First off, I want to say that I played this game solo. The reason I think that’s important to say up front is because it seems like this title is supposed to be a multi-player party type game. Thing is even though it is SUPPOSED to be “fun with friends”, after giving it a shot, I am thoroughly convinced that this game would actually be a whole lot harder and definitely tons more frustrating if I played it with someone else than it was to play all by myself.
The Basics
Totally Reliable Delivery Service is a physics based game that’s supposed to be funny. I say supposed to be because I found none of the humor entertaining, and actually got irritated at some of the jokes. One of the most irritating was the fact the you really can’t interact with any of the NPCs in the game. If you do approach one of them, you get whacked good and are told, “no touching”.
In this game you are a delivery person, that’s really it… You roam around, choose whether or not to interact with stations that give you boxes that you deliver to places marked on your map. Make in in certain time, get rated in gold, silver, or bronze and receive a reward of some in game cash and a cosmetic item. That’s it, again and again.
It’s not all just walking or running, as you wander around the environment you’ll come across a number of different types of vehicles. When you take a closer look at them you might wonder to yourself, how would someone drive most of these things with the joystick provided, the simple answer is, you wouldn’t. Almost none of the vehicles controls well at all. While this is certainly intentional, there is a fine line between goofy bad and irritatingly bad.
I played for a while and thing is, there is no real progression. You find stations, pick up boxes, and deliver said boxes, that’s it. With no progression, and nothing to unlock but cosmetics, which really aren’t appealing enough to make me want to unlock them, I don’t know why you would play this more than once. Perhaps just for the experience or to say you did it.
One feature the game has that I didn’t partake in is the couch co-op or playing with friends online. Now while watching your friends get irritated might be fun for a bit, I think if you actually tried to play, it would be harder and even more irritating.
This is mainly because the controls are awful. You need to have a controller and just as you’d expect the sticks control movement and the camera. It’s the buttons where things make no sense. You see, the triggers grab and the shoulder buttons lift your arms. So it’s either hand by your side or fully in the air. If the trigger was the arm button and how hard you pressed controlled how high you lifted it might make the experience a little better; but only a little…
There is map to unlock, but I don’t know why anyone would pay extra for DLC when you would do the same thing again and again with different stuff to look at around you. Honestly I think if you played this title for an hour, that would be more than long enough for you to experience what you need to from this game.
On the Plus Side
- You can co-op local or online
- Lots of stuff to unlock
The Negatives
- Controls are awful
- Same mission over and over
- Tries to be funny, it’s not