When it comes to titles that are first and foremost intended to be story-driven experiences, there’s no doubt that traditional gameplay tends to take a step back to make room for the focus being on the characters and narrative. That’s absolutely the case with Open Roads, which mostly concerns a mother and daughter who end up uncovering a secret about their grandmother who has passed away, and decide to go on a road trip to find out more. What follows is a relatively short overall journey, but one filled with rock-solid voice work, what can often feel like authentic conversations between a mother and her teenage daughter, and quite a bit of heart.

Without a doubt the game’s main attraction is the story and the general production values around making that its primary focus. Featuring the vocal work of Kaitlyn Dever and Keri Russel, it feels like no expense was spared to ensure the two main characters, Tess and Opal, would be able to effectively drive the experience. None of that talent would have mattered much if the story and dialogue itself weren’t handled with care and a sense of realism as well, and what I particularly enjoyed were the varied responses you could periodically choose for the teen-aged Tess to make. Ranging from typical to whimsical to outright snarky at times, as someone who has been through those years with two daughters, these options really helped to make the characters feel authentic, making everything come together more meaningfully.

Unfortunately, where this journey tended to suffer the most was where the general gameplay itself was concerned. Working mostly as a walking simulator, it suffers a bit from traditional issues with that approach to play. You’ll spend a little too much time navigating through a large number of items that aren’t interactive, and even some of the ones you’re able to pick up can feel random and peripheral at best, possibly there more to consume time than to help drive the experience in some way. I also found the stretch in the car to be a bit aggravating, needing to look around until I could divine what I needed to look at or act on to trigger the next conversation, which made the flow of everything a bit uneven in places. Last, while it’s more of a picky criticism than something truly distracting, I found the character animations to be weirdly inconsistent. Sometimes the character’s mouths would open in a way that would vaguely resemble talking, but other times dialogue would continue with them making a static face. It just feels like they should have chosen one direction or another, as where they landed is just a bit odd.

Regardless, there’s something about the whole package that feels pretty special… though perhaps greatly depending on the player. Obviously anyone looking for more excitement will want to steer clear, as this is a very character-driven story first and foremost. I would also imagine that age and having kids or not could also drastically affect how much any given player could get out of it. With age and perspective, the act of looking at the past and reminiscing can be far more powerful, but for younger players I’d doubt there’d be quite as much to connect with. In the end that makes the experience a little too dependent on the player and their own road in life to be a guaranteed hit, but if you’re in the sweet spot it could be a powerful experience.