My first playthrough of Keep Driving came skidding to a halt when I attempted to enter a race with half a tank of gas. My beat-up old second-hand car just couldn’t compete, and as it came sputtering to a standstill on the side of the road, I found I had no money to call a tow truck and my parents wouldn’t answer the phone. It was game over, man.
On my second playthrough, I picked up a travelling punk and his dog, and drove up to the top of a mountain to drink in the majestic views. On my third, I got pulled over for drink-driving and ended up in rehab (I just wanted to see what would happen). My fourth saw me, a hiker, and a struggling musician travelling across the country and chatting nonsense, just for the hell of it.
Keep Driving is an indie RPG all about possibilities. It’s a game that invites you to roll down the windows, turn up the music, and luxuriate in the sense of freedom and adventure that comes with hopping in your car and getting away from it all. It’s one of the most unique games I’ve played in a while, and my favourite so far this year.
Let’s get this out of the way now, because I’m definitely the last person to have made this joke: Keep Driving is effectively a car-PG. It takes familiar systems like turn-based battles, leveling up, side-quests, and inventory management, and re-works them into a comfortingly familiar framework of a long car journey.
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You’ll also need to manage hunger and energy levels, as well as make sure you always have enough money for gas or unexpected repairs. There’s a lot to manage at once, but planning ahead and working out when and where to stop for gas, food, or even to find employment for a few days, is all part of the fun. Think Roadwarden meets Pacific Drive.
Where other RPGs would see you do battle with dragons or ghouls, random threats in Keep Driving include cyclists, tractors, and sheep on the road. You deal with these threats using a series of special attacks that can be swapped in and out as needed, depending on how prepared you are. For example, checking your map and noticing your route takes you down a country road may incline you to equip skills better handled to dealing with those specific threats, while motorway roads will require skills based around dealing with lorries and tailgaters.
This confluence of threats and systems starts off a little overwhelming, but you’ll find yourself settling into its rhythms before long. I should also stress the mundane nature of the encounters is rarely a problem, thanks to Keep Driving’s gorgeous pixel-art, immaculately designed UI, and first-rate soundtrack all working together to ground this fictional country.
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As Keep Driving opens, you’ll choose your character’s name, profession, and background, just like any RPG. A mechanic is better at repairing damage to the vehicle, for instance. A student becomes inspired more often. There are limited choices before you begin your journey, however, because it’s the journey itself that ultimately shapes you.
As you set off on your road-trip, your decisions will help you develop new traits - both good and bad. Eat too much junk food and you’ll become hungry far more frequently. Stop to find employment often and you’ll become a good worker that can take on jobs for less energy. The traits you take on are almost always formed by necessity, and shaped by the context of whatever destination you might have chosen.
Speaking of destinations, there are a few main ones that will end your current playthrough, but you’re completely free to ignore all of these and simply drive around for as long as you can before you run out of gas or money. Each playthrough begins with the primary objective of driving to the east coast for a music festival, but there are a ton of other potential endings if you veer off the path and explore a little.
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Perhaps my greatest issue with the game is that finishing a main objective ends a playthrough, which feels at odds with the very ethos of a game called Keep Driving. I assumed after attending the music festival, with weeks of summer left, I could carry on and explore some more. Instead I was plonked back at the start again, which was kind of a bummer. The only saving grace here is that you can carry over any upgrades you’ve made to your car if you want, which is a nice touch.
It’s also hard to overlook the game’s lack of variety after more than a handful of playthroughs. By the time I started my fifth run, I found myself picking up the same hitchhikers, having the same road musings, and generally finding the battle system a little stale. There’s only so much we can expect from a small team, of course, but a game with such a stunningly executed concept and scope for replayability should probably feel just a little bit more… replayable.
Those very minor issues aside, Keep Driving is one of the most impressively original and utterly charming games you’ll play this year. Regardless of where you’re headed, I promise you the journey will be worth it.
Pros: Gorgeous pixel-art and immaculate UI, brilliant soundtrack of original songs, genuinely original concept
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Cons: Gets repetitive before long, playthroughs end too soon
For fans of: Roadwarden, Pacific Drive, Coffee Talk
8/10: Excellent
Keep Driving is available 6 February on PC via Steam (tested on Steam Deck).A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.
Topics: Reviews, Indie Games