by
Evan Norris
, posted 13 hours ago / 596 Views
Sometimes, when you boot up a video game, you know exactly what to expect. Other times, you only think you know what to expect. Deliver At All Costs, a new isometric action title from Far Out Games, belongs in the second category. What begins as an open-world driving game focused around deliveries and destructibility — something with the DNA of both Crazy Taxi and early Grand Theft Auto — quietly morphs into a more narrative-focused adventure. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Well, it depends on what you want from the game.
Deliver At All Costs starts in 1959, a time of, in the words of the game’s narrator, “rock ‘n’ roll, polka dot dresses, and the ever-looming dread of nuclear annihilation.” The setting is St. Monique, a sleepy island off the mainland. You control Winston Green, a down-on-his-luck young man three months behind on rent, with no job and no prospects. When he hears an ad on the radio looking for couriers at the delivery company We Deliver, he decides to seize the opportunity. Soon, he’s driving around the island delivering unusual cargo in even more unusual circumstances.
Deliver At All Costs is at its best when it focuses on these deliveries. For starters, the car controls are super responsive, the driving physics reliable, and the process of weaving between pedestrians, cars, and other obstacles quite satisfying. For another, the game’s environments are highly destructible. You can knock down trees & traffic signs and even demolish entire buildings. It’s pure power fantasy. Finally, the mission designs are downright inspired — both thematically and mechanically.
In fact, the delivery missions the very best part of the game. You’ll start by spraying and dyeing rotten produce, careful not to let any melons fall from your shallow truck bed; then move on to delivering balloons, which will actually lift your vehicle off the ground and potentially deposit you somewhere dangerous; then transport a living, squirming marlin around town as it throws its weight around; then drive a statue over to town hall, avoiding dive-bombing, defecating birds along the way. Each one is creative, funny, and uniquely challenging.
Unfortunately, the content that fills in the blanks between missions isn’t nearly as interesting. When you’re not accepting absurd tasks from We Deliver, you’re welcome to explore the island in free-roaming mode. You can explore each neighborhood at your leisure, meet quest-giving NPCs, and hunt for hidden treasure. The problem is that all this ancillary material isn’t very interesting. There aren’t many side-quests to begin with, and the rewards aren’t exactly essential. You’ll get blueprints for modifications to your delivery truck, but you can get on nicely without them.
The biggest problem with Deliver At All Costs, though, isn’t the lack of meaningful side content; it’s that the story gets in the way of the satisfying gameplay loop. As the game moves forward, the missions become less frequent and less interesting, and the demands of the narrative start to take precedence. And it’s not even that the story is bad, despite some nagging loose ends. It features several nuanced, complicated characters, some quality voice acting, and at least one never-saw-that-coming plot twist. The issue is that it intrudes upon and ultimately takes control of the game. The silliness and open-ended nature of the first few hours are long gone by the time the end credits arrive.
Speaking of the credits, they’ll roll after about 10 hours, give or take a few depending on how much side content you pursue. One nice thing is that even after completing the game you can load up your save file again to continue exploring the world and replay missions for better outcomes.
Another nice thing: the game’s period-accurate production design. While the story might overstay its welcome, the sets, props, costumes, and sound effects all work well to transport you to the late 1950s. Deliver At All Costs also makes great use of a select few songs of the era, including “Pass It On”, “Wondrous Place”, and “Can’t Wait for Summer”.
Going into Deliver At All Costs, you would understandably assume it was mostly about driving, destruction, and Grand Theft Auto-esque high jinks. And for its opening hours — its best hours — it is. But the game quietly and gradually moves away from open-world mayhem toward a more focused, intimate narrative adventure, gaining emotional heft but losing some ingenuity and player freedom in the process. One wonders how Far Out Games could have sharpened both the gameplay loop and the narrative if the two weren’t jockeying for position.
VGChartz Verdict
This review is based on a digital copy of Deliver At All Costs for the PS5, provided by the publisher.Read more about our Review Methodology here
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