[1][2] The game follows the narrative of a truck driver named Conway and the strange people he meets as he tries to cross the mysterious Route Zero in Kentucky to make a final delivery for the antiques company for which he works.

The game received acclaim for its visual art, narrative, characterization, atmosphere, and themes, appearing on several best-of-the-decade lists.

The game was developed for Linux, Windows, and macOS, with console ports for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One under the subtitle of "TV Edition", coinciding with the release of the final act.

Being hired to make a delivery to 5 Dogwood Drive, Conway travels the roads around Interstate 65 in Kentucky to locate the address, accompanied by his dog, whose name is chosen by the player.

Joseph informs Conway that the only way to arrive at Dogwood Drive is by taking the mysterious Route Zero, and then tasks him to fix the circuit breaker to restore power in the station and use the computer to locate directions.

Conway decides to help Shannon travel deeper into the mine, and begins toying with a PA system to test the depth and length of the tunnels.

This time the picture of the farm begins to warp and separate, causing the screen to create an image of the opening to Route Zero and the truck driving down it.

Act II opens with a prelude in which Lula Chamberlain, an installation artist whose work is featured in the Kentucky Route Zero bonus content Limits & Demonstrations, receives a rejection notice from the Gaston Trust for Imagined Architecture.

At the storage facility Conway chats about hobbies with the caretaker of the building and listens to a prerecorded sermon on the virtue of hard work while Shannon finds the record they are seeking.

As they leave the building Conway collapses from his injury, hallucinating about Elkhorn Mine, and Shannon decides their first priority should be to find Doctor Truman and obtain treatment.

Act II ends as Conway succumbs to the drug, causing his vision to grow black and the walls of the house to pull away to reveal the forest beyond.

Conway awakens from the Neurypnol TM-induced sleep at Doctor Truman's house to find his injured leg replaced with a strange skeletal limb giving off a yellow glow.

Conway and Shannon talk to the Strangers off-screen and, after returning with the solution, travel back with the group to the Hall of the Mountain King and fix Xanadu, using it to locate Lula.

Conway, Shannon, Ezra, Johnny, and Junebug continue downriver on the Echo with boat captain Cate, her assistant Will, and a passenger named Clara who plays the theremin.

Shannon continues down the river alone on the dinghy and rendezvouses with the rest of the Mucky Mammoth passengers and crew at Sam & Ida's, a seafood restaurant.

Act V begins after Shannon and her traveling companions have hauled all of the contents of Conway's truck to the top of the Silo of Late Reflections, which turns out to be a well at the center of an effigy mound in a small town.

The travelers meet and converse with the residents of this town, and learn about its history and landmarks, including a graveyard, a library, a waffle restaurant, a hangar and airstrip, and a public-access television station.

The final view is of Shannon and the group having moved the items from Conway's truck into 5 Dogwood Drive, completing his delivery, and gathering in the house.

[8][9][10] They also looked at theater scripts for inspiration, which later helped in characterization, dialogue, environment design and treatment of space, lighting and movement.

[13][14] The final act's update also included short interludes created during development, as well as audio captions, adjustable text scale, Steam achievements and localization to French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Korean, and Japanese.

GameSpot referred to it as being "beautiful and mysterious enough to grip you,"[24] and IGN called it "a damn fine example of what makes the medium of video games so special.

Club noted that "KRZ really is the masterpiece critics have been lauding it as for years" and that "anyone with an interest in storytelling, existential mysteries, and the way art can reflect our poor and hollowed world should play it.

At the end of the 2010s, Kentucky Route Zero was ranked 3rd best game of the decade by Paste,[5] 4th by Polygon,[3] 5th by Les Inrockuptibles,[39] 7th by Focus Vif,[40] 23rd by GQ,[41] and 50th by GamesRadar+.

"[45] Kentucky Route Zero was also influential on the industry: Le Monde reported on how the title left its mark on the narrative games of its time, citing Night in the Woods, Bury Me, My Love, No Longer Home, and Mutazione.

[46] The writer of the latter, Hannah Nicklin of Die Gute Fabrik, called Kentucky Route Zero a "modern classic" and a "[milestone] in the history of a medium.