GTA Fans Need To Play This Funny Throwback To The Open-World Series Roots
Chinatown Wars meets Red Faction: Guerilla.
What if there was a Grand Theft Auto game about a civilian? No, not a random non-playable character in a chaotic city like Los Santos. But a game where you’re a (mostly) average Joe trying to make money to fund your side hustle?
This idea is the basic premise of Studio Far Out Games’ Deliver At All Costs, which has a Steam Next Fest demo available right now. This outrageously fun open-world game set in the 1950s that harkens back to Grand Theft Auto’s 2D roots, while adding several twists to an underutilized retro formula to make it its own thing.
Deliver At All Costs tells the story of Winston Green, a crafty scientist and inventor who takes up a courier job to make ends meet. In the demo, Winston only makes references to his past, but his ability to craft incredibly elaborate devices like a miniature rocket ship betrays that there’s far more to his past.
The game starts fairly simple: wake up in your modest apartment, get dressed, mull over the morning newspaper, and head to the car your neighbor kindly lent you. When you hop in however, one of the game’s defining hooks is made crystal clear. Your neighbor left the vehicle in reverse, causing you to smash into the building behind it. You don’t just smash into the building, you smash straight through it.
As you watch dry wall and metal beams crash all around your vehicle from the game’s isometric view, Winston quips nonchalantly about how forgetful his neighbor must be. This moment sets the tone perfectly for Deliver At All Costs. This is an open-world, mission-based game in the style of the underrated Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Except you’re free to smash into whatever stands in your way, Red Faction: Guerilla-style
For a game this destructive, it’s pretty shocking that it's not all that violent. There’s zero murder in the game. You smash through residential homes and pedestrians, but they’ll stand up completely fine, if not a little angry about your reckless driving. Even when they retaliate, they’re not looking to resolve the issue with fisticuffs. Instead, they will shove you to the ground (something Winston can also do), smash up your vehicle and grab onto it with vengeful fury. The inability to cause fatal harm adds to the slapstick, lighthearted nature of the game’s aesthetic.
Even the missions your employer assigns you offer a fun twist on the criminal shenanigans typical of the genre. You’re never told to eliminate a guy or get into a shootout with a rival gang. Instead, you’re helping down on their luck or scummy denizens commit petty crimes and fraud. One mission has Winston helping a grocer repaint a truckful of spoiled fruit like watermelons so they can be resold. Another has a young man looking to impress a lover’s father by passing a massive fish off as one he caught on his own. Each mission adds a new physics wrinkle to the gameplay. Completing the grocer’s mission, for example, means delivering the fruits without spilling them over the bed of your truck.
There’s plenty to see on foot in this open world.
As someone less interested in being a murderous psychopath in every game I play, it’s refreshing to play something that borrows the fun of Grand Theft Auto without the violent baggage. It’s a similar conceit used expertly by classics GTA alternatives like the beloved The Simpsons Hit And Run and Destroy All Humans.
There are a handful of smart design decisions too. After clocking in for the day, players can call their dispatcher over the radio at any time to take on story missions. The city of tk is also fairly condensed, clocking in at around the size of the pre-San Andreas cities featured in PS2-era GTA games. Its separate sections are separated by loading screens that can drag a bit. But it also makes the game feel approachable and zippy.
Grand Theft Auto VI might be a long way away from release. So fans of the open-world genre shouldn’t wait with bated breath for Rockstar’s long-awaited game to finally drop. For fans of the series’ 2D roots, developer Studio Far Out Games might have the perfect open world game that adds several unique twists to the beloved retro formula.
