![]() “We made a thing in this little cave of development for long periods of time and released it, and it’s cool to see how people react to it.” “That’s always really gratifying, regardless of what people are saying,” reflects Babbitt on the positive reactions he’s witnessed since the game’s debut. ![]() Kentucky Route Zero’s musical centerpiece “ Too Late to Love You” found considerable acclaim in singer Junebug, whose heartbroken vocals pine for unrequited romance but soar with such exuberance that the scene’s ceilings open up into a star-spangled nighttime sky. The gentle synthesizers and lap steel guitar of “ Dark Rum Noir” hypnotizes listeners in its slow, hazy crawl, complementing the imagery of rhythmic tidewater licking the shores of the candlelit Rum Colony tiki bar and a protagonist increasingly seduced by drink. The lonesome, unplugged vocals and banjo of “ Long Journey Home (Solo),” for example, hauntingly echoes as though recorded in the underground river of Act IV or the Mammoth Cave system that lies beneath Kentucky. Set to sounds as wide-ranging as a twanging bluegrass guitar and a ghostly theremin solo, the travails of protagonists Conway, Shannon, Ezra, and others carry a melancholy quality as Babbitt’s music builds a sense of both regional flavors and otherworldly atmospheres. Part of the excitement among audiences can be attributed to Ben Babbitt’s accomplished score, remarkable for its chameleonic quality and stirring in its moments of catharsis, which the game deploys as a crucial thematic and stylistic component of the overall experience. The game has enjoyed no shortage of critical praise ( including my own) since the first act was released in January 2013, and anticipation for the long-awaited conclusion for a game almost a decade in the making is palpable among those players who have plunged deeply into the game’s mythic vision of rural Kentucky after dark. Structured around five acts with short, standalone interludes that divide each release, Kentucky Route Zero continues to beguile audiences with its decelerated approach to gameplay and its quietly surreal and folkloric narrative of a crumbling, magical realist South. ![]() One third of developer trio Cardboard Computer-alongside Jake Elliott and Tamas Kemenczy-Ben Babbitt caught up with me at the PlayStation Experience showcase and followed up afterward for a long conversation about Kentucky Route Zero and his work. With the premiere of the final act of Kentucky Route Zero increasingly close at hand, I revisited old conversations with composer Ben Babbitt that we shared back in 2017, just weeks before the official release of the short interlude Un Pueblo de Nada between the acts of the main game. Originally conducted over two days: Decemand December 10, 2017Įdits and introduction written July 31, 2019
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