How does a studio follow up on a genre-creating cult classic that uses abrasive as a noun and a verb? You do a complete U-turn, obviously. The Gothenburg-based studio Y/CJ/Y Games has finally found the porting keys in the glove compartment and is now taking Keep Driving onto console roads. Very much the antithesis of their previous game, Post Void, Keep Driving isn’t about going anywhere fast or violently, but rather enjoying the journey with methodical resource management-sim gameplay.
If anything, the pivot showcases they can really go anywhere genre-wise and still have that Y/CJ/Y flair. The main conceit of the game is that you’re a teen in the Summer of the early 2000s, you’ve bought your first car, and your destination is the festival on the other side of the country. Fairly straightforward, but even after hours of playing through multiple playthroughs, I’ve still not made it to that festival.
However, don’t take that as a reflection of my capabilities or the game’s ability to get its hooks in me till the end. Keep Driving just gives you free rein to go anywhere you want, and the roguelike type of structure warrants multiple playthroughs. This is overwhelming at first; after 8-10 hours, I’m still figuring out the minutiae of its gameplay. There’s an extensive tutorial to help you through all the elements – which I’ll get into – but it’s a lot to take in. Thankfully, the game is very hard to fail at by design. This meant I uncharacteristically tested the limits of Keep Driving’s fail states. I’m usually the type of person who painstakingly perfects to my detriment, but with so many curveballs and RNG, I just had to roll with the punches of the road.
Which is the best thing about Keep Driving. Every game has me either rushing through to play the next one or beating it in ways I’m guided to. But Keep Driving just gives you a car, lets you pick out your relationship with your parents from 0-5, you then choose what starting pack to travel with, and you’re on your way. Although you need to be OK with that. What’s the difference between starting a run with “Mom’s Care Package” and “Your Tools”? Or, the better question: why choose one or the other? You’ll figure that out after 5 hours, maybe. Once you’ve picked your starting setup, you choose the closest destination on the map and drive to the right of your screen and onto the procedurally generated open road.
This is all from a side-on perspective, with your dashboard acting as the HUD. I love how the grungy pixel art style almost mythologises the early 2000s as an idyllic American road trip. Varied Midwestern-style vistas of forests, farms, suburbs and small-town pit stops make up the bulk of the visuals. It lends itself to this idea of long car rides, small talk and a mild sense of being lost – just like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or Paris Texas. Much like those movies, in between the stops, or “on the road”, is when you’re the most vulnerable.
Each road event plays out in a turn-based combat fashion. These range from being stopped by Police, being stuck behind a big truck or a deer jumping out in front of you, but all are ultimately beaten the same way. Hazards will pop up on your dashboard in a random order, lined up. They can do damage to your car, use up your fuel, deplete your driver’s energy or even cost you precious money, but you’ll know which because of its symbol. You’ll wield a couple of moves that can get rid of these symbols, but they’ll have a specific attack pattern. This is where you’ll try to match your move’s symbol setup with the hazards on your dash to mitigate the most damage.
Think of it like Simon Says meets turn-based combat. You can also equip items in your glove box that have their own combo, and you can also utilise some of the hitchhikers you pick up along the way. I’ll try not to spend 200 more words explaining it, but these random events are the biggest drain on your resources, and could ultimately make you fail a run. In between these encounters, you’ll want to refuel at gas stations, buy food to keep yourself from starving, re-energise with sweets or drinks, sleep comfortably, as well as try and make money to afford it all.
Keep Driving does a fantastic job of giving you the tools to juggle all these resources you have to manage, and lets you get flexible with it. Your resources don’t need to be at 100% all the time, but you will be taking gambles, depending on what you encounter on the road. You also have finite space in your car to place items in, like food, supplies, quest items, so you’re always trying to manage the space in your car too and leaving things behind.
Sometimes it pays off; oftentimes it doesn’t. It gives you this insatiable risk-reward that feels great to mess around with and learn from mistakes to take into the next playthrough. My first hours were spent testing these limitations, and whilst it definitely meant I didn’t “get anywhere” progress-wise, I was checking under the hood to see how it all works, which was a lot of fun.
A road trip isn’t without its hitchhikers, and Keep Driving has plenty of them. This is the reason why I’ve not beaten the main objective of the game. Each hitchhiker has their own backstory, which you learn while travelling with them, and they also often come with quests. These quests ended up being my priority. They’re always sending you to other parts of the map, or back on yourself, making the trip to the festival impossible. That said, I was enjoying how much it lends itself to you learning the mechanics through their quest lines.
The hitchhikers also have their own moves you can use in event scenarios, as well as passive perks to help aid the journey. It creates a great amount of replayability, as I know I’m yet to pick up every hitchhiker and face every scenario. My only big complaint, however, is how this controls on console. Keep Driving is a game that’s pretty much all menus, and sifting through them is nothing short of a chore. The UI doesn’t prompt every menu, which is especially confusing in the early game. When you become more proficient at the game, the more you use all the menus too, and it doesn’t ever really get more seamless.
Despite that, I had an absolute blast with Keep Driving. The visuals are great, the soundtrack of Swedish indie bands is amazing, and the overall gameplay is addicting. I hate to use the term as it normally comes off shallow, but this game just has the vibes too. And much like the hitchhikers you find on your road trip, sometimes it’s the vibes that keep you going. This is a hard recommendation to anyone, but if managing your resources, kicking back to some tunes and taking in the game’s style sounds like something for you, then the car keys are all yours. Just maybe take it for a spin on PC, if sluggish controls are a dealbreaker for you.
Keep Driving is out now for PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox Series S|X, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam
Developers: Y/CJ/Y Games
Publisher: Y/CJ/Y Games
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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