Heading Out

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, this game. A good friend suggested I buy it, she knows I like car games. And I love this game, but that reason little to do with the cars. It's the stories that go along with it, it's literally a roadtrip game through Real America. Still, things don't make me say "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥" a lot but... I feel seen here, and it took me while to work out why exactly. Obligatory footnote for that explanation. So, trigger warning, this game deals with a number of adult topics. So if you're the sort to use "woke" as a pejorative, you're gonna get triggered by this game. And beyond that, there's death, self-harm, drug use, people doing really bad things to other people, and more. If you don't want to explain that stuff to your kids, keep your kids away from it because it's pretty meaty. You'll thank me for it. Ahem. Now then. This game presents itself as a racing game out along the major Interstate highways. And you do race, if you want. You may well get into cop chases based on your decisions. These segments are not difficult, if you're moderately competent at driving you'll find them fairly easy. There's an easier mode if you want it, and a harder mode if you need tension. The handling is quite arcadey, and while the available cars drive a bit differently, a little throttle control gets you really far. All that said, you might also be able to beat it while being 100% law-abiding, never once racing, never once fleeing the cops. I never tried. My right foot is heavy. Events happen as you go, sometimes advantageous, sometimes not. Random factors may help you make it to your destination, giving you a little gas money or a bit of rest. This is the metagame; there's an ever-spreading event that you have to outrun, so you have to keep moving and you can't go back, so anything that keeps you moving is effective. The game's graphics are black and white, but this itself is a bit of a metaphor I want to hit later. Taillights flash bright red, super-important things get a splash of colour. The world is simple, stark, the car simplest and starkest of all. Bit of a comic book look with little side panels that show your foot tromping the gas pedal. (Squint just a little and the world looks like completely desatured, basic textures but with a shading filter.) The racing is really a distraction. Like I said in the intro, it's a roadtrip simulator in Real America. Not the mythological America with appeals to "greatness" and callbacks to 1950's Andy Griffiths Mayberry, white-picket-fence suburban fiction, no. Not at all. It's the America with hard-done people who made the best choice from a palette of bad decisions. Sometimes they're good people stuck in a bad place. Is it worth stealing from some roadtripping suburbanites if you can feed your daughter? And sometimes, no, they really are bad, and they're your friend besides. Justice or loyalty, what's your poison? The graphics are black and white, but the game isn't, it's very shades of gray. THEY want you to think the world exists in black and white, left and right, commie pinkos and capitalist bootlickers, winners and losers. But you know that's not the case. We are human. We live on a spectrum. We are complex. Drunkards, grifters, punks, a lonely man running a gas station in the middle of the nowhere. A cop who sees the person behind the mythology surrounding you. Greasy politicians. Racial profiling. The radio keeps you company during your road trip, and DJs who react to your actions. The punk girl, an utter ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, who's rejected polite society and would mock you in public for a laugh but has a strong sense of justice. The Limbaugh-clone, a scoundrel, a man insufficiently punched, who drapes himself in the garb of a patriot. The abused wife, now divorced, using her show as a means to exorcise herself. The guy who went too far, the Lunatic Who Says the Truth In Amidst His Madness (a madness fuelled by too much cocaine and an Icarus-like fall from grace admtitedly). And the game asks you a few questions about yourself, or your character, then presents them as snippets for your later contemplation. Answer them honestly if you want, or don't, it's just a game. But there's so much earnest reality here that I felt... seen, like I said. I can't explain it better than that, or I won't. If you know, you know. And if you don't, it's gonna take a bunch of pub chats and beers. But if you answer those questions honestly, the DJs are talking to you, the player. The characters are... human, and the game is really about the characters. They're fleeting contacts, people you meet briefly on your roadtrip. It can often be bleak, but you can choose to make a difference as you go along. Or not, screw 'em all and take their cash, if you want to be an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Does it matter? It's just a game, right? And okay, sometimes there's weird little easter eggs, because being constantly, dreadfully earnest can be a drag, and over time the metaplot changes, so it may not be that out of character. But this game has, in its own way, stirred something in me. It's been a powerful experience. Now, with that conclusion sorted, I've got some streaming, I've got a discord and a curator and all of this is in my profile. If you want stranger experiences, you'll find more there, and enough words to choke a llama. I'm not likely to stream this game, though. It's been a very personal experience. * Obligatory footnote: The game asks you questions about your character's motivations, fears, history. Game events and the DJs sometimes bring these up, so they're themes that shape what you experience. Answer those questions honestly, as I did, and they're talking about things are very, very relevant to you. It's clever. I admire that. But I'm not sharing those experiences.

