Must know
What’s it? A turn-based street journey RPG set within the early 2000s
Count on to pay: $17.99/£15.00
Developer: YCJY Video games
Writer: YCJY Video games
Reviewed on: Intel i7 9700K, RTX 4070 Ti, 16GB RAM
Multiplayer? No
Steam Deck: Playable
Hyperlink: Steam
I grew up in a city with practically no public transportation, so for many of my childhood I walked, skateboarded, and biked to get round, however freedom—true freedom—was solely gained as a teen after I obtained my first automotive. It was a hand-me-down from my grandfather, so it wasn’t sporty or cool, however it was the one actual escape from the drudgery of faculty, the oppression (actual or imagined) of fogeys, and the rising panic that maturity, which meant a job, the army, or extra rattling faculty, was ready on the finish of the summer season.
Maintain Driving is a turn-based street journey RPG that completely captures the liberty and prospects of being younger and having a beat-up outdated automotive, simply sufficient cash to fill it with fuel and snacks, and solely the vaguest of locations in thoughts. Identical to in actual life, street journeys in Maintain Driving really feel like a carefree summertime journey the place you blast some tunes, eat junk meals, and watch your troubles shrink within the rearview mirror—till that verify engine gentle begins blinking, your tank is sort of empty, and also you understand there’s one thing a bit odd about that hitchhiker you picked up.
Map quest
The sport begins with the right excuse for a street journey: an outdated good friend who lives all the best way throughout the map has invited you to a music pageant. With three months of summer season stretching out earlier than you, seize a couple of provides from your home, open the map to choose a route, and begin driving. Your automotive is your stock: retailer helpful stuff within the glove field, additional provides within the trunk, and finally individuals (and possibly the occasional canine) within the empty seats.
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As you journey between any two map places in Maintain Driving, you encounter a handful of obstacles, referred to as street occasions, that gradual you down: mud puddles and potholes, visitors jams and biker gangs, and conditions each driver has encountered sooner or later like “obscure lanes” or a bug that flew within the window and may’t discover its means out. These street occasions are Maintain Driving’s model of turn-based fight, as every flip threatens to wreck 4 completely different attributes: gasoline, money, the automotive’s sturdiness, and your power ranges. To dispel them, it is advisable match the threats with pips in your ability playing cards or objects in your glove field.
It is a easy fight system that is simple to understand inside a couple of tries, and whereas it by no means actually will get any extra advanced, it requires quite a lot of preparation to outlive. Most ability playing cards have just a few makes use of earlier than they should be replenished by sleeping in a city, and glove field objects (like duct tape, which protects sturdiness, and cigarettes, which prevents lack of power) have restricted makes use of earlier than you will want to purchase extra at fuel stations and comfort shops.
If an occasion depletes you adequate, by emptying your fuel or totaling your engine, it does not imply the top of your run. You possibly can name a tow truck (you probably have the money) to take you to the earlier city, or spend power strolling to the closest fuel station, or in essentially the most dire of circumstances, do the unthinkable: name your mother and father and inform them you need assistance. I needed to do it in considered one of my runs, and it introduced again the disgrace of doing it (far more than as soon as) in actual life. Fortunately, Maintain Driving spares you the precise lecture from Dad.
Want a raise?
After which there are the hitchhikers. As you cross the map you will encounter solo vacationers making their very own means by means of the world: a punk rocker with a canine (who takes up an additional seat), a younger girl in a marriage costume who left her groom on the altar, a burnout who misplaced his job and is estranged from his spouse, a mechanic who will smoke all of your cigarettes. None of them have names, simply labels you may use to explain a stranger: The Child, The Songwriter, The Punk. I assume they consider me as “The Driver.”
At first hitchhikers really feel like they’re only a device to make use of in your street occasions, since every brings a novel ability card to the dashboard, however as you journey collectively they every slowly reveal extra about themselves and their journeys by means of fast bits of textual content dialog. Drive with them lengthy sufficient they usually’ll unlock new expertise, and finally reveal their very own quest you possibly can select to pursue. The Punk needs to go to a membership in a distant city, so are you able to drop him off there? The Bride needs to let unfastened and have some enjoyable: obtained any weed? Extra importantly, as they begin to really feel like pals, or at the very least the sorts of momentary pals you made out of necessity if you have been younger and exploring the world.
Developer YCJY Video games does a powerful job of creating characters who’re, technically, simply pixelated sq. portraits you lock into stock slots. With minimal textual content, their tales and personalities come by means of, and by the top of the journey it is clear that we’re all crammed into this automotive for a similar motive: as a result of we’re all just a little broken, just a little aimless, just a little adrift.
I used to be genuinely unhappy to see a few of my passengers climb out of the automotive as soon as I would accomplished their quests, and never simply because it meant dropping the additional expertise I would been counting on. (Aside from considered one of them: I used to be comfortable to be rid of a child I would picked up as a result of they saved having to cease to make use of the lavatory.)
Maintain Driving has an totally kickass soundtrack
These characters additionally introduce you to crime, of which there’s an amusing quantity in Maintain Driving. I even picked up a man in an orange jail jumpsuit who did not actually persuade me he was harmless. Even him I wound up liking, although he is a ache to handle (nobody will sit subsequent to him) and his preliminary ability is one it’s a must to pay $10 a pop for. Weirdly, it wasn’t even him who was the largest troublemaker: a hippie named “The Hurricane” saved wanting me to get excessive, had a ability that would solely be used if I used to be driving whereas drunk, consistently stuffed my stock slots with trash, and whose third degree potential would let me shoplift from shops.
In a sport the place you may be pulled over by the cops and arrested, driving with a gun and a baggie of coke with an escaped convict within the passenger seat undoubtedly turns a chill street journey right into a white-knuckle affair.
As required for any memorable street journey, Maintain Driving has an totally kickass soundtrack. I am not going to fake I am cool sufficient to have heard of Swedish indie bands like Westkust, Makthaverskan, Zimmer Grandioso, and Fucking Werewolf Asso, however they have a brand new fan and their tracks shall be a part of my subsequent actual roadtrip. Even considered one of my hitchhikers, a musician whose guitar took up an annoying quantity of room in my trunk for considered one of my journeys, offered me with a CD of a few of his songs once we lastly parted methods.
There are greater than a half-dozen endings in Maintain Driving in addition to simply attending to that live performance and hanging along with your buddy. (Sure, you may get arrested.) I’ve discovered a number of of them and I am going to maintain taking part in till I’ve collected all of them, after which I’ll play some extra.
Maintain Driving is the type of sport I ought to love on the Steam Deck, however sadly, among the interactions like dragging objects round are fairly fiddly and the smaller pixel artwork icons are exhausting to learn on a smaller display. In any other case it would be excellent for sinking again into the sofa, getting excessive or drunk (or not, your alternative, say no to see stress), letting the street take you the place it should, and making some momentary pals you will always remember.
The Verdict
90
Learn our evaluation coverage
Maintain Driving
Nice characters, difficult useful resource administration, and impeccable street journey vibes.
Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor
Chris began taking part in PC video games within the Eighties, began writing about them within the early 2000s, and (lastly) began getting paid to put in writing about them within the late 2000s. Following a couple of years as an everyday freelancer, PC Gamer employed him in 2014, most likely so he’d cease emailing them asking for extra work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival video games and an unhealthy fascination with the internal lives of NPCs. He is additionally a fan of offbeat simulation video games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he could make up his personal.
