This is the game that everyone will tell you not to play – but hey if you’ve always wanted to be an amazon delivery guy or maybe even Hermes (now Evri) – throw those packages at the door. But in all honesty if you can get through the LENGTHY tutorial you’re in for a complex, visually STUNNING, epic tale of a world torn apart just trying to reconnect.
You’re a lonely soul tasked to connect the entire country through a network in a futuristic, post apocalyptic “I’m in a weird fever dream” world and my god you’ll get your 10,000 steps in doing so.
The controls are somewhat simple which helps to calm the games complex layering of endless deliveries, continuous upgrades and helping out your fellow porters. L2 and R2 are you best friend – steady yourself and get ready to fall in love with a baby that’s in a fish tank strapped to you chest, making sure you leave adequate time to rock and sooth him back to calmness.
It can get to a point where it feels like you have absolutely no idea what’s going on but that’s great because at each and every one of those points you get a mini movie to grab a cuppa and digest what the heck has just happened.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a walking simulator to start with, but as the story builds so does the pace – I have never been more anxious playing a game before, trying to deliver and not damage parcels whilst avoiding BTs that are tethered to the world, avoid “time fall” AND keep a child calm that can sense them is stressful but be detected and get ready for a whole heap of hell (headphones are not advised because that baby has got some lungs on him).
It’s a game that has to be given patience by the player- you have to give it a go and keep going even when you feel like giving up because it gets SO good – it’s not your button mashing or problem solving it’s a genre of its own making and that’s what makes it spectacular. You have to be methodical in your approach and feel the need for connection with your fellow (distant) porters because many hands make light work and hey if you don’t like the story, at least you get to see Norman Reedus in the shower.