In Open Roads you either explore everything or you miss something

There are some secrets that feel too big or too painful to share. It’s easier to take on the burden yourself, you say, of withholding knowledge in the desperate desire to avoid someone else’s pain. Open roadsthe Went home-style road trip game published by Annapurna Interactive, is about those secrets, and what happens when those secrets slip – no, explode – into the world.

Open roads begins at home, specifically a house where three generations of women once lived: the recently deceased grandmother Helen; her daughter, Opal; and Opal’s daughter, Tess. Much of the simple two-story house has already been ransacked by estate shoppers by the time the game starts, but the items left behind lead to a host of secrets. Players start in Tess’s room, where you are encouraged to pack her things, as the house will be sold while Helen is gone.

It’s also where developer Open Roads Team defines the next two hours. Like it Went home for that, this story rewards curiosity, as the story is largely told through the items you pick up. You learn about the family by looking at items in Tess’s room, and then elsewhere in the house – namely the basement and the attic – many objects untouched by the hands of strangers. Helen was a single mother and an accomplished potter, and she held her business close to her heart. On the brink of divorce, Opal struggles to keep her community theater alive. Tess has a different idea of ​​success than her mother and, like most teenagers, feels misunderstood. Each of these women has her own secrets that define her, but it is one big revelation, discovered in an old suitcase in the attic, that sets Opal and Tess on the titular open roads.

Although, for a game called Open roads, you don’t physically spend much time on the road. Each small but important location – the secret family summer home, a mobile home, a motel room and a houseboat – is stitched together with a brief moment in the car, where you as Tess play with your phone and talk (or argue). !) with your mother. While these moments are only a small part of the two-hour experience, they are at its core. Through text messages to Tess’s friends and father, we learn about the strained relationship between her and her mother and, again, about those secrets. Sometimes Opal and Tess process certain things during their road trip stops, but other times they seem to be talking over each other and unable to fully understand each other’s perspective.

At each of these locations you have a lot of stuff to pick up, but the most important one is often a “Hey Mom!” option, which allows Tess to call Opal. Opal’s role in these situations is to provide context about her childhood, how she experienced the past, and what these items (and the secrets that come with them) do to color that memory. These are all essential conversations that tie into the big, overarching mystery, but sometimes feel stilted; the “Hey Mom!” button became repetitive, making any potential sincerity feel cheap.

There are very few items inside Open roads that you to have To retrieve. These are largely keys that literally unlock many of the story’s secrets. If you’re not curious enough to pick up other items, or even curious enough to call your mother, you’ll miss some of the crucial context that makes up Tess and Opal’s worlds. Open roads rewards that curiosity, both for the player, who gets a more nuanced story, and narratively, with Tess and Opal’s understanding of each other. For example, in Tess’s room there is a printout of a forum post about how to deal with a grandparent with dementia; The Open Roads Team therefore did not have to say anything about the last years of Helen’s life, when Tess and Opal cared for her.

One of the best uses of this type of gameplay is when Tess is alone at the motel while her mother picks up takeout. As Tess, you walk through the room alone and search through your mother’s things. If you have your flip phone with you, you can text your best friend about your discoveries: I found some pills in my mother’s bag. What do you think it’s for? Choosing to sneak around and seize this moment widens the rift between mother and daughter, with Tess feeling like her mother doesn’t trust her. But it is also an important context for the player: the pills are antidepressants and they set the tone that Opal is also struggling with. The game is about picking things up, but it is also about making choices. Since you found the antidepressants, you can ask Opal about them later. But again, that’s not necessary: ​​there is another option to focus the conversation on another secret.

The tension between the two characters – and what the player knows but the characters don’t – is both gripping and mundane. Most people with strained parental relationships will appreciate the authenticity of the conversations, played with brilliant voice acting by Kaitlyn Dever (Smart book), who plays Tess, and Keri Russell (The Americans), who plays Opal. (Unfortunately, Open roads‘ conversations are only semi-animated, so eventually the mouths will stop moving while the voice actors talk over a static screen. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it can be upsetting.) It’s so rare for a video game to explore the nuanced, everyday experiences of women, let alone a mother and daughter. The video game industry has spent a lot of time thinking about fathers and sons, but very little about mothers and daughters. However they turn out, Open roads‘ car scenes are short, but crucial. I almost wish these were longer and more elaborate, so you can enjoy the boredom, tension, and awkward moments. (Perhaps I am alone in this conclusion!)

For just two hours, Open roads moves too quickly through its most impactful moments. Still, it’s a game that I’m so glad exists. It is a moving, sweet introspection about the relationships between mothers and daughters, and the secrets that families keep from each other. It can be a bumpy road at times, both in terms of story and controls. I had a hard time finding just the right spot to trigger a prompt to pick things up on the Nintendo Switch. But at the end of the journey, it’s easy to look back on the game and know Open roads‘ sentimentality was worth the ride.

Open roads was released on March 28 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed using a pre-release download code from Annapurna Interactive. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. You can find Additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.