Overview
Overview, Controls, and Gameplay
Overview
First off, this game is an endless driver meant to showcase the different synthwave/retrowave composers featured in it, meaning that there is no end goal or objective.
The idea of the game is that due to your girlfriend being shot in an altercation with enemies, you’ve had to connect her heart to the engine of your futuristic car in order to keep her alive. As such, the engine has to be kept above a certain number of revolutions for the life support to work, but not so high that it overheats and destroys it.
Controls
- W: Accelerate.
- A: Steer Left.
- S: Brake.
- D: Steer Right.
- Left Shift: Nitrous Boost.
- Spacebar: Handbrake.
- R: Restart.
- Up Arrow: Rotate Camera Backwards
- Left Arrow: Rotate Camera Left.
- Right Arrow: Rotate Camera Right.
- Escape: Pause Menu.
Gameplay
The gameplay involves endless driving through a variety of neon landscapes while trying to maintain the correct amount of speed to keep your girlfriend’s lifesupport working.
There is a meter behind the car showing the lifesupport’s status, with the dial moving from the left-most red zone (too slow), through the centre blue zone (where you need to keep it), up to the right red zone (too fast). The idea is too keep the gauge in the centre by boosting and driting around corners to maintain sufficient speed, but not boosting too much or you’ll overheat.
Too slow. Use boost to speed up quickly.
Just right. Use drift to maintain speed around corners.
Too fast. Use brake to slow down.
Conclusion
There have been a few things said and a nasty site (which I won’t link to) chucked around the discussion boards, implying that the developer has re-used assets or stolen the idea for OutDrive from another game, PowerDrive 2000.
Nothing could be further from the truth. If the developer was inspired by the work of PowerDrive, then that is PowerDrive’s gain in inspiring someone else to go out and create, not it’s loss.
The goal behind OutDrive is to gain some attention for the retrowave artists involved, not to create a commercial game with a series of races, modes, and cars.
Instead, it is more like an interactive music video showcasing both their and the developer’s incredible talent and hard-work, and I believe they should be applauded for such.
For more info on the developers and the retrowave composers featured, see the credits available from the main menu screen.
Let’s bring on the 80’s, baby!
