey can culminate in arrest, death, or successfully crossing the border.
No matter the outcome of the journey, once completed, the player begins again as another anonymous teenager. Before their new run, the player is given a choice of three teens to play as, each having a different starting attributes such as cash, energy, and distance from the border. Non-playable characters you interact with remember and may mention events from earlier playthroughs. Each journey reveals more about the main characters through the player's new interactions with them. As the player repeatedly encounters recurring characters, a completion meter for each fills until their individual storylines are resolved. As the player completes recursive journeys, the Petrian presidential election gradually gets closer. Propaganda posters for the political candidates can be vandalized.
The game features a collectible system where the player can uncover and listen to different cassette tapes. They can acquire the cassettes by finding them, purchasing them, and stealing them. The game's wider narrative develops with each choice made by the player. Throughout the game, the player gains skills such as intelligence, hacking, lock-picking, and improved luck. After the player's final teenager reaches the border and election day arrives, the outcome of the election is based on their previous in-game choices.
Plot In 1996, the authoritarian nation of Petria prepares for a presidential election between new candidate Florres, who vaguely promises change to the nation, and Petria's long-standing dictator, Tyrak, whose win would doom the prospects of the country's working class. Ten years earlier, in 1986, a landslide, caused by an explosion on a mountain pass, killed many civilians during a televised event. The government blamed the terrorist group known as the Black Brigades for the fatalities and concluded that their bombing was an attempt to assassinate Petria's president, Tyrak. In reality, the explosion was orchestrated by Tyrak to discredit the Brigades and eliminate civilians he believed were sympathetic to them. Tyrak controls the security forces to pay off officers to suppress protests against him, and he manipulates state media to portray dissenters as terrorists. Teenagers who oppose his policies are secretly arrested and sent to labor camps known as the "iron pits", prompting many young Petrian citizens to attempt to flee by crossing the northern border.
Throughout the game, the player repeatedly interacts with eight characters whose stories develop individually. Sonya is a wealthy and corrupt news reporter who proudly spreads Tyrak's propaganda. It is revealed that during her coverage of the 1986 disaster, she failed to save a young girl from being killed. The girl was the daughter of Jarod, a taxi driver and serial killer, who plots to assassinate Sonya throughout the game, believing she didn't try hard enough to save his daughter, Lola. Lola was a member of the Brigades, whom he blames for her death as the media reported that they caused the landslide. Stan and Mitch are twin brothers and robbers who travel Petria in search of money. They pass their time by attempting to find the identity of a murderer, who is revealed to be Jarod. Their story ends as Jarod overhears Sonya talking about her genuine attempt to save his daughter, and he decides she no longer deserves to die. Sonya reconnects with Stan and Mitch, who transpire to be her brothers, as the police fail to apprehend Jarod.
Zoe is a rebellious teenager who hopes to flee Petria. She is recruited into the Brigades, despite her father supporting Tyrak. The Brigades ultimately give her the opportunity to flee Petria by creating a distraction at the border, which she can either successfully take advantage of or be killed in the process. John is a friendly truck driver grieving his girlfriend's death in the disaster. He is revealed to be one of two leaders of the Brigades, along with the more violent Robert. In his truck, John carries a radio that broadcasts the Brigades' propaganda, which the police are searching for throughout the game. Alex is a young, tech-savvy teenage runaway who has become affiliated with the Brigades, as they promise him information about his biological parents, also former members of the Brigades, in return for helping build them explosives. It is revealed that Alex's parents built the bomb responsible for the 1986 attack. Alex's adoptive mother, Fanny, is a policewoman patrolling the border. She feels conflicted about Tyrak's regime and has developed a romance with John over a radio, unaware he is a Brigade member.
By election day, political unrest reaches its peak. Depending on the player's decisions throughout, Petria faces one of three outcomes: a) Tyrak is re-elected, tightening his authoritarian rule, b) Florres wins, leading to Tyrak's arrest for his crimes, or c), a popular uprising erupts, overthrowing the regime in a violent revolution. In the ending that depicts Tyrak winning, Fanny shoots John, and Alex runs away. In the others, the three unite and become a family unit in the midst of the carnage.
Development and release Road 96 was developed by DigixArt. For the first year of development, anyone on the 15-person team was allowed to suggest characters, events, and story ideas for the game. Fanise said that the idea to frame the story around teenagers trying to escape an oppressive government arose after visiting 11 Bit Studios in Poland, as several developers had stories of the struggles of living through communist rule during the Soviet era. Some of the escape methods depicted in the game were inspired by real-life stories from people who lived behind the Iron Curtain. Petria's design and political climate was described by Fanise as a mix of corrupt real-world political systems. The design for Petria's border took inspiration from the border between China and Tibet.
Afterwards, the team worked on connecting the ideas. It was created to be unlike any other narrative-based video game, and to give the player a different experience each time they play. The team spent two years developing the game's storytelling system before beginning production on the rest of the game. DigixArt co-founder Yoan Fanise said much of the game's mechanics were designed around the system. Early in development, it was decided that the game would heavily involve traveling as the system was designed to involve moving between different locations and time frames. The story was designed around the system's limitations, which meant the player couldn't be killed too many times, world-changing events weren't included, and the player controlled different characters throughout. Game segments can be presented in any order, controlled by the game's artificial intelligence. The game was funded by HP Omen.
Digixart described the game as a mix of "action, exploration, contemplative melancholy, human encounters, and wacky situations." Each segment is completed in 30 to 50 minutes, which Fanise said was intentional as it emulated the feel of a television series. Road 96 took inspiration from the work of filmmakers such as the Coen brothers, Bong Joon Ho, and Quentin Tarantino. Many of the characters were based on those from 1980s and 1990s films and television shows. Namely, Alex was based on Data from The Goonies (1985), and Stan and Mitch were inspired by the air pirates from Porco Rosso (1992). Fanise additionally cited the film Into the Wild (2007) as an inspiration for the game's tone and themes. Fanise said the game's atmosphere was inspired by road trip movies released in the 1990s, and that its soundtrack also incorporated popular music from the time period.