No GPS. No advantages. No escape. Nonetheless cosy.
Straightforward Supply Co. is a type of video games that appears easy, and for essentially the most half, it truly is. You’re a bit of cat supply driver in a low-poly, snowy mountain city, driving your truck from vacation spot to vacation spot, selecting up packages, dropping them off, scraping collectively some money to gasoline your vitality drink dependancy, and pretending all the pieces on this city is totally regular…
At its core, Straightforward Supply Co. is a comfortable driving sport. You settle for jobs, load cargo into the again of your truck, examine the map, and head out throughout winding roads whereas lo-fi beats hum away within the background. The straightforward act of driving from one snowy cease to the following shortly turns into oddly comforting.
The dearth of GPS did fear me at first. My sense of path is often fairly unhealthy, and I’m used to most video games like this telling me precisely the place to go, with a large glowing marker and a line on the map. Straightforward Supply Co. doesn’t try this. You may have a reasonably barebones map, however it’s essential to discuss with it your self, work out the place you might be, and regularly construct your individual understanding of the realm. What I assumed would actually take me out of the sport quickly grew to become one in all its greatest qualities. Over time, I finished checking the map so usually. I remembered turns, recognised buildings, outlets, and roads. I slowly felt like I used to be a part of this darkish, snowy, low-polygon place.
Issues don’t keep in that pick-up, ship, repeat rhythm ceaselessly. The deliveries get longer, cargo turns into tougher to handle, and it’s essential to keep watch over gasoline, vitality, and the worsening terrain. Ultimately, you might be worrying about vitality drinks, espresso, gasoline, and whether or not that tall stack of cargo goes to slip straight out of the again of your truck the second you’re taking a nook at tempo.
The driving itself, although, feels good. This isn’t a driving sim – removed from it, however it’s not fully arcadey both. It’s free sufficient to make each journey really feel relaxed till your cargo decides it could relatively be midway down the highway. The physics round taller objects at the back of your truck can really feel a bit of harsh, however the sport is forgiving sufficient that it hardly ever turns into a severe problem. There appears to be no actual punishment for not fulfilling a supply or shedding all of the cargo. Simply cancel that supply, decide a brand new one, and keep it up.
The half that pissed off me most was the vitality system. Having to refuel your self with vitality drinks and low is sensible in principle, and it does give the sport a lightweight survival edge, however it could turn into extra irritating than fascinating. I reached a degree the place I used to be spending all my cash on stocking up just like the apocalypse was coming, simply so I wouldn’t should maintain circling again to a merchandising machine. Espresso helps, and brewing it your self is a pleasant contact, however I nonetheless discovered the fixed top-ups annoying, interrupting the in any other case easy supply circulate.
There’s a story right here, though the sport doesn’t precisely pressure it down your throat. Early on, you encounter a canine who begins pulling you into the stranger facet of the mountain and its surrounding areas. From there, Straightforward Supply Co. begins revealing extra about this space, and the secrets and techniques within the snow. If you need, you possibly can chase the goals and see the story by way of in a handful of hours, however I wouldn’t suggest dashing it. It performs out fairly properly once you give it room to breathe. Ship some packages, benefit from the small chats with shopkeepers, examine in with the canine once you really feel prefer it, repeat.
That’s the place the coziness actually shines. Relax, take heed to the radio, take supply after supply, drink an alarming quantity of vitality drinks, and easily exist on this city for so long as you’re feeling prefer it. Beneath all of it, although, there’s a creepy, virtually Silent Hill-esque vacancy to all the pieces. You’re always selecting up packages from shopkeepers, however deliveries are left outdoors silent houses, and the broader city feels deserted. That vacancy by no means actually fights towards the comfortable supply loop, although. It simply sits there within the snow and retains you firm whilst you crack on.
Straightforward Supply Co. is just not an ideal sport. The useful resource administration can grate, the cargo physics sometimes really feel a bit of imply, and gamers wanting a extra “guided” expertise might discover the laid-back construction a bit of too free. However as a dip-in-and-out sport, or one thing to play whereas half-watching one thing else, it completely works. Extra importantly, it has a really particular temper and commits to it. One way or the other, delivering packages in a darkish, snowy city has by no means felt so interesting.
