Well I guess you could call this a video game. In the same way I calm Minecraft as a video game. There's no real story to it, And I sure as hell aren't any directions.
This is one game where you should never feel bad for looking up info on the Internet. Because it's not going to tell you how to do anything. Which I guess you could call an off-balance for all the hand-holding video games that are out there. I appreciate a game that lets me figure out things for myself. But I should at least be able to understand the driving mechanics without having to second-guess myself.
Oh sure running a diesel van isn't that hard in real life. It's fairly common knowledge. Put the keys into the ignition, let the car warm up for a minute or two, take off the handbrake, put it into first gear and set off on your way. But how do you do that in a video game ? how do I open the door? Do I need to go find a key? How do I activate the handbrake? You don't activate it the same way as opening the door or anything else. What button switch's the gears? All these things are not directly told to you. It's more of a trial and error.
And then you have all the different meters. Your thirst meter, your stress meter, sleep meter, hunger meter, bladder meter and you have no idea what you're supposed to do with any of that. What button makes you urinate? Where do you go to the bathroom? Is there a difference between using a toilet or just going outside.
And then finally there's the directions. You have a map in your house (if you're lucky enough to see) it and it gives you a vague idea of where things are. But it doesn't tell you exactly where you are you Can't take it with you. The maps only helpful once you understand the environment you're driving in. Also you have no idea what's out there. How am I to know that there's a gas station at the main town. Or that I can acquire money from on Strangers throughout the countryside. That there's a speed limit with cops that want to give you a breathalyzer.
This ones a particular problem if you like me and decide to take your entire case of beer with you wherever you drive.
I think the game could use a bare-bones tutorial. Something that tells you how to drive the car, which buttons do what and make it clear that you can make money from jobs. It doesn't have to tell you where to go. It doesn't have to give you a little GPS or even a map in the corner. Just give us the idea that we need to look around. That theres something to do in the game. Cuz if you go into this cold turkey with absolutely no knowledge then you'll be stuck roaming around your house having absolutely no idea what to do. It's not even the easiest thing to drink a beer. You can pick up the crate but what do you do with it? You only learn if you push every button (that F button will activate your beer-drinking capability.)
Now with all those hundreds of complaints out of the way let's look at the good of this game. You play as a Finish teenager (age of 19) who was born on the back of some crappy car. Said crappy car has now been completely torn apart with every piece of the engine stuck on the shelf in your garage. And it's your job (presumably) to fix said car. And this is the closest you'll get to any particular story.
Now you don't have to fix the car. You can go in the diesel van, ride the dirt bike or go find your boat and use these vehicles to travel around and do whatever you want. Maybe try the local store where you can buy groceries, gas and more beer! (besides fixing your car the main objective of the game seems to be to drink as much beer as humanly possible.) by definition there's no technical difficulties to this game. It's fairly simple you have all the time in the world to fix your car it's not that hard to keep yourself from starving and if you're lucky enough to find a bucket with an air hose on top, you can make almost unlimited amount of cheap liquor that you can then sell to other people.
But if you're incredibly inpatient the game can become incredibly difficult. Speeding down the highway too fast burning out into a ditch, crashing into a tree, maybe going headlong into another car. Or just getting distracted like drinking one too many beers while driving down the highway at 83 miles per hour And not noticing that slight curve in the road before realising that you're driving through a field of corn on your way to collide with the wall that is the forest.
On one of my runs I had attempted to drive all the way around the map on the major highway. Only to be distracted by a car sitting in the middle of the road. So I pull over, put my car into neutral and go to check on this mystery mobile. I come up to it and what do I see but a bloody mess. Somebody had a huge accident and is now fairly dead. Not paying attention myself I didn't notice another car screaming down the highway Crashing into the mangled car that I was standing in front of. Through the Grace of the Virgin Mary (or possibly the lack of secondary car physics) I had survived to this most gruesome endeavours.After that I went back into my van put it into first gear and drove off into the highway yet again. I was a bit stressed out by this. So I decided to drink a beer to help calm my nerves. As I was doing this my car decided to have a spasm spin-off of the road and ram itself straight into a large cedar tree.
Sometimes you can come across something that will completely rearrange the way you want to play the game. For instance I was trying to look for a house near the Lake that had a bucket with an air pump on top. As so I could make homemade alcohol. But I stumbled upon this other guy's house where he owned an old dilapidated 1960s looking car. And I decided right then and there: ''There must be a way to acquire this vehicle.'' It's a drivable car, you can get into it but there's no keys in the ignition. However you can over turn this problem by using a screwdriver. And I discovered later on the Internet that the car can be won from some random guy in the town via gambling bet.
And that's my life has meaning. I want to win this car legally. So that I can make it my new portable home. I could sleep in the back of it. Keep the beer on the roof and maybe keep a couple gasoline tanks in as well. The only problem is there's no refrigerator so the sausages would go bad. But that's a small problem for a big reward.
In short it's a nothing game that's full of the material and it's up to you to find out how to play it.
Just remember the most fundamental rule: Don't drink and drive (stupidly)
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