Keep Driving: The Game That Lets You Road Trip From Your PC

Inspired by classic road trip movies and with throwback 8-bit graphics Keep Driving is a nostalgic PC game with a difference.

“It’s the early 2000’s, and you’ve just bought your first car. A long, slow summer lies ahead. Hearing about a festival on the other side of the country, you fire up your engine, plot a course on your map, and hit the road. How, if you get there at all, is up to you,” says the Swedish developer of Keep Driving.

Y/CJ/Y and Future Games say that idea for Keep Driving came from films including Two Lane Blacktop and Paris Texas, and the developer’s own road trip experiences. The result is a charming game that sends you on a cross country road trip in your choice of a 1981 sedan, a 1988 truck, or a 1970 muscle car. Even with the boxy ‘pixel art’ graphics you can see that they resemble a Volvo, Toyota and Chevy Camaro.

The game begins with you picking a job, a car and even how well you get on with your parents (just in case you need to call them for help). Then you pack up your provisions, plan your route and head for the open road.

There’s not really any actual driving, so don’t mistake this for a Gran Turismo rival. Instead it’s a turn-based Road Trip Management RPG (Role-Playing Game) where you drag and drop icons from the top of the screen to your dashboard or into the car to take action. And you’ll need to do that pretty often as you encounter treacherous weather, traffic cops, snarl-ups and hitch-hikers along the way.

The developers reckon it takes 4-5 hours to complete a typical journey, and, just like a real road trip you can break that down into shorter legs if you want depending on how much screen time you can deal with.

Keep Driving is available now on Steam for £15.99.

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