Indie plot spotlight : Keep Driving is a unique road-trip RPG
Keep Driving, by YCJY Games , places you in the role of a youthful driver who is making their first road trip to the early slope of the state . The intent live to create your means to a summer festival .
It ‘s a roguelite car management RPG that offers a surprising amount of freedom and reflection . You have to supervise your energy , petrol , and car ‘s durability ( if any of these three reaches zero , your car comes to a grinding stop ) as well as your money .
Each stop offers a rest from the exposed road . You can design which road to remove future , but it ‘s too essential to stop by any shops , garages , cafés , and other stage of interest .
Your vehicle can exist customised with unlike portion to improve its performance on the road , while you receive a special sum of storage space inside for handy detail you might need to employ during your trip .
I spent a circle of time managing my car thrill – sweep and rotate everything around to make them fit – and count up the pros and cons of each item if I work out of room . Food and drink exceed up your energy , but many point like aspirin , soap , and flashlights offer perks or ways to tackle debuffs . A sleep bag takes up a band of space but cause sleeping more comfortable if you ca n’t feel or afford a hostel to stay in . Petrol cans are great in an emergency , but you can sell them at a somewhat high price .
It ‘s impressive how unlike items interact with others and how that can inform your decision-making . Coffee assist with energy and fatigue , but they run cold – unless you ‘ve purchase a thermos flask . A portable stove lets you prepare food , a healthier alternative than thrust yourself with junk food .
In fact , in one of my runs , I ate so much junk food , I finish up with a ‘glutton ‘ trait where I become hungry more often .
This is another aspect that shines . The game respond to your choices and playstyle .
On the road , you encounter road case . They ‘re obstacle that bring the form of nuisance like traffic jam , potholes , and live cling behind a tractor that need to be overcome through a turn-based card-battle system . You hold to expend your skills and glovebox item to take away picture labelled as threats before your stats require a hit .
In one run , I ever kept a 12-pack of cigarette in my glovebox . They were often stocked in workshop , cheap , and a mere style to handle with one type of menace . But by overusing this , I was pay the ‘smoker ‘ trait – a punishment that mean every use of the item consumed two cigarettes rather of one . That become into ‘heavy smoker ‘ ( three cigarette on habit ) as I role-played , stubbornly continuing to buy and smoke cigarette .
There are a scope of positivist trait as well , of grade , but the negative ones exist more fun to talk about as they inject a bit more personality into a trial .
They ‘re a mode to add rest to a run , but I also find the plot could hold gone further and made them still more impactful .
A run can consist of hundreds of short battles , and it ‘s a pity that even with some curveballs the game seek to throw at you , the road events can feel a small repetitive by the goal . I too felt I did n’t own to experiment a lot with my skills loadout , peculiarly when hitchhikers you can pick up occur with additional skills for you to use .
The hitchhikers exist great , though , adding a little excess living to the trip as good as quests of their own .
You can , in theory , head straight to the festival and quickly see the goal . But for me , a big part of the enjoyment came from the recreation that took me all over the map . I could n’t not sample to reunite a youthful miss with her parent , and I require to find what would encounter if I clean up an escaped convict .
I think that ‘s the game ‘s great strength – it made me want to plunge myself in the trip . When I clean up the young miss , I resolve to move the drug and knife that I make find in an abandoned building from the back ass to the car boot – not for any ‘gameplay ‘ ground but because it find correct to .
During another moment , I have a guide bicycle that prevented the ‘stressed ‘ debuff , but I take it to create space for novel pricey speaker I bought . Why ? The speaker did n’t provide any benefit that cause the game easier , but do elaborate my music playlist by a whole two song . I hardly wanted more song on my mix CD to listen to on the road .
( Incidentally , the soundtrack cost excellent , take with a sort of melody by local indie bands based in Sweden . )
That ‘s what makesKeep Drivingsuch an engaging plot . It brings together all of its system to produce narratives that stretch organically and that are easy to get lose in . You may encounter the same hitchhikers or the same quests across two unlike trial , but the stories wo n’t equal the same . It ‘s about the journey , not the destination .
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