A gentle adventure into a family’s secrets that’s nicely crafted but over before it really begins.
I had some concerns about Open Roads when I saw a demo of it earlier this year, mostly because in what I saw, nothing much seemed to happen. A teenage girl walked around a house looking at objects and talked to her mother about them. We were promised a family mystery but there was barely any sight of it, and I wondered when it would all kick in. Now having played it, I realise why that was: there wasn’t much there to tease to begin with. Open Roads is a slight game, I now know, both in terms of running length and scope. There aren’t grand ambitions or wild adventures. Instead, there’s a story about smaller details, about the seemingly mundane but no less important moments when relationships change, and about the imprints we leave behind.
Open Roads reviewDeveloper: Open Roads TeamPublisher: AnnapurnaPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out 28th March on PC (Steam), PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S (Game Pass).
In the game, you are Tess, a teenager who serves as the spark in the story. It’s her curiosity, following the death of her grandma, that provokes the discovery you’ll make, which leads to the adventure you’ll have, and it’s her tenacity that sees it through. It all begins in your grandma’s house, which you and your mother shared with her up until her death, and which you’re now packing to leave. Why you’re leaving is something you don’t immediately know – like so much else in the game, you’ll discover it as you go along.
Open Roads almost always goes like this: you walk around an environment looking at any nearby objects, then you find one and it gives you a “Hey Mom!” prompt to call Mum over and have a chat about it. Occasionally you make observations to yourself, and sometimes you message people on your phone, but most of the time, you talk to Mum. She is really the only other character directly present in the game. And really, that’s all there is to Open Roads. There are a couple of very minor puzzles and a few dialogue options, but nothing amounting to a puzzle game or choice and consequence.
Open Roads does what little it does very well, though. The production values are high. It’s a subtle game but when you hear the birds chirping outside Grandma’s house and planes flying distantly overhead, and the home improvements nearby – all as sunlight slants hazily through the window – it conjures a vivid summer’s afternoon. And it’s the perfect backdrop for slowing you down to the game’s pace.