We’ve probably all imagined going on road trips when you or your friend get their first car. The freedom of the open road to go where you want and do what you want. Keep Driving is like the video game personification of that dream and I had a blast trying the demo.
Keep Driving
Set in the early 00’s, you’ve just got your first car, and the lure of a festival on the other side of the country beckons. You set out on the road with a few snacks and other supplies. How you get there from this point onwards is up to you.
As you journey you’ll need to manage your fuel and supplies, making strategic stops to top up on what you need. You can pick up hitchhikers along the way, you’ll encounter obstacles such as sheep blocking roads, and tractors impeding your progress, and will use the turn-based ‘combat’ to overcome them. All the while you will have some top-notch indie tunes blaring in your CD player.
There are different cars you buy to and they offer up various positives and negatives. Some have better fuel capacity, whilst others have more seats so you can pick up more people. There’s a nice variety and depth to all the different cars and customisation options going on.
Car ‘Combat’?
As you progress you will be able to upgrade your car to get better parts, you will need food and other items to keep your energy levels up and your car in good working order. But one area that I really liked revolved around the ‘combat’.
Each encounter you face you will have what is essentially like a card-battling system. There are conditions that you kind of need to clear to be able to progress and your character has a number of ‘cards’ they can play. Each one has a few conditions or threats as they’re called. These could be ‘threats’ to your energy, money, or the car’s health. Playing your threats cancels them out and eventually you clear the threat and move on. It’s a fun little mechanic.
But the bit I really liked about this was that if you pick up hitchhikers. They basically give you more cards to play with offering different combinations of ‘threats’ they can clear. So it pays to try and pick people up and switch things around to see what sort of combos you get.
Excellent 00’s Vibes
Right from the off I felt like the vibes were excellent in Keep Driving. The retro pixel art, the banged-up cars you can buy the guitar music that pumps into gear as you head out. I was immediately having a blast.
Keep Driving is a procedural game so each time you head off and pick a route you will see something different. You can choose to drive down highways, or back roads each offering different types of encounters and people to meet. There are multiple endings offering variety and replayability. Each playthrough is said to take anywhere between 1-4 hours which hopefully means that each one will feel quite different.
Keep Driving was a really fun experience and one I’m looking forward to playing some more of. No release date as of yet though.
-Will
