Jalopy

At the start of the game, your Uncle instructs you to fix up an old, battered car. You fit on a new door, wheels, fill your car up with fuel, water, oil... and off you go. This vehicle construction acts as a tutorial to replace your car parts. Parts become damaged over time and need replacing.

Your car is very clunky to drive. First of all it is quite slow. Secondly you are using the keyboard. It is also awkward to reach your controls; you have to use the mouse to activate wipers, lights etc. When turning your key in the ignition, I had to click below the key, rather than on it.

To get out of the car, you need to click the handbrake, then the door, then outside the door. Often I wanted to close the door but end up getting out instead. Repairing your car also has this clunky aspect. You pull a lever inside your car, then lift up the bonnet. Then you have to click to remove a part, but it's easy to click the wrong part. You can carry a few items, although using them is clunky because the info box opens up at the right and covers up part of the screen, so it's hard to tell what you have in your hands.

Purchasing or selling goods is also cumbersome. You need to remember to take your wallet out of the glove box before going into the shops. It's weird that you have to do this, because the game doesn't make you put your wallet back. You never need to take your keys out of the car; it's always fine to leave it completely unlocked with the keys in the ignition.

The car isn't powerful enough to go up slopes. Well, it really struggles at some insanely low speed.

Your uncle rides with you, but doesn't talk that much. He does chip in with some history of the area, but I thought he would give more directions or advice. The little advice he does give you when driving is often too late. For example, he tells you about contraband after you have gone through the first checkpoint. He reminds you to top up your fuel, minutes after leaving the city with the petrol station. He doesn't even comment when you run out of fuel. He could get out and help you push but he doesn't. Pushing your car is surprisingly fast though, so it's not the end of the world when it happens.

I was confused when I reached a guarded border. You have to squeeze your car into a tiny gap, then work out how to give the guard your documents: You need to wind down the window and grab your documents from the passenger glove box.

There isn't many cars about throughout your entire journey. When you do see them, they seem to sway, and don't drive in a normal straight line. There's no pedestrians and the only humans you see are the owners of the shops; motel, petrol station, and car specialist. The entire game feels very desolate; very post-apocalyptic.

The game-play involves driving motel to motel, stocking up on fuel and supplies in each city before moving on. Whilst on the road, you may find abandoned crates which have goods you can sell. You may find scrapyards which you may find some usable car parts; although they will need repairing somewhat.

You can learn what is illegal in upcoming cities by checking the newspaper in the motel. If you manage to smuggle the goods across the border (I think this is down to random chance if the guards search your vehicle), then you can make a good profit.

When you quit and reload, you are put back to the last motel but with your current car's state. So all your damage and expended fuel remains. The price of the motel goes up in each city, so you need to be constantly making money. Sometimes if you are low on money, your Uncle can give you some cash, but you probably will need it for fuel and repair kits.

There's a lack of sound within the game. Engine noise is a weird click sound. There's a weird groan when your Uncle guy talks to you. When you do see cars around, sometimes you hear crash sounds when there's no crash.

Jalopy has a few ideas for a basic game, but it feels like it is unfinished. It needs more detail to make the world feel lived-in, more features to make the game more interesting, and more usability tweaks to make it less frustrating.