Great game with an even better atmosphere and a satisfying game loop with plenty of exploration possibilities that lets you do what you want at your own pace. One of the few games that has come out recently that feels incredibly polished for a final product.

My Overall Thoughts:
(Some Spoilers ahead)

The Game:
I found the premise and initial visuals of the game quite promising and tried to stay in the dark about it until it came out. I knew I would immediately love the survival driving style of the game. I was not disappointed when it came out and put a decent amount of time into the game here in the first week after its release. I didn't feel like my hand was being held throughout the game and had lots of chances to explore and learn about the mechanics of the game with each different enemy type. I quite like the survival genre and this filled a craving I have had for a unique take on the genre. Other driving survival games like The Long Drive and My Summer Car are fun experiences for sure, but they rely solely on mechanics to keep you going. The extraction style run system and the story to keep the game progressing makes it leap to the top of my list of those games. It's not difficult for the sake of being difficult and provides a goal to strive for that continually evolves the more you unlock and explore.

The Story:
The story is decent enough and ties in well with the mechanics of the game. At first I wasn't sure how I felt about the characters’ personalities, but as I learned more about their histories I came to really enjoy the cast of characters there were. Early game, I was more interested in just playing the game, but I was fully invested in the story by the end of it. I know some people may be put off by the "cringe" nature of certain personalities in games, but I think it lent well to the story-building around the scenario of the game. The VAs did a great job with making each character unique and the banter between them was fun to listen to at times. I felt real emotions towards the characters and the lives they have lived throughout the story. It's obvious that the devs had put a lot of effort into building out the world and they had fun with it at the same time. I don't need to be a theoretical physicist to understand the science behind the story and it was laid out enough for me to understand what they are going for. For the story being told exclusively through radio conversations, it felt dynamic enough to keep me engaged while doing other things in the game at the same time. There is plenty of lore that is text dumped on your through the logbook and notes you find randomly out in the world, but it was never necessary to me understanding what is happening in the game. I only read most of it late in the game anyway because I was enthralled with the gameplay to being with.

The Sound:
I love the soundtrack to this game, it complements the atmosphere so well. I rarely went a session where I would actively keep the radios off in the car or garage. The music that plays during specific sections of the game feel great to go with the moment and convey great emotions to compliment it. The overall sound design is great and I felt one with the environment as I was driving along. It gave a sense of unease when I was out and about walking around and had me checking over my shoulder anytime I would hear a new noise. My only real complaint about the sound design is that it always made me feel that there was something bigger out there to watch out for but it never came, like a giant should appear in the distance and block my path. I am a sucker for good sound design and when a game makes me turn the game sound up and turn off the YouTube videos on my second monitor, I know they are doing something right.

The Experience:
Overall, the gaming experience was fun and I didn't find myself frustrated that much with it. I had one game crash that happened at a load screen but the game reloaded at the beginning of the last zone I was in so I didn't lost much progress from it. I would spend anywhere from 20-60 minutes per run. Some of the story-based runs ended up being a bit longer but after focusing on opening up highways, I could get anywhere pretty quickly on the map. There are a lot of different resources to collect throughout the map and the scanner makes it easy for me to choose the route I want to take to get a certain resource when I need it. The looting mechanic was balanced enough in my opinion where getting generic resources was easy in any zone, and the more specialized resources required more route planning. The car customization was enough for me to balance looks and stats with different parts. Different part options opened up different strategies of play or optimization but I ultimately went with what I thought looked the coolest. I found myself spending a lot of time in the garage working on my car and planning out routes and objectives for myself. The garage became my second home and would get that feeling of relief every time I was able to park back in the garage after a run. There is a feeling of risk every time I am on a run. but only ever failed unintentionally once early game after having to abandon a run. In the pursuit of chasing achievements and completion, I had to lose my streak of 35 runs without incidents to scan the remnant ghost.

A Few Criticisms:
I found some of the menus odd to interact with, especially with the decoration UI, but I eventually got used to it. I found a few bugs here and there, but it was never anything game breaking. I found I was able to duplicate decoration objects after transferring to the machine but it would still appear in the hotbar and let me drop unlimited copies of it on the ground and filling up the space with objects. Or the UI breaking if I am holding a roof storage and trying to transfer to another roof storage. After unlocking pneumatic storage, I felt there was no longer any penalty for hoarding materials. What is the point of car part lockers when I can just load a pneumatic locker up with everything and anything. A sort option would have been nice for the pneumatic storage as it became impossible to find stuff over time, maybe I was too much of a hoarder. There is a sort option for backpacks and other space based storage, but anything that was just a list of items has no sorting options. There are plenty of QoL updates I would love to see (i.e. rolling down the windows in the car to scan things, closing the garage door in the shop behind you, better sorting options, HUD visibility options for immersion).

Is It Worth It:
For a $30 game, I am impressed with the polish on it compared to other games coming out in the industry recently. There is a lot to do with a decent batch of achievements to go for, if that's what you are in to. I really enjoy the game and feel like I got a lot out of it for the price. I don't expect any further DLCs or expansions of the game from what I can see. I am still chasing a few more achievements to round it off and look forward to what these developers come up with in the future if it follows these themes. I don't normally write reviews and just realized how long and nuanced this got and need to cut out a whole section, if you read through the who thing, thank you.

My Rating:
9.5/10

Could use a few QoL updates but game runs great and it was a fantastic overall experience I would recommend.