Act III

KRZ Act III promo picture

Act III of Kentucky Route Zero was released on May 6, 2014.

Summary

Lysette and Conway

Conway sits at breakfast with Lysette on the morning before he left with the delivery to Dogwood Drive, they talk about her dead son Charlie and she displays obvious memory trouble. A woman, Cora, is coming to take her away, most likely to an assisted living center. The dream slowly vanishes and Conway then awakens back at Dr. Truman's. 

Conway with ghost leg

Truman has fixed Conway's leg, which appears to have been replaced entirely by a ghostly skeletal leg, like those had by the skeleton Hard Times workers. Only Conway is able to see the phantom leg, commenting on it briefly. Truman tells Conway he couldn't have been dreaming due to use of Neurypnol TM. He then explains future leg care/Neurypnol side effects, telling Conway he will never be fully recovered. 

Museum of Dwellings

Conway, Shannon, and Ezra are back at the Museum of Dwellings. Shannon tells Conway about her past drug problems with Weaver's ADD medication. Emily, Ben and Bob of Limits and Demonstrations stand outside the museum, debating whether to enter. Conway tells them not to, but they don't appear to hear him (like in Act I) and continue arguing. Ezra runs to the edge of the rain-filled parking lot and stands with Flora, watching her paper boat float away. 

Conway and Shannon, now having the files for Lula, decide to head back to Equus Oils for directions to the Zero from Joseph, as the cave entrance from Act I located in the back yard of the Marquez Farmhouse has vanished.

A Tree

A Tree

Conway's truck stalls out next to a tree and Shannon calls a tow truck company but doesn't get help. Junebug and Johnny drive by on a motorcycle on the way to perform at the Lower Depths bar. Although they are late already, they stop to help in hopes of gaining an audience at their performance.

Equus Oils

Players can choose to stop and talk with Joseph, mentioning the encounter with Lula.

The Lower Depths 

Junebug and Johnny

At the bar, Junebug and Johnny perform their song Too Late to Love You. Harry, the bartender, then gives them directions to the Zero.

The Hall of the Mountain King

The group meets Donald and his assistants who reside within the mountain working on the project known as Xanadu. Xanadu, named for the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is a computer and gaming program that has infused with the black mold of the cave. The mold seems to have given life to the system, changing it in unpredictable ways. When the group go to use the computer, they realize that it can't function in it's current state and ask Donald what they can do. He explains that throughout the project they have been interrupted by the strangers in the cave. They should know how to fix the computer but there is a looming sense of foreboding about them. The group exit the cave by Donald's directions and come out in a graveyard. Shannon and Conway leave Junebug and Ezra for a moment to gather info. They return rather disturbed and the group returns to repair the computer. Xanadu is then started up and played as a text adventure game starring Donald, Joseph, and Lula. The story documents their cave project and relationships and tells of how Donald ended up working the project alone in the cave with hired assistants from the college they used to attend. After that, Lula arrives with information for Donald to process and returns to the Bureau. It isn't a heartwarming reunion. Once at the Bureau, Shannon receives the next set of directions to follow from Lula, and Junebug inquires about what happened at the graveyard. Flashback to the graveyard where Conway and Shannon enter a church with a metal floor and rickety moonshine still in the corner. Nothing else. No strangers. They sit on a pew and Shannon talks to Conway about what happened back in the mines. Before she entered the mines herself, Weaver, previously thought to be deceased, appeared to her on a TV in her shop, telling her via closed captions to go to the mine. Suddenly the pew lowers into a vast open area, the Hard Times Whiskey Distillery.

This section is empty or incomplete and requires expansion.

Hard Times Whiskey Distillery

Shannon and Conway are greeted by a glowing skeleton named Doolittle, one of the "strangers." He assumes they have come in search of work. Most, if not all current employees, are there to work off a debt. There are some new recruits, human in form, learning "the formula" for managing the numbers involved in financial disarray taught to the strangers by Weaver when she contacted them while working with Donald on the Xanadu project. The player can use Shannon's CRT to see some of the strangers better and get Doolittle to comment on their work and debt troubles. Doolittle takes them on a grand tour of the distillery and ends at the shipment area, where he plans to put Conway to work in place of Miguel who was the driver of the truck in the accident witnessed in Act I. The artificial lighting dims and Doolittle slows his gait. As Conway investigates the features of the delivery truck, he recalls some somber moments of his past. Before signing on as a new truck driver, Conway and Doolittle are interrupted by Shannon who says they just want to know how to repair Xanadu. Doolittle informs them that the black mold is attracted to the evaporated alcohol, the Angel's share, and they'd routinely scrape the mold to squeeze out every last drop back into their supply. This is no longer necessary thanks to Weaver's formula. He then tells them how to get the computer up and running properly. Doolittle then congratulates Conway as a new member of the distillery team and offers him a customary start of the shift drink. "Vinum memoriae mors!" ["Wine is the death of memory!"] The cursor moves against the player's will to the drink as the background fades to black. Shannon says Conway will not be working for them and they have somewhere to be. Doolittle disgruntledly charges Conway an undisclosed amount of money for that expensive drink and his time and says he will have to pay it off, by working, starting tomorrow. End of Flash back. Conway still has a delivery to make, so the group boards the ferry to the next destination.

This section is empty or incomplete and requires expansion.

Characters

• Conway
• Shannon Márquez
• Lula Chamberlain
• Junebug
• Johnny
• Harry
• Ezra
• Dr. Truman
• Lem Doolittle

This section is empty or incomplete and requires expansion.

Locations

Main locations

• Dr. Truman's House
• Side of Road (Breakdown)
• The Lower Depths
• Bureau of Reclaimed Spaces
• The Hall of the Mountain King
• Hard Times Whiskey Distillery

Optional locations & encounters

• Equus Oils
• Drive-In Theater
• Shannon's Workshop
• Convenience Store
• Carrington (Equus Oils, Elkhorn Mine, or Storage Facility)
• Clockworks/Bus Stop & Passenger Homes
• Petting Zoo
• Arcade
• Creek
• Railroad Track (hidden road left of Marquez Farmhouse)
• Museum (sweeping broken glass)
• Picnic
• Pond

Optional locations along the Zero

• Consolidated Power Office (Near the Casket)
• Rust Archives
• [Phil Morton's] Van (Near the Blades)
• Sinkhole (Near the Talon)
• Children Encounters (3) (Near the Barn, the Backpack, the Sandwich)
• Tunnel (Near the Birdhouse)
• Boat
• Ladder (Near the Still)
• Self-Storage

Soundtrack

Track list for Act III soundtrack:

1. Xanadu − 02:44
2. Weird Vector − 03:06
3. Hall of the Mountain King − 03:37
4. Too Late to Love You − 06:14
5. What Would You Give − 03:30

Development and references

This section is empty or incomplete and requires expansion.

Reception

This section is empty or incomplete and requires expansion.

• GameRankings: 89/100
• Metacritic: 91/100

External links

• Act III analysis by Magnus Hildebrandt