Deliver at All Costs

At the end of the summer last year, I had the opportunity to head to London to check out a handful of upcoming Konami games. One such title in question was a completely unexpected project, a Crazy Taxi meets Destroy All Humans!-like idea called Deliver at All Costs, coming from developer Far Out Games. At the time, I was quite surprised and entertained by what I experienced, but now that Deliver at All Costs is about to launch, does that impression hold up for the full game?

Before I answer that question, let me instead explain a little further about what this game is. It's an adventure where you play as a delivery driver employed at a company called We Deliver. The aim is to complete unusual tasks for clients, all by utilising your handy pickup truck and the gadgets you can outfit it with, and because it's set in the early 1960s, a lot of the theme and the technology in question embodies that great and innovative World Fair-like design approach where the stars seemed at reach and where health and safety was more of an afterthought. This is precisely where the "Crazy Taxi meets Destroy All Humans!" comparison is birthed, as Deliver at All Costs has combined the setting and theme of the latter with a gameplay structure that is somewhat similar to the former.

So anyway, you're plonked in a world constituted by several interconnected open-levels. You drive around in a vehicle that has a very loose and silly handling style that reflects the overall physics engine that promotes wackiness, and then you take on and have to complete jobs that could entail delivering an atomic bomb, a live marlin, a spherical nuclear shelter attached to your truck like Reyes' bank safe from Fast Five, and much, much more. There is then a progressive storyline that undercuts all of this and ties each job and chapter together, and this is where Deliver at All Costs starts to go off the rails.

What originally looks like a simple delivery simulator soon makes clear that this is in fact a conspiracy story where one man, the protagonist Winston Green, is tasked with protecting something strange from prying eyes. To avoid spoilers, I won't delve into exactly what this is, but let me just add that this "item" soon leads this story into the domain of time-travel, shadow government interference, takeover plots, and all in a small-town American setting during an era where the war against Communism was becoming increasingly notorious.

Before we even get to gameplay, this is where my first gripe with Deliver at All Costs sprouts, as the story is too crazy and strange for its own good. It becomes a challenge to keep tabs on and the ridiculous nature means that none of the characters feel all too believable and familiar. I get that the point is that the game is meant to be absurd, but Deliver at All Costs doesn't have the structure nor precision to embrace such a strange and overwhelming idea.

Anyway, narrative aside, let's talk about gameplay. The actual mechanics of this game are really well offered, serving up an enjoyable and daft arcade experience that is everything you could want out of a game that merges DAH-like exploration with destruction that will make the Burnout fan in your life smile. You cruise around the different levels completing the jobs at hand while overcoming their unusual mechanics (for example, the marlin will frequently wriggle and make your truck's handling a nightmare to master), and beyond this you can freely cruise around the world, smashing crates to earn additional money, opening chests for resources used to craft new truck parts, and even taking on quirky side quests or finding rare other vehicles along the way. In many ways, the world and activity design is very rudimentary, but it works, if you can accept that...

I say this because beyond the core delivery missions and the few and far between side quests, the rest of the world isn't exactly that enjoyable to "complete". If you find solace in snagging lots (and I mean, lots) of "collectible"-type items, then Deliver at All Costs will be the game for you, but if that isn't your jam, or perhaps you need something more to tie this kind of gameplay choice into the wider whole, you will soon find yourself fatigued and lacking the motivation to run over another of the hundreds of yellow-paint marked crates. This is more of a problem than it may be elsewhere for the simple reason that Deliver at All Costs doesn't have much else to offer the player beyond its core story and ticking off its collectible completion list.

To me, this is a bit of shame because the idea and the stylistic decisions in play are worth championing. The destruction engine is excellent, the driving feel and the arcade-like modifiers used to make your life a challenge add a great extra dimension, and the isometric camera angle also works well. The appearance, art direction, graphics and the little nods like authentic radio stations make this world feel as though it's set in the 60s, and despite the character models being pretty abhorrent in cutscenes, the performances are quite strong too.

It feels like Far Out has got all the ideas and the principle parts of this game well thought out and mastered, but it just loses itself and falls away when you look at the difficult to follow story and the quite drab additional world activities. Deliver at All Costs stands out as a game that might hook you in the opening hour, but as the hours continue to roll on, you steadily lose your drive to continue as fewer and fewer fresh reasons to be excited are introduced.

This is why Deliver at All Costs feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. There are parts of this game worth spotlighting, but overall this is a title that doesn't quite stick the landing. It's unironically a bit like a parcel delivered by a courier; delivered in so-called good condition until you actually open the box and find your product dented and scuffed...