ADRIFT

This is a love letter to rallying. Whoever put this together really loves rally and it shows. It's taken the core aspects of rallying and remixed them into a scifi game without the usual cruft of rally games, centered around an offroad truck that takes work to drive quickly. You're not racing for position, you're just ultimately hauling an item cross-country. Simple. Note: I originally wrote too much for Steam to post this. I wound up tacking on a few comments to get the rest of my thoughts out and committed. But hey, this is Review #300 and I saved this for an extra-wordy ramble. Obligatory sidenote: Rallying, as a form of racing, is a point-to-point race against the clock on complex roads, often dirt. These are not immaculate, mirror-smooth circuits (though I desperately adore circuit racing), they're often crap roads: rough, nasty, and diabolical with blind corners, jumps, surprise rocks. Drivers get a navigator and are allowed a couple drive-throughs to preview the bit they're going to race, and the navigator makes notes to call out to the driver when it's time to do the course competitively. Here, you have to do both roles yourself, the only navigation to be found…

The concept has potential, but aDRIFT currently feels more like an interactive Lo-Fi music video than a fully realized game. Here is some constructive feedback: The main menu is misleading; it features a headless statue in a desert, neither of which appear in the game, and there is no visual indication that this is a driving title. The initial settings pop-up for Motion Blur and Flashing Lights feels redundant, as players typically check the options menu immediately anyway. The UI animations and general UX decisions also feel disconnected from the core gameplay. The car physics need significant tuning. For a game named aDRIFT, the drifting mechanics feel clunky and unpredictable. Invisible bumps on the road often cause the car to bounce uncontrollably. A basic tutorial is necessary to help players understand the intended driving style, as I felt I wasn't playing it the way it was designed to be played. The text that appears on the side of the road uses a font that is far too small to read while trying to stay on track. While the blurry, Lo-Fi aesthetic successfully creates a 90s-dream vibe, the lack of player agency and meaningful decision-making makes it hard to stay motivated …

A very chill and vibey game. The vehicle feels fun to control, bouncing over dunes and kicking up clouds of sand in a turn. The gameplay loop is enjoyable so far - explore the wasteland to find the next goal, plan a route and make a dash with the payload. My only criticism is that I wish there was more to find in the wasteland as it feels a little too empty.

Like another review, I find it hard to rate Adrift. I can't give it a negative review because it's well done in many ways. The vibe is off the charts. Post apocalyptic Outrun? Hells yes, sign me up. The poems felt very Dear Esther-y in a good way. But I found it to be a little too hollow. The world is empty and huge. I often went around in circles and several times fell through the map or transported to some other area, becoming stuck on rocks. The respawn mechanic is well done (you hold a controller button and reappear at your last checkpoint) but despawning happened often and it was frustrating to have to back track to wherever you think you were. The satellite points are the only map that you have access to and they're usually off the beaten path. All of the exploring wouldn't have been so bad if there was a bit more to find in the wilderness, or if you had your own map function that you could consult. I can't give this a negative review because I truly don't think it deserves it, so I will rather suggest you stay within the return window. I'm on the cusp of it and am not sure if I'll keep playing. The good news is I think you'll know rather quickly if this game is for you…

Played this game in early stages I enjoyed it and couldn't wait to see the finale results and release date. It's finally out and so happy to play the official version of the game I can tell I'm gonna spend hours on this game trying to figure out every pathway and best routes for fast progression in between just exploring and leaving the Energy Core in a station so I don't have to worry about exploding when the timer runs out haha. GREAT WORK! I look forward to seeing what the future holds.

An enjoyable driving adventure where you have to explore the map quite thoroughly to get ahead. It felt a bit difficult to make progress later in the game. I would have liked some additional game mechanics to make it easier to find the next checkpoints.