This game has room for improvement but it is still a very nice experience. The music is top notch, the themes are original and the overall structure of the game is quite refreshing.
That being said the writing could be better here and there.
Road 96 is a road trip through an autocratic state that looks like the USA under Russian or North Korean rule. Great story, not much of gameplay and the decisions are illusionary. A few characters are somewhat over the top, which can be a bit irritating at first, especially when it's a matter of life or death. It's not all perfect, but I've played through it three times and seen both the good and bad endings. The game was made by someone who knows what life is like in autocratic states and if you've been deluding yourself, you can learn a lot. I liked it very much. Despite the satirical and comedic interludes, the game has a lot to say.
They promise some kind of non-linear random generated adventure about rebel youth escaping authoritorian country, but most of scenarios I dealed with are exactly the same and forced to play the role of hostage\slave for gas station owner, cop lady and some random creep babmling about "brigade", obeying to all of their stupid and weird demands without any option to actually resist them. Sorry, but I don't found it particulary fun. Actually I don't found it fun or interesting at all. I found it incredibly annoying. Too many situations like these. Of course sometimes rarely game will show you something different like programmer boy making his own version of Battle City, but this encounters are much more rare and much shorter. I don't think this game worth it's price. I hope I tell you may opinion constructive enough.
So this is really a tactical resouce game... its systems are welll done, the story is decent, the tone better than average.. but the graphics are retro. Leisure Suite Larry block graphics retro which is not to my taste. With better graphics this would be 4 stars for me.
I’ve got mixed feelings about this game.
Every time you play (also your first playthrough, which will be the most fun because everything is new) will be different. I love random games, although this one isn't truly procedurally generated, the order of events is random. You don’t play as one teen trying to escape, you play several consecutive teens trying to escape over a span of time. I love this, it makes the game fun and unpredictable. The game is basicly a large set of scenes, stringed together at random. Some scenes are really fun, intriguing and moody.
However... other scenes feel cheap and rushed to complete.
Since the sequence of scenes is random (which I love), the transition from one scene to another can sometimes feel random (for example, in one scene I traveled on by stealing a car, in the scene that followed some kid was with me in the car all of the sudden… how did he get in here?).
Many scenes have a minigame which feels like filling up for some variation. Although some minigames are seriously fun puzzles, others are too simple.
All in all, I love the game for it’s adventurous feeling and randomness but it feels a bit rough and sometimes unfinishes around the edges. Some scenes are really good, while others are simply bad. Also the world is very cold-war-era Left vs Right; Rebels vs Authority. Ans you don't have much Freedom in which side to choose (pun intended).
TL:DR It's a good game if you love chill semi-random hitchhiking adventures, about escaping the USA if it was run by North-Korea on a sunday afternoon.