Nostalgia is a powerful tool. And the mighty steamrollers of marketing know it all too well. It is so easy to monetize, to nickel-and-dime those pink-tinted memories of the Land of Yore, where bubblegum tasted great, music was kick-ass and holidays were always twice as long and with spotless summers. Recently I started to encounter a bit of a jaded approach, a smidge of cynism towards the usage of nostalgia - it starts to feel overplayed in media en masse. People start sniffing it out, feeling that it is being used dishonestly, as a means to sell the good, not as a true attempt to explore it. But still, it can be used with love, with care, when done with gusto and attention to detail that speaks of the true experiences of the creators - a wanderlust into the glorified past.
That's how KEEP DRIVING feels. It has this organic sense of truth to it, bones bared, visceral. You can have an instant sensation that the developers behind this game really felt this vibe in their past and now tried to squeeze the essence of it, into a game. For me, it's even weirder! Because see... I never really was on a road trip. Well, that's a lie, but not direct. I was on plenty of very, very long and tiring car rides, but as a kid with my parents. Learning the radio classics, stopping at motels, eating from gas stations... But I never was a driver. I don't have a driving license. I never went for a wild ride in my own car. And yet... yet, I feel strangely nostalgic for what KEEP DRIVING is selling me. Turns out, there's a word for it - Anemoia, nostalgia for a time or a place one has never known.
And that must have hit me hard because I had an absolute blast driving through highways, dust roads, and tiny towns and stops on my wander through The Country. I never experienced that myself, but the zeitgeist of the early 2000s is so self-evident and well-represented that I guess it managed to wriggle its worms right into my brainstem. It's a collection of things that click just right. The interface is immersive, the resource management feels very much at home for every millennial struggling with a monthly budget (and I've been there, oh yes). Want to expand your music collection? Damn, find and buy new CD's! No Spotify back in the past. Scrounging up scratch for gasoline and some silly decore for your ride feels like manifesting yourself on the road. Finding oddball hitchhikers, striking up a chat, having a ponder on a long empty highway... There's never a dull moment on the road, because even god damn BOREDOM is a combat event!
Yes - Combat. This game is a mixture of genres, a true hodgepodge of roleplay, simulation, resource management, and, for some brilliant reason, roguelike. Between points of interest on your map, you'll encounter various troubles to beat using your current crew abilities and limited resources from your glove compartment. You will combat slow tractors, deal with majestic hawks, take over herds of sheep, or escape annoying tailgaters. Driving at night or, gods forbid, drunk, adds extra difficulty to the challenge. It's hard for me to list all the nifty little systems in this game, there are just so many of them, all gelling together into an experience that feels almost life-like. You need to sleep, you need to eat. Coffee brings you that zap of energy to drive a longer road. You can explore various trips to find goodies. You can work as a temp for various odd jobs to score some quick cash.
Let me give you a great example of how open and peculiar the game can be - I took on a delivery job and got a whole trunk of guitars and musician gear to deliver to a concert, a few towns away. Then I thought - damn, that destination is in completely opposite direction! Screw it! And then I promptly sold all the gear to the first shop I found, bungling the deal, but getting some delightfully illegal money to splurge on new tires and a full tank. Groovy.
Companions you pick on your way might take a lot of space, and be as much of a help as they can be a burden. They are quite an eclectic bunch, each with their own story to tell and destination to reach. Making a bit of a happy-go-lucky merry band of weirdos is a big part of the experience! And the goal? Well... You start with a simple one; Your buds want you at a Festival on the other end of the country. You must acquire a ticker and find your way there before the event starts, giving you a generous couple of weeks to faff about and have fun. But who said that must be your end goal...? On your journey you might find something else to chase, something, perhaps, more worthy of your time and attention. You'll never know until you ride the roads.
And this time we cannot omit talking about the art style and especially, the sounds. It's not a road trip if you're not blasting some cool bands, educating your erstwhile companions on why your choice of rock reigns supreme, after all. Y/CJ/Y made a smart call to get some real bands with real music to contribute, so we got a full package of bangers. Swedish shoegazing, noise pop band Westkust is my favorite, but there are plenty of other flavors here. Zimmer Grandioso hits in with smooth vocals, Dorena brings to the table the chillwave and Fucking Werewolf Asso smash your head with hard riffs and brute tunes. It's hardy all, the selection is reach... That is if you'll manage to find them all for your growing CD collection!
The vibes of the game are just tight. The ever-shifting parallax pixel landscapes change frequently, giving this notion that you're indeed moving through the country, always at a different spot. The car gets visibly dingier as you take damage and fail to upkeep it properly. UI being extremely immersive is a huge highlight - everything is just you and your car. The trunk is your inventory space, pedals act as your escape or pause buttons, and checking your back mirror is how you select your hitchhikers during encounters to use their abilities... It's brilliantly done and makes the game always feel well contained to its setting.
In short - KEEP DRIVING is a banger. It is as unique as it gets, a glorious road-trip sim to anyone who wishes to have such an experience, but never managed to live through it. And if you did? Heck, that's even better, that is where the nostalgia might hit you the hardest, really squeezing the emotional juices out of you during this free-structure ride towards, well... Anything you like, really. Sense of freedom. Great tunes. Superb systems. This game has it all, and I can only recommend it, to everyone, far and wide.
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