Open Roads is a fairly mid-tier experience within the Walking Sim genre. Although, given the size of the genre and that its one I'm a fan of, that means I still had a fun ride with Open Roads.

The 2D character art alongside the highly detailed 3D environments was a welcome change from its peers. The characters being given few frames that are exaggerated is a cool style, thought I found the lack of frames during speech a bit jarring. The voice performances on the other hand are great and helped patch that hole. Kaitlyn Dever in particular is phenomenal and brings so much life and youthfulness to Tess.

The primary mystery of the story is... okay. It functioned better as the carrot on the stick rather than being a mind shattering plot twist with the final reveals. Instead the story bits I found more engaging were the little details and sub-conversations. Themes of divorce, loss of loved ones, growing up with only one parent, cycles within families. There is surprisingly a lot packed into the short run time, thinking back on the experience once its done.

Overall I can't call this a must play relative to the other Walking Sims but while this can be a tropey genre in its themes, settings and even specific plot details, I think Open Roads takes the road less travelled and explores some new ideas.

From what I've seen, this game experienced a rocky development, but I am left excited to see what this team does next. Hopefully its a smoother ride where the potential for an even greater game is just a ways down the road.