Man, what's frustrating about Heading Out is there is an incredibly interesting artstyle, world, and lore that keeps you invested. Yet, the actual gameplay just isn't that good. Getting this out of the way first, you do spend more time in the map screen than what the advertising made it seem. I knew this going in because of other reviews, and honestly this is one of the stronger aspects of the game. You have to manage your money, vehicle health, wanted level, your focus (so you don't fall asleep), and the 'fear' that is chasing you. There is some strategy here as you got to plan and pick the better path. However, the actual driving / racing sections are bad. The vehicle feels floaty, imprecise, and understeery. Also, even small bumps or air time can completely throw off the car. I get that these aren't precise supercars, but its frankly not fun to drive with these unrefined physics. Also, a lot of the roads are very wide open highways that don't have a ton of sharp turns or hazards. Sure, it does fit the setting of driving down Middle America, but gameplay wise it makes things feel so repetitive and boring. Even when you do get the more tricky, winding roads, the vehicle physics make it an absolute chore. The last things I want to mention outside of the gameplay is that I found most of the radio hosts annoying as ♥♥♥♥ (thankfully you can skip them), and the amount of pop in on objects, foliage, etc is ridiculous. I understand that this isn't a full price game, and $20 isn't bad if you can tolerate the bad physics and boring driving sections. Yet, for me who is a huge fan of racing games, those are pretty much deal breakers for me.

Кратко: если любите машины, путешествия и атмосферу США 70-х - НЕ БЕРИТЕ! Если вам менее 20 лет и хочется чего-то экзистенциального - можете рискнуть. Долго: Трейлер и визуальная стилистика мне продали ощущение дороги из NFS The Run, менеджмент ресурсов и моральные выборы из Keep Driving, и эстетику США 70-х. Ничего из этого я не получил. Вместо этого: 1. Отвратительное управление автомобилем. Оно даже не аркадное, а просто лениво сделанное. Не чувствуется ни веса, ни инерции, ни разного сцепления с поверхностью. Независимо от того на асфальте вы или на грунтовке, на скорости в 5 миль в час или в на 100, автомобиль может развернуть в любой момент. Это усугубляется по ходу игры, когда вы открываете новые машины (всего в игре их 4) - каждая последующая управляется еще хуже предыдущей. После этой игры, машины из Car Mechanic Simulator чувствуются мега отзывчивыми и реалистичными. 2. Подбор музыки максимально далек от происходящего. В якобы динамичной гонке или погоне от полиции может играть заунывный медляк. В свободной поездке, когда игра предлагает насладиться дорогой, может играть дисгармоничный, аритмичный инди-рок. При этом сменить песню в игре нельзя. 3. Отвратительные персонажи. Главный герой редко когда коммуницирует с другими людьми, но в статусе персонажей у нас присутствуют 4 диджея на радио, которые комментируют ваши действия. Выбрать радиостанцию и любимого диджея нельзя (и это хорошо), но можно их выключать (и это еще лучше). Наше путешествие будут комментировать: - малолетняя лесбиянка из грязной квартиры, продающая в эфире картины, нарисованные менструальной кровью. - брызжущий слюной националист-республиканец, из которого прет неудержимым потоком махровый американский патриотизм и ненависть к хиппи, либералам, пацифистам и диджею выше. - разбитая жизнью женщина средних лет, которая еще недавно была символом примерной жены, матери и хозяйки, переживающая процедуру развода и в связи с этим рубящая правду матку про тупых мужиков и тяжкую женскую долю. - наркоман-нарцисс, взявший в заложники персонал радиостанции и жутко завидующий тому факту, что ГГ игры перетянул на себя все внимание Америки. 4. Посредственный сюжет, как основной, так и дополнительные случайные встречи. Основной сюжет не дает никакой конкретики, игра пытается быть откровением для каждого. Концовка только одна и не зависит от выборов игрока. Причин переигрывать игру мало (только случайные встречи). Выборы игрока на случайных встречах ограничены моралью разработчиков (Например: Вы видите, как полицейский арестовывает ребенка-афроамериканца за граффити на стене. Что вы сделаете? А) Дадите полицейскому по морде. Б) Дадите полицейскому взятку. В) Дадите полицейскому взятку а потом дадите по морде.) 5. Опрос в начале игры на тему ваших страхов, воспоминаний и политических взглядов никак не влияет на ход игры за исключением одной сюжетной сцены, где персонаж проговорит те ответы, что вы дали ранее. Игре настолько не интересны ваши ответы, что в окне опроса самая большая кнопка "Сгенерировать ответы случайно". Как итог, мне жаль потраченного времени. Я честно надеялся, что игра раскроется по ходу сюжета или что концовка окупит все страдания, но я, пожалуй, уже слишком черств душой для того, чтобы восхищаться морали "Не беги от своих страхов, а взгляни им в глаза".

