Keep Driving captures the calm of the open road but could use a few more potholes

My dream game would be one that captures the feeling of a road trip. It’s more than just driving a car somewhere; there’s a vibe to it. It comes through in being connected between a familiar car on an unfamiliar road, the signs of a distant gas station, the buzzing fluorescent lights of some 24/7 diner, moments of contemplation, or waking up in a new place every morning.

There have been a few games I can point to that have somewhat succeeded, sometimes without trying. Jalopy, for example, even if the final product was not quite what was envisioned. Sitting at the pub My Summer Car captured part of the feeling, watching the drunks have a spirited conversation over a beer and a greasy meal. But nothing that fully landed directly on target. Heck, Final Fantasy XV might have been perfect if it didn’t dump the car halfway through the game.

Keep Driving is an unexpected attempt from the developers behind Post Void and The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human. I maybe didn’t expect my envisioned road trip game to be in the form of a 2D game, and that’s probably because it’s not, but it’s pretty close nonetheless.

Keep Driving has more in common with Oregon Trail than it does with any driving game. It’s depicted from a side-on perspective. You don’t actually drive the car; you just stare at the passenger door while it travels the roads. While it drives itself, you can fiddle with the radio or just watch the scenery go by. Then, every so often, you’ll find a hitchhiker or reach a road event.

Road events are where the meat of the game is. Each one presents a different problem, ranging from potholes to a slow-moving tractor. You then have to use your skills and tools in your car to mitigate the harm caused by these hazards, whether they threaten to damage your car, exhaust you, or drain your fuel. This is done using cards that can eliminate these dangers before they can affect you (or your car). It’s not the deepest system, but it’s relatively quick, allows for variety in challenges, and works for its purpose.

After completing a stretch of road, you arrive in a town with various services. Sometimes, it’s gas. Other times, you can pick up an odd job for money. Occasionally, you’ll find a forested path that allows you to plumb a dungeon-like 3D environment for items, and if you’re lucky, there’s an inn if you need it. You’ll come across stores and garages where you can buy upgrades for your car or supplies for your trip. Once you’re prepared, you check the map, choose your next destination, and head out.

The goal is to reach your friend’s house to play your favorite video game together. Apparently, you just graduated high school and you can feel your youth reaching its end, and you want to go out in the phosphor glow of a turn-of-the-millenium TV and the company of a distant friend. I can relate. This was clearly in the days before the internet poisoned everything meaningful in the world.

There’s a character creator where you choose your face, your relationship with your parents, and your occupation. This isn’t far off from Oregon Trail’s character setup, where your occupation would define your readiness for the trip. A difficulty setting of sorts, or maybe more of a modifier. In any case, once you’ve found yourself, you can set off to the tune of some Swedish rock, which helps set the tone beyond what I could possibly believe.

That’s largely all there is to it. Your job is to prevent yourself and the car around you from falling to pieces. That may sound simple, and that’s because it is. This early demo of Keep Driving is easy as pie. I mean, I’m playing the pre-release version of a demo right now, so it’s hard to really judge where it will end up, but right now, its biggest problem is that there’s nothing to it.

I’m making a pretty big assumption that I’m not just really skilled at Keep Driving, which I think is a safe thing to assume because I’m not skilled at anything. Finding myself prodigious at this would be really disappointing because I’m not sure where I’d apply it elsewhere in life.

I didn’t come close to losing my run. There aren’t many needs that require constant attention. As long as you spend your skill points and buy extra supplies for your glove box, it’s easy to get through the various road encounters. Fuel isn’t that expensive, and for being a poor high school graduate, I was strangely loaded with cash most of the time. It got to the point where I was trying to get rid of it, buying car upgrades I didn’t need. I just picked my route based on what I needed at the time and still made it to my friend’s place with time to spare.

Maybe that’s something that is also inspired by Oregon Trail. In most versions of that game, you could just do the hunting minigame and lay waste to the animal population to store up embarrassing amounts of food. That makes the game really simple, and I have to wonder why so many children died of dysentery. Were they unable to shoot the virtual bears? Is this another thing I’m inexplicably prodigious at? Are my talents all related to Oregon Trail derivatives?

I only picked up one hitchhiker the whole way. He was pretty depressing. He recently lost his job and is feeling pretty directionless. Whatever. He didn’t drug me and steal my kidneys. Maybe that’s where the challenge is supposed to be. I’m just really good at keeping my kidneys in my body. Very well practiced. I doubt it, though. I’m pretty sure this is supposed to be a chill game, and not chill in the way that you’d feel after waking up in a bathtub full of ice.

I had problems with bugs, as well, but between when I first started playing and today there was already a patch that fixed some of the weirder ones. As I said, this is an early demo. It even warns you when you start it up that some elements are just placeholders. I didn’t see anything that makes me truly concerned about where the quality will be on the final product.

Balancing happens over time. A game might be too hard to begin with, so advantages are added to make things a bit more friendly, and the same can happen the opposite way. If the game is too friendly, certain aspects can be changed to make it stiffer. The release version will have multiple endings, maybe arriving at a friend’s house and playing Halo on Legendary difficulty is actually the worst one.

There are many places where Keep Driving finds success. While the fact that you aren’t truly behind the wheel takes some of the road trip feeling away, it gives you a chance to just sit back, listen to the radio, sip your tea, and plunge your hand into a box of Frankenberry. There’s still a feeling of directionless freedom and self-reflection, even while you know there are problems on the road ahead that you’ll need to deal with. There’s clear intent here, and a lot of it gets across. It’s obvious that Y/CJ/Y Games knows what they’re doing, and it’s not too hard to imagine them being able to reach their vision.

The release date for Keep Driving is still TBA, but there will be a demo available this coming Next Fest (October 14).