Open Roads Reviews

I had been looking forward to this game since it was first announced, mainly because it looked like a game that had a good story backed up by some star power (it stars Keri Russell as the mom and Kaitlyn Dever as the daughter in lead roles).

While the game is one that I would not have paid full price for, it's a fun two or so hour adventure to play through (almost like a movie). It's basically a walking sim with some environmental interactions (so minimal gameplay) and the story is told through the interaction between the mom (Opal) and daughter (Tess, the player character) duo on their quest to learn more about their family. I won't go into details but it's a good story and the little dialogue choices that pop up from time to time make replaying for a different discussion interesting, especially to see the dynamic between the duo change based on the response.

The achievements are easy, and unless you're playing with a guide, you should be able to get at least half just exploring/playing through the game. Anything you miss, there's an easy chapter select option to go through and pick up.

Overall, another solid game published by Annapurna.

Open Roads is a short narrative game - kind of what I've come to expect from Annapurna. It's fairly puzzle-light, mostly about finding the right objects. There are a few optional goals that you might miss on a blind playthrough, but you get a chapter select once you complete the game. And it's not even a huge problem to replay the game, as it only takes a couple of hours.

The story is about a daughter and mother getting to the bottom of a family mystery. Dramatic but not without humour. I do like the aesthetics of the environments and especially the whole delightful early-2000s nostalgia vibe that the game has in it through and through. Voice acting is great, and the combination of 2D animated characters with 3D backgrounds is pretty interesting.

Overall, it doesn't really reach the level where it'd be an eternally memorable classic, but it's pretty nice at what it does. On games like these, €20 price tag usually makes me go "eh, do I really think it's worth that much money?" but I don't think I'd grumble about this. Definitely worth checking out on GamePass though, especially for easy achievements.

My score: 4/5 because I'm a fan of the genre. 3 to 3.5 if I was just looking for a nice short game.

This is a short narrative game that can be finished in about two hours. It's a family story, and you uncover secrets about your late grandmother while searching through stuff.

You control the protagonist in a 3D environment, clicking on stuff. Dialogue will pop-up now and then between you and your mother. It looks a bit boring at first, but the mother and daughter relationship is nice (avoiding the cliché where they hate each other, but that doesn't mean there are no issues) and the plot gets pretty interesting.

Despite being a narrative game with a single ending, there are dialogue options and you'll probably have to play again or use a guide to get all the achievements, as there's stuff you can miss while exploring the 3D environments.

Very cool game, I definitely recommend it to people who enjoy games like this.