Review: Keep Driving
The road may be treacherous, but keep driving.
THE GAME
Keep Driving is a resource management RPG developed and distributed by YCJY Games and Kepler Ghost. Set in the early 2000s, you've just bought your first car and learn about a festival happening on the other side of the country. You're young, and adventure calls. You decide the route, and whether going to the festival is what you truly want. The road is full of dangers, and you must overcome them to reach your goals. Accept rides, upgrade your car, or simply try to reach the end of your adventure, navigating the challenges of life on the road.
MY IMPRESSIONS
Trips should always be well-planned, but even when you think you've planned everything right, unexpected problems can arise. Keep Driving emulates a car trip with RPG elements and resource management that, at first, may seem very punishing, but as your journey progresses, you realize that maintaining your resources isn't as difficult as it seemed, even if it's not trivial. Problems will appear at any moment. Your car might run out of gas or break down, you might run out of money or get hungry. All of this must be overcome using the resources available to the player. The game is in Brazilian Portuguese, which makes it easier to understand the game mechanics, even though the text interface is a bit confusing, you can still understand it. Graphically, the game is beautiful, with a very unique atmosphere. The soundtrack is up to the player, who can change the playlist in their car whenever they want and can even buy new CDs to listen to during their journey. The developers even say that the soundtrack is composed of local indie bands (in Sweden), which I thought was very cool.
The ultimate goal is decided by the player. Although a final objective is presented early in the journey, you don't have to be stuck with it. The trip can open up a range of different objectives, and this is intentional, as the game has different endings, so it's fun to play again and see different story outcomes. During the trip, you can give rides to people who have side missions to complete, and again, if you want, you can complete them. The hitchhikers also help you in "battles" against threats on the road. These threats are events that occur during the journey from one point to another on the map. The player must avoid the threats using the abilities of the main character or the hitchhikers. Abilities consume resources or have limited uses until you rest to replenish them, so use them wisely. If you fail to avoid them on your turn, they "attack" you according to the resource they represent, potentially draining fuel from the car, damaging it, taking your money, or draining the driver's energy. These four resources, in particular, are crucial to your journey, both as resources to be spent and to keep them healthy. Negative effects can also affect your journey, such as hunger, cold, or stress, for example. For this reason, you should always pay attention to your inventory, which is the car's trunk. Different cars have different interior spaces, both trunk space and passenger seats, so it's important to choose and plan well which car you will choose at the beginning of your journey. Most of the time, these negative effects can be removed with rest or the use of items, such as food to satisfy hunger or a hot coffee to combat the cold. Although simple, it's a very creative mechanic and makes the game much more interesting. Finally, your car also deserves special treatment, allowing the player to improve it with new parts that also help in combating the threats on the road. Think of the car parts as the character's armor; after all, the car fulfills that role.
Keep Driving puts a map in the player's hands and the freedom to decide what to do, like a young person with their whole life ahead of them. Experiencing different stories, trying different goals, always with new perspectives, is a really cool thing the game makes possible. The game's atmosphere immerses you in the experience of truly enjoying a journey that, even with its occasional setbacks, makes it all worthwhile.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Despite having few achievements, you'll have a lot of work to do to complete them all. They all relate to possible endings and specific missions that appear during your journey. Basically, it's up to the player to experience everything the game presents. In general, you just have to follow what the mission tells you to do, and it's up to the player to succeed or fail in fulfilling the request. Completing 100% of the achievements may take time, but you're young and have plenty of time to enjoy the journeys offered by Keep Driving.
CONCLUSION
Without a doubt, one of the most visually beautiful games I've ever played. It has a truly unique atmosphere that you can only understand by playing it. It's relaxing, while at the same time you have a lot of obstacles to overcome. Although the "combat" against the road's threats isn't that fun and is sometimes even confusing because of the text interface, the overall aspects of the game compensate for that, leaving a very cool and creative experience for the player. Keep Driving is definitely worth playing and experiencing everything it has to offer.
Comments