3.5/5 ★ – peacebrendanp's review of Keep Driving.

As I am writing this review, I am listening to a song I found through this game's soundtrack, which is almost the star of the show here. It doesn't stop with just one song, Keep Driving has a wonderful soundtrack, that backs a very unique gameplay experience focused on nostalgia, customization, and surviving the open-road. The game's main objective is to reach a festival for the summer. This is accomplished by taking a road-trip from your parents home using one of three vehicles you can choose from the start. From there, the country that you are navigating will open up many different routes to you. And, there isn't just the main festival ending, there are a number of endings that can be achieved through play. I won't spoil any of the endings here, but they all feel unique and ask the player for urgency when they come up. My biggest complaint in this department, is when they come up again on subsequent runs, you can start to identify the pattern of the game. This is fine, I just can't help but feel longing for a more ambitious rogue-like experience, like something relating to Hades. Regardless, just a wish, not a critique per se. The combat feels very unique here; it's a turn-based system that asks you to utilize different gear and abilities to overcome different obstacles on the road. There is a pretty varied amount of issues that can arise on the road, so it didn't feel boring to encounter the different obstacles that came up. Each road event and ability promotes the risk of losing out on different resources; energy, gas, and vehicle condition are the three main resource pools that you must balance, and neglecting one could result in a run ending in failure. There are upgrades that you can make to your vehicles, and they all add buffs and cosmetics to how your car looks. In lieu of that, this game is impressive with the amount of details it has. For example, if you use duct-tape in a road event, it will apply duct-tape to your vehicle, giving the appearance that through your road trip you are holding together your car however you can. There are details like this everywhere, whether it be how many cigarettes you use adding de-buffs to you run (essentially labeling you as a smoker), or the small model changes made to a chocolate bar when you take bites out of it, it's really impressive and appreciated. Then there is the soundtrack: it's awesome. I wish it felt a bit more expansive, but for what it is, it hits. It turned me onto some artists and songs that I really appreciate now. I wish there was a bit more included in the package, such as: more player customization options, more weather variety, and maybe something to enhance the moment-to-moment gameplay. Despite those problems, the game is still fun to play, and it houses a lot of variety in terms of it's environments. Steam Deck notes: the game functions perfectly fine on the Deck. However, it doesn't have controller support, so using the touch-pads are essential. The developers are working on adding controller support down the road, but for now the actual controlling experience on the Deck leaves a bit to be desired. After about 10-hours of gameplay, and achieving four-or-so endings, I think I'm ready to put this one down. 10-hours felt like more than enough time to see what this game has to offer. I could see myself returning to the game down the road, assuming there are some cool additions added. I would love some sort of an endless mode or survival mode. I digress. One could easily extract 15-20 hours out of this package, and it's definitely a worthwhile experience. Console Played On: PC (Steam) / Steam Deck (SteamOS) Game Played: 02/2025 - 02/2025 Review Written and Published: 02/19/2025