“You’re young. You have time.”
I didn’t learn to drive a car until my early twenties, so my whole life before that point was being a sweet, little, passenger princess. Most of the time was spent either listening to music in the car, looking outside the window, or having my nose buried in a Gameboy Advance (Flame red SP to be specific). Who among us can’t say they had a visceral, emotional revelation while staring outside the window of your dad’s SUV listening to Asian Kung-Fu Generation. You’re looking along power lines imaging Sonic the Hedgehog running along them and doing cool flips, yeah I know. It was a vibe.
So, here comes Swedish studio Y/CJ/Y’s fifth game, Keep Driving, a roguelite where you manage a road trip in your early twenties, and this game is like if you took that vibe, and pulled it up over you like a warm blanket.
The start of every run is reminiscent of The Oregon Trail, you select your starting package of goods, your background, and your car. Then off you go. You are a young adult looking to have a memorable summer, and you start putting your house behind you.
The goal of the game is intentionally very loose, everything you do results in an ending of one way or the other. Whether it’s making it across the country to go to a music festival, end up in rehab, or find a boring office job (to name just a few). The game frames this as a memory, and makes it clear from the get go that there aren’t necessarily any wrong choices, they’re simply just choices you decide to make.
Mechanically speaking you manage the durability and gas of your car. The driving itself isn’t something you do actively, but rather the game puts you in scenarios that one might find themselves in on a road trip.Things such as sheep in the road, aggressive tailgaters, or entertaining introspective thoughts that tend to pop in and out of the head while you are tanking hour 6 of a driving session. You gain a deck of abilities that you can use in these scenarios to handle threats to your mood, condition of your car, fuel, or money. If any of these (except for money) reach zero, you call your parents to bail you out, and if they refuse, your run ends.
Hitchhikers are occasionally on the side of the road and can optionally be picked up, each offering buffs and cons to your car. For example there is one hitchhiker who has skills to handle threats to mood in any given scenario, but gives you random emotional conditions (some good, some bad) constantly. Each one comes with their own personality, story, and side quest. Shout out to the punk dude I picked up with the borzoi a couple runs ago.
The presentation is what really makes this game special, however. The game boasts stunning pixel art of these rolling hills that stretch along the horizon while you drive, and since this game is by all intents and purposes turn based, you can really just get lost in these incredible vistas while listening to one of the better curated soundtracks in a video game in a long time. The CD player has a whole mechanic surrounded around itself, where you can select CDs and make playlists of the songs you acquire through runs. Some bands include, Westkust, Fucking Werewolf Asso, and My Darling YOU!
All of this really is to say I’m kind of stunned I don’t see anyone really talking about this game at all. Blue Prince may be the rougelite of the year (unless we do manage to get that Hades II 1.0 release) but the time I’ve spent with Keep Driving has been absolutely nothing short of joyful and I really just wanted to highlight it as my first official post on my site. Speaking of which, if you made it this far thanks for giving me a read! I’ve been wanting to get something like this up and running as a hobby for quite some time now so I’m beyond thrilled to share and archive these sort of things to anyone who is interested. Keep Driving taught me that I have time, but why not now?
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