When I was 21, my friend and I went on a month-long romp throughout Western Europe, sleeping in dodgy Airbnbs and largely getting by on the kindness of strangers. It was strangers who got out of their cars to help us parallel park in the narrow streets of Seville, strangers who drove us across Santorini to our hotel after we missed our bus out of the fancy part of the island, strangers who took us to weird clubs and invited us to their interpretive dance shows.
It’s easy to be reckless when you’re young and the world doesn’t feel quite as scary and hostile, mostly because you don’t have that many bills to pay or responsibilities in life.Keep Drivingbrought all those memories back for me, capturing the vibe of a risky summer road trip when you’re kind of broke and you’re not sure exactly how you’re gonna make this all work. That first paragraph was a lie, I’ve never really done this – I’m far too anxious not to plan every single thing in advance. I nearly cried the first time I missed a train in London. But I do think there was a time, nearly ten years ago, when I was happy to take things in stride and every little disruption to my plans didn’t throw me into a tailspin of worry.
Keep Driving is all about making it work amidst the disruptions, and adapting to your circumstances instead of having a meltdown, like I would in real life. After customising your character and choosing a ride, you fill your trunk with any inventory you’re taking from home (this means rotating and fitting items into a grid a la Resident Evil) and pick your next destination from a map.
One of the questions asked as part of the customisation process is how good your relationship with your parents is. The better it is, the higher the probability of them agreeing to bail you out if you get in major trouble. Functionally, it’s kind of a difficulty modifier.
On the way there, you’ll encounter random events – these are the disruptions. This might be as simple as finding roadkill, spotting a weird box on the side of the road, or getting stuck in traffic and wanting to smack your head against the steering wheel. Some events will threaten your resources, potentially damaging your car, depleting the gas in your tank, or exhausting you, forcing you to use items to replenish those status bars.
To negate the potential effects of these events, you’ll have to do a simple puzzle game where you use skills or items to wipe out the icons at the bottom of the screen. Maximising a skill’s efficiency by matching it perfectly to the icons gives you an extra turn, and you unlock skills as you gain experience.
Items have finite uses, so you’ll have to buy more regularly, especially if you aren’t focusing on maximising skill usage during these events. This was where I started making mistakes. I forgot that I was supposed to be struggling with a small budget, just as my 21 year old self would. I bought upgrades I didn’t need for my car at the very first stop I made. I topped up on gas. I bought a bunch of snacks.
By the end of the first day, I was nearly out of cash. I didn’t have enough money to sleep in a hotel, so I slept in my car. A hitchhiker I picked up told me that I was getting stinky, because I hadn’t showered, and on top of that, I was cold and hungry with just soda to tide me through the day. I was having a very bad time.
I found a bulletin board somewhere with jobs on it and picked some up, but none of them were going to be quick cash, and one of them asked me to make a delivery back to where I’d just come from. I definitely would not be doing that. By the afternoon, my very bad day had somehow gotten exponentially worse, as I’d run out of gas and had no money to top it up. I called my parents, who presumably told me to buzz off, because I got a game over screen.
It’s unclear how Keep Driving’s mechanics will evolve from here, but its pixelated aesthetic, groovy indie soundtrack, and oddball characters have me very keen to see where this long, winding road leads. You canwishlist it on Steamnow.
Keep Driving
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It’s theearly 2000’s, and you’vejust bought your first car.A long,slow summer lies ahead. Hearing about a festival on the other side of the country, you fire up your engine, plot a course on your map, and hit the road. How, if you get there at all, is up to you.Procedurally generated pixel art open worldKeep Drivingis amanagement RPGabout slowly making your way through a procedurally generated pixel art open world. Pick up hitchhikers with their own personalities and stories; upgrade, customize and repair your car. Solve challenges on the road using a unique turn-based ‘combat’ system, using your own skills and whatever’s lying around in the glovebox to make it through.At the end of your road trip, return back to the beginning and see what happens if you had followed a different path. There are multiple endings, with each taking about 1-4 hours to complete. Immerse yourself in the land through its highways, dirt tracks, and calm country roads. And remember to enjoy the ride. You’re young and don’t have much to lose.