Came for retro atmosphere and a good road story. Got repetitive gameplay, shallow racing, and more political agenda than actual content. The art style is cool. Everything else underwhelms.

I expected a racing game with rouge-lite elements and maybe a bit of a story. Instead I got a game that is more of a pick your own adventure book than a racing game, which would be good if the story was good. At the end of races there are these little radio segments that play to give a bit of narrative, which would be cool if it wasn't for the radio hosts having the most heavy handed virtue signaling, and blatant attempts to relate to the player that just fall flat. There's even a little blurb at the top left that tells you what the takeaway of these moments is supposed to be like as if the game thinks you're too dumb to figure that out on your own. It doesn't help that the main radio host has a bit of quirk chungus humor, and the southern guy's personality is just him announcing every negative stereotype about straight white men. Most racing nowadays either have no story, or writing that sucks, but at least with them i can just turn the speech volume down and forget about it, but with this game the story is so integral to the gameplay that you cant do that. If it wasnt for the story I would love this game, but it is so cliche I cant get past it. TLDR Bad cliche writing that is full of virtue signaling which is impossible to avoid due to how integral it is to the mid at best story, and is where most of the focus is. Characters that are annoying Little actual racing which is what I thought this game was going to primarily be. The idea of the game, style of it, and the actual gameplay is good, but the story is so generic it ruins it, due to the game being more story than gameplay.

The driving part is very chill even with it on hard difficulty and manual. There is no car part upgrade which was a let down. The story is aight. It gives you a multiple choice survey before you start to adjust the story to whatever trauma you end up choosing, Which just makes the story shallow. The art and music is great but i cant recommend it based on that alone. If you are going to try get it 50% off .

game needs steering wheel support and starting points other then just detroit.

the game needs more in it's main gameplay loop or to end by act 3. act 4 I was sick of driving and that was the main gameplay loop. I never struggled for resources on balanced. I didn't find any bugs or issues with controlling it. Other than if you go a little too far off road it dulls the background audio as if someone was speaking but they never do. The music is good but as the gameplay is based on music it needs more songs. They aren't listen to one song days on end good.

30% гонки, 70% визуальной новеллы с разными случайными событиями. По факту едешь 4 раза одну и ту же гонку с разными условиями по дорогам Америки. Немного меняются пейзажи. Преследующий Страх раздражает. Саундтрека нормального нет. История про борьбу безымянного героя без лица с Дьяволом интригует, но не более. Механика повтора заезда надоедает уже на 3 заезде из четырёх. Машины ведут себя одинаково. В финальной гонке соперник жульничает - выиграть его нельзя. Физическая модель скорее аркадная. Столкновения часто приводят к катастрофическим последствиям. Разнообразия трасс нет. Инди с заявкой на оригинальность. На деле - средняя играв чёрно-белом оформлении, где гонки это фон, а не основная часть. Посредственная игра с примитивными механиками и нераскрученной идеи. Не рекомендую играть. Посмотреть записи в интернете будет достаточно. Если хотите гонок - проходите мимо.