One of the most challenging parts of making soup is ensuring there’s a balance in what you’re creating. For those untrained or unfamiliar with the art, you might assume that simply adding more and more complimenting flavors would elevate the dish to something grandiose and hitherto unappreciated, crafting a brand new, delicious item. In actuality, there’s a lot of importance to knowing when to call it and focus on the core components. Too many additions and you end up with something that, frankly, becomes confusing and loses direction. That, in a nutshell, is the new title from Dangen, RoadOut, an ambitious and exciting title that ultimately becomes lost in itself in an attempt to be everything to everyone. The result is something that clearly has an incredible vision that simply gets lost in the rearview mirror as you continually keep barreling forward.

If we say yes, are you flattered or angry?

Claire is a mercenary in a post-apocalyptic future that’s as bad as they get, what with the bioengineering, vast stretches of poisoned desert, and three warring gangs that vie for your allegiance. But a merc simply needs to survive sometimes, and that’s what Claire thinks she’s doing right up until she needs to move some unknown cargo. Turns out she’s been tasked with transporting a book that seems to hold the keys to the future for whatever race of beings can be in charge. Now Claire is trying to keep the book, the owner and everyone she knows and cares about safe. But with three massive empires keeping a stranglehold on tomorrow and one of them clearly ready to murder you just because, all that you can do is keep the engine full, your ammo loaded and the blurry, painful visions of your past at bay, until it’s too late.

RoadOut is an interesting bit of a blended title that incorporates metroidvania, top down driving, skewed perspective combat and just a dash of crafting with some major RPG elements. There’s a lot happening at all times, but your primary gameplay will focus on either doing sidequests that can be found at the local bar (run by a giant green bear) or end up being thrust upon you as you unlock more and more of the storyline. You’ll drive to certain locations and either enter into the domicile or enter into a race, with the former being more prevalent but the latter still being a major part of gameplay. There’s all kinds of gameplay elements to consider at any given time, and you never get fully invested in anything to the degree where it becomes overwhelming, but it also never gets fully engaging.

The sign said “One free per customer.” No one listened. This is the result.

For example, the combat itself is an interesting exploration of melee and ranged damage where you can toggle between different weapons on the fly. The melee strike can potentially do more damage and break down walls, whereas ranged gives you plenty of time to breathe and dash to avoid being struck. Both have their benefits, though I personally put more stock into my melee beatings because it was more fun and the likelihood of critical hits were higher. There are cases where you have to swap into gunplay, but most of your encounters have the versatility to be either/or. When you factor in the additional pressures of either needing to keep an eye on ammo or be keenly aware of your hitbox to prevent being murdered at close range, it could really work out to be a strong element of gameplay.

However, then you couple in the unique but disorienting camera aspect of RoadOut. You can, at any point, rotate the screen 90 degrees to observe things from a different perspective, which is nifty for finding hidden panels and otherwise obfuscated switches for puzzles. But you also give up the ability to aim your attack in favor of this camera mechanic: aiming with the right shoulder button means ceasing movement in order to line up a shot. It’s the antithesis of what players anticipate or are used to in games such as these, and thus the twinstick moniker actually feels like a misnomer. It’s like how some people argue that Minecraft is an RPG because you are playing a role, and it’s that kind of willful misuse of the terminology that makes me irrationally angry. While you are using both joysticks in RoadOut, it’s not performing or interacting the way you would think.

Ah, the future. So…colorful.

Additionally, the driving elements. I actually really enjoyed driving around the landscape and found the occasional elemental hazards like the miasma clouds to be a cool challenge that cropped up on occasion. When I discovered the breakable wall that gave way to the mining area and practically doubled the size of the map, I was really pleased. I had already seen some driving aspects with the R.C. Pro-Am stylized race you must participate in, so this made me pretty excited. I’ve always been a big fan of top down, oldschool driving, and the feeling of original Grand Theft Auto and the devs own comparison to Rock n’ Roll Racing filled me with hope for how the game would go.

As it turns out, RoadOut is a highly appropriate name given how often you end up at a dead end on the map. The minimap doesn’t articulate the landscape appropriately enough, and you will run into mountains, chasms and large bodies of water frequently. You might drive for minutes in a single direction only to find out the way forward is actually at a small fork several screens back. More frustrating still is how damage is treated in car mode. If you run out of health in the “dungeons” of the game, you’ll respawn right in the room where you died so you can try again, which is ideal for boss encounters. But should your car explode through any outside interference, then get ready to start over from where you last entered your car, which might have been an entire map previously.

This is right after Claire explodes a New Mexico state trooper.

There are elements of the game that I deeply, deeply enjoy, however. The tattoo system for upgrades throughout the game is a brilliant take on a dystopian skill tree. Needing to drive around, make the right level of alliance and then sit for an inking in order to increase your passive and active abilities feels like the right degree of grudging endurance to display your own improvement. In that same vein, the crafting system, while rather simple, is brilliantly fast and overly generous in drops and important ingredients. If there wasn’t a solid cooldown system in place to prevent spam healing, Claire would be immortal. Additionally, the bartering at the various waypoints is phenomenal. I can get all the bullets I can carry in exchange for like 20 bones I found in the desert? Phenomenal deal, I’ll leave good feedback.

Lastly, the music is positively banging. I know I’m a sucker for 80s synth and beats, but it works so well with the dirty neon post-apocalyptic tone of it all. When you get behind the wheel and the bass starts thrumming in time with the acceleration of your car, you can really lose yourself and enjoy being alive in this hellscape…for a moment. Not to mention the pixel art elevates this into a more spectacular zone of creativity and amazement. For all the problems I had with being able to see straight, I never disliked upon which my eyes feasted. There is clearly an idea and a soul behind RoadOut’s creation, it just can’t always perform to the level it would like.

55 bones for a bunch of heal kits, some fireballs and four actual missiles. Only on Craigslist.

I think RoadOut is probably a game best consumed in bites. When you play it for a spell, you see and feel the great moments and can savor the fun aspects. When you play it too long, you feel the cracks and the misfires more readily, and it sours the meal. I sincerely, truly want to like this game, and it’s easier for me to do that when I only have it for a moment at a time. But if you’re determined to sit down and bang this out over a couple of days, be warned: there will come a time where you simply run out of gas.

RoadOut is available now on Steam.

Reviewed on PC.

A Copy of RoadOut was provided by the publisher.