izigame.me

Open Roads is a nice storytelling game that came out in 2024, and I thought it was a fun game overall.
The game is short, but enthralling for its story. It features two women, Opal (Keri Russell) and her daughter Tess, are packing up their house, and getting ready to move on after the death of Tess’s grandmother. They discover a secret that could change their view on grandma. They suddenly feel the urge to drive to Michigan and find secrets. It turns out Opal’s father is a person who has depth but no cheating was involved and they get the closure they wanted.
Overall, it is a short game that can be played in two hours, and it is enthralling with the banter between two people who suddenly are rocked and shocked out of their comfortable and cushy life. It just is an overall good time for fun.
A few things I had noticed about it. The voice acting is spot on and now I can’t separate the voice from the character, all suited well. Art is beautiful and well done Finally, the game took roughly 3 years to develop from 2020 when the first teaser came to its March 2024 release date. Solid amount of time to cook and brew the game.
Verdict: Recommended. Doesn’t matter if you pay money for this game or on Gamepass. Just do it. Play the game and enjoy the great story.

Well, that was kinda disappointing. I don't know, maybe my expectations were a bit too high for this one since I had been following its development ever since they announced it.
It's so short, and feels like it's unfinished. The way they chose to do the animation for the characters feels very off. If the game world was 2D as well, it would have fit better, but when you're surrounded by 3D objects and watching 2D characters talk, it just doesn't fit exactly right. After awhile, I got more used to it, but it still felt more like a development build to me personally, like this was more of an idea rather than a finished product.
That's kind of how I felt about the game as a whole: an unfinished project. The story, albeit simple, is somewhat interesting in certain parts, but does not really feel fleshed out, it feels more surface level. It felt very "after school special", a lesson with vague details.
The environments are really nice, however. The lighting and detailing is honestly pretty spectacular. I enjoyed seeing different objects scattered about and figuring out which items were pertinent to the story or not. I didn't mind that certain items couldn't be held up.
One of the mechanics that felt very bogged down to the experience was the "Hey, Mom!" interactives. I totally get why these are there, but there were certain times where I just wanted to discover things on my own, piece together certain things, and THEN talk to the Mom. But instead, each item that has this interactive, you have to go ahead and start dialogue which yes, furthers the story, but interrupts the player portion of the game too often.
It could be that I am so used to games like Gone Home, Tacoma, and Life is Strange to allow the player more freedom in their interactions, but I just felt like this only hindered exploration of the environments.
Overally, I'd give this game a 6/10. It was somewhat enjoyable. I did like the hotel portion for whatever reason. The graphics for the environments were highly detailed and quite stunning, but the character animations in this environment just felt odd to me. Hopefully Fullbright gets more freedom in their next game, with less stressors in the workplace.

I'm sorry, ex Fullbright, but this game missed the mark for me. It's the first game from the studio that I can't say I enjoyed.

The premise of a mother-daughter road trip to uncover a hidden family secret was very intriguing to me and fits perfectly with Fullbright's style of storytelling through letters and environmental cues. With the back-and-forth between the two characters, some of the magic of discovering things for yourself is lost. About 80% of their conversations are just exposition dumps. While the voice acting is great and there's chemistry between Tess and Opal, some of the dialogue just doesn't feel right and is honestly sometimes even poorly written.

The flute ambient soundtrack is annoyingly lifeless and lacks emotion. They even missed playing the essential radio songs during the car rides, which is a must-have for a road trip experience, why not add some nice early 2000 indie track? totally missed opportunity there.

The 2D character design against 3D backgrounds kind of works, but the lack of animations during dialogue is very noticeable. As Dusk Falls handled this much better, where scenes naturally flowed into one another. Here, it's just a monotonous sequence of the same three animations that sometimes don't even match what the character is saying or feeling.

Story-wise, it's somewhat okay. I see what they're trying to tell, and the message isn't lost; it subtly develops into something substantial by the end, and I could connect with it to some extent. It's even more frustrating because there seems to be a great script, but everything around it just feels off. I sincerely hope they get another chance to make a game without the development turmoil, as I really appreciate the way they use this medium.