Kentucky Route Zero is a magic-realism point and click adventure game about an old delivery driver’s last job to deliver goods on the eponymous road. The game is set in the oft-forgotten rust belt of America but the tale it tells is truly universal and could apply to any town which feels neglected or abandoned pretty much anywhere in the world.

Playing the 5 episodes of the game over 15 or so hours had me reflecting as it rang true on so many levels about my hometown of Barking, Essex in east London: coming back to a place to see how much yet how little it has changed, how people you knew have moved on or not at all and how tough life has been for some people, who live within the shadow of one of the richest places on Earth, over a decade after the economic crises hit in 2008.

Kentucky Route Zero resonated with me as it shows how once thriving towns can easily spiral downwards after a huge economic shock, in this case the massive downsizing of Ford Dagenham and the impact it had on the surrounding towns including my hometown. The devastating economic and social impacts can still be felt in the area today with the shopping centre, Vicarage Fields -which opened with so much promise welcoming all to partake in its free peppermint lollies emblazoned with the logo, the cool bookshop on the top floor and the video game shop Whizz Kids selling the latest system and offering playable Atari Lynxes with Chips Challenge- an empty shell with cheap clothes stores and stalls selling phone accessories and plugs.... A shadow of the promise it offers in its youth, even before e-commerce became a thing. The town centre has a prevalence of gambling, pound chicken shops and cheap, barely edible, vegetable and fruit bowl sellers.

But for all this woe here in the UK we are lucky as we have the NHS. In KRZ we see how the crippling cost of healthcare can cost people their very souls and it is heartrending. However, KRZ is optimistic as it looks at people trying to rebuild these forgotten towns and making them a community again.

Barking itself seems to be rising from the ashes of Ford’s as the old 70s high-rises are being knocked down to make way for the new low wise apartment complexes, feeding the lifeblood of the city as it turns into yet another commuter town. This is an improvement after about 20 years of decline but it does feel like an end of something, I’m not sure what though… community maybe?

It is said that Art speaks of the human condition and Kentucky Route Zero is truly and artistic endeavour.