It took seven years for developer Cardboard Computer to release all five episodes of the otherworldly adventure. First kickstarted in 2011, the first chapter was released in 2013, and since then the next act has been dropping sporadically. Whereas games like "The Walking Dead" and "Life is Strange" drop episodes at intervals of months at most, "Kentucky Route Zero" is a surreal and evocative story that wanders into your life for two hours, until the next episode is drawn and the ether again disappears into the ether.

It feels odd to have to review a game I've been playing for over seven years. It is strangely nostalgic and reminds me that I am a completely different person than I was when I started playing it in 2013. I'm sure many people will have similar realizations, but the message of "Kentucky Route Zero," about rural America and the struggles of the working class, is as relevant today as it was then.

The story follows Conway, a truck driver and self-proclaimed drifter who delivers antiques. After the small antique store he works at closes, we follow him to his delivery address, 5 Dogwood Drive. No one has ever heard of the place, but apparently it is somewhere on an ethereal highway called "Zero". As Conway searches for his destination, he is gradually joined by more fellow wanderers. Together, the group travels across Kentucky, searching for a place they are not even sure exists.

Their road trip is far from just tires on paved roads; "KRZ" takes them through several surreal pit stops throughout its five acts. The story is told largely through dialogue between the characters and through point-and-click exploration of various scenes. However, the emphasis here is on weaving evocative atmospheres and memorable scenes rather than puzzles. An old cathedral converted into an office building. The basement of an empty gas station in the shape of a horse. An eerie "house museum" in the suburbs.

On the ethereal highways of the KRZ, buildings are never "just buildings," but always with a little poetic twist. I felt like I was sightseeing a strange little corner of Kentucky and the people who live there. I was never entirely sure where the story would land next, but I always looked forward to what lay ahead.

As Conway's group grows, each character fades in and out of the foreground. In the first act, you control Conway, but as the story progresses, you play a variety of characters. As you converse with various NPCs, you are given choices that reflect the character's inner life, and by deciding which of these choices to express, you feel as if you are gradually forming a character. These choices are not simple responses to questions or opinions about what is happening in the moment, but something deeper and more meaningful. They can determine whether the character is completely over the lost lover or still reeling from past events. I always felt that I was making meaningful choices; the path KRZ takes is linear, but the decisions you make for your characters make them feel like your creations and their stories are yours.

Kentucky Route Zero is primarily an anthology of these little stories, many of which can be heard through building descriptions, ghost stories, lore, and myths. They can be as simple as a description of a haunted arcade or as complex as a character's entire family history. Together, the small and the large evoke a dark portrait of rural America and people trying to survive a time of economic hardship; KRZ's stories are of ordinary working-class people: bar clerks, electricians, store clerks, truck drivers. It is not often that such stories are depicted in games, but KRZ treats this theme with respect. Even with its magical-realist visuals, "KRZ" is firmly rooted in careful attention to narrative. Rather, the dreamlike, surrealist visuals actually enhance the message.

In one early scene, Conway's search for Zero leads him to an abandoned mine where he meets a young woman who calls herself Shannon. As he talks with Shannon, she begins to explain that she comes from a family of miners and that the mine collapsed due to corporate greed and disregard for workers' rights, killing all the miners, including her family. As she explores the abandoned mine, she hears the ghostly sound of metal crashing against rock, and in the silence, a radio broadcasts the workers' haunting songs.

Moments like these are truly gripping as you play. They are quiet, unexpected, and free of any strange, unfounded weirdness. But there were times when I became engrossed in the story of KRZ. There were times when characters mentioned names I'd heard somewhere before, or places that pinged deep in my mind. Following the various narrative threads was sometimes a little confusing, but never frustrating; I never once felt as if KRZ wanted anything from me, and I was merely a casual observer in KRZ's ethereal world.

This ties in with the group that joins Conway in his search. They are drifters, pilgrims, loners, and wanderers. They are people with nowhere to go, no home, and no boundaries. This nomadic lifestyle sounds romantic, but in "KRZ," the castaways reveal the ugly truth about rural America. The film tells the story of people trapped in difficult economic circumstances, with loans that cannot be repaid, debts that never end, and difficult economic situations. These characters are people who, whether they like it or not, have been cast out of society or cut off from it, and are now wandering the lost highways of Kentucky.

"Kentucky Route Zero" is the story of people powerless against social or natural forces and their conflicts. Yet KRZ is not a wholly depressing work. The final chapter is warm and hopeful, with a feel-good finale, regardless of whether it took seven years or seven hours to get there. The storytelling is slow but purposeful, blending fiction, history, lore, and the supernatural to create a complex portrait of America and its wanderers. Kentucky Route Zero is a compelling tragedy that focuses on the small but no less important stories of its characters."