Review: OutDrive – Drove me crazy, and not in a good way!

Growing up people used to tell me “Don’t judge a book by its cover“. OutDrive definitely is that type of game. Do not judge the game by its cover, rather by its contents.

This game looks and feels retro and I love that art style.  When I first popped in this game I immediately thought to myself ‘wow I’m about to play a current gen version of Rad Racer’. You are cruising down the road in this Delorian. What’s not cool about driving a Delorian right? Sadly, this game unfortunately falls flat on its face everywhere.

For a written review, please see below the video.

 

 

Granted visually I feel that it looks great and I truly love the art design the style and where they were looking to take the game visually, but as far as the game play goes that’s a whole other story.

The basis of the game is that there is this mystery woman. That’s right a random woman. You don’t know what, how, when, or who she even is. Did she faint and you have to take her to the hospital? Who knows! The game doesn’t do a very good job explaining what her deal is or why she’s even in the game, and that’s just the beginning of the downhill spiral this game heads in. You are in the car with this mystery woman, and yes you guessed it, you have to drive. With no destination set to show you where you are headed, all you have is a gauge bar which you have to keep on the blue line and with a slider arrow. If you go in the red for too long – she dies (tad dramatic don’t you think?). The bar keeps sliding back and forth but what exactly does it represent? No guidance there and what is this woman dying of? Did she get shot? Who the heck knows. The only thing you know is if you stay in the red she dies.

Not only does the ‘story’ not make any sense what so ever, but the game mechanics are horrific. You can run into walls like a ping pong ball and not have any type of penalty what so ever, where as in an old school 8 bit game (which is the design direction this game is trying to achieve) if you hit a wall you get stuck on the side of the road or flip over. However, in OutDrive none of the typical genre penalties have been applied.outdrive

You spend the bulk of your time driving and ensuring you keep the also ‘mystery’ gauge bar in the middle with no other engagement on your journey – at all. Well, at least I didn’t, I just kept driving and focusing on keeping the bar on the blue.

One plus that I will give this game (outside of the obviously very cool Delorian & retro art style) is you have a boost option and its animation looks pretty cool. It’s almost like you are Marty McFly in Back to the Future and it SEEMS like you are about to time travel – but no its just a boost. After a while you being to wish you were actually in the Delorian from Back to the Future so you can travel back in time to NOT BUY THIS GAME.

Save your money and save your time for a game that has more content and better thought out direction. I wish I could get my time back that I feel was wasted by playing this game.

This game I give a 3.5 out of 10, and that me being generous. The only reason I would even give it that high of a score is I feel the visuals are very nice and I absolutely love the art style. Judging by the cover it actually looks like a super cool and like it would be a very fun game. You are tearing up the streets Rad Racer style in a Delorean – sounds like a cool concept right? However, as pretty as it may look it doesn’t even come close to hiding how underwhelming the game truly is.

Don’t judge this game by its pretty cover, take a look at the content inside first and then put your money back in your Steam wallet.

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I am a hard core gamer. I play a wide variety of games as well as platforms. If all you play is Call of Duty and say you are a hard core gamer, you are not . You are a hardcore Call of Duty player not a hardcore gamer Greatest console of all time is the SEGA Dreamcast . I dont care what anyone says you are wrong . The Dreamcast is the greatest console ever made . One of my favorite motto's is : "Mess with the best die like the rest ." This is how I roll and if you see me in comp Im going to bring it hard. Former tester, 2 time State of FL Blockbuster video game champion. State champion for Gran Turismo 4 , as well as a few other titles. Skum Nation clan leader