Kentucky Route Zero is Dreamy

It's not often that a game has confused me so much that it's made me want to play more, or at the very least made me not want to quit in puzzled frustration. I read somewhere playing KRZ is like having a dream re-told to you by a loved one: You're either immediately intrigued by the haphazard string of developments and their possible meaning, or you eventually realise you're utterly bored of their nonsensical drivel. I find the most interesting dreams often start off grounded and comprehensible before carefully growing in layered perplexity. This is precisely what KRZ evokes and so it's difficult to pinpoint why I spent 2.5 hours playing through it's ultimately bewildering 2 acts. 

I'm not too fond of the term 'non-game', but for lack of a better one I'll use it here. KRZ is not so much mechanically driven by a set of rules and goals, as it is by self expression. Yes, there are objectives. You of course must reach point A to get to B in order to get to C (and during one area in Act 2, every other jumbled combination of that rings true). Most interactions involve either looking at things or choosing dialogue options, which are superbly written and therefore rightly act as the catalyst for want of more play as the plot unravels.

Dialogue is not always the engineer of the game's progression, more often: it allows you to act as co-director as you narrate what transpires on-screen. In one scene you are introduced to a new character as she is speaking on the phone. You choose the responses for her after each inaudible bark on the other side of the phone. Depending on how you choose to respond the call can either be made out to be an understanding conversation with a loved one or a curt exchange between two frustrated people, or anywhere in-between. Another example at the very start: you are always in the company of a dog wearing a straw hat, when queried about this dog by another you choose via dialogue what your relationship with the dog is. It all sounds a little frivolous, but your responses undeniably shape how you perceive and interact with these characters through the rest of the game.

There's no way you can die either, which I suppose is another dream-like pillar of the game. You are always in control. More like a lucid dream then, that inevitably keeps unfurling as you dive deeper. Unfortunately it does end though. There are still 3 acts to go and there's been no word from the developers for a year.

Going on about it seems pointless. KRZ is something that just is. It's quite abstract and unlike anything I've played with before. It stupefying, for all the right reasons. As for whatever those reasons may be exactly, I'm not so sure. If you can, just play it.