Annapurna Interactive is a pretty prolific video game publisher, even though it’s relatively young as a company. It’s already worked on several significant titles such as Journey and Outer Wilds, and it’s going strong overall. One studio that Annapurna has partnered with before is The Fullbright Company, which produced the first person adventure game Gone Home.
Now, Annapurna and Fullbright are working together on Open Roads, a mystery game focused on a mother and daughter exploring their family’s complicated past. Details on Open Roads are pretty scarce right now, but it sounds like it’ll be exploring family ties and what happens when unfamiliar ancestors leave behind baggage for descendants to unpack.
Open Roads does sound a little bit like a completely different game involving family ties. God of War fans probably remember the franchise’s most recent entry, in which Kratos has aged up significantly and has a son to raise. The relationship between Kratos and Atreus was a huge focal point of God of War, and the game got a lot of praise for exploring the father-son relationship. Open Roads clearly wants to do the same thing through a different lens of gameplay. The relationship between Tess and Opal Devine will be at the core of everything that happens in Open Roads.
God of War‘s Norse setting was full of treachery and danger. It was imperative that Kratos and Atreus work together to survive, even though they didn’t always see eye to eye. Although players see their relationship through Kratos’ eyes the entire time, that means they have more intimate insight on Kratos’ struggle to adapt to the responsibilities of fatherhood. Open Roads will probably play on some of the same themes of God of War: only by pushing past their differences and learning to work together can the parent-child pair accomplish their goals.
Open Roads will take a shot at this type of story in a very different way. It’s a mystery game, so it probably won’t be focused on teamwork in battle. Even if there’s no combat, there’s probably still going to be danger to over come, though. A thieves’ treasure won’t be found easily. Additionally, the player character is Tess Devine, the daughter in Open Roads‘ mother-daughter relationship. Open Roads might be tonally different from God of War in some ways since the perspective is flipped, compared to Kratos in God of War. Even so, the teased tension between Tess and Opal means that the game may share a lot of the same themes as God of War at heart.
There’s not a slew of games that focus on the relationships within families. However, Fullbright has the necessary experience to get it right. Its previous project, Gone Home, received critical acclaim for its nuanced and sensitive exploration of familial relationships, and what can make or break a family. Open Roads is probably being designed with a lot of the same spirit. Over the course of the game, Tess and Opal’s quest to visit family landmarks and unearth treasures will become the stage where they hash out issues plaguing them, long before they ever started diving into Opal’s past.
God of War: Ragnarok is bound to find new ways to explore Kratos and Atreus’ relationship. With a name like “Ragnarok,” it sounds like they’ll need each other more than ever. Open Roads doesn’t set up huge stakes quite like God of War does, but that doesn’t make the small, local stakes of a family in turmoil any less important or moving. Fullbright has a great opportunity to tell a moving story about when two normal people setting their differences aside to achieve something important to both of them. God of War and Open Roads might seem like an unlikely pair on the surface, but anyone who enjoyed the narrative of God of War should consider giving Open Roads a try.
Open Roads will release in 2021 for PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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