Lately, I’ve been wanting to go on a road trip. The process as a child with ADD was a living nightmare, but as I’ve gotten older, the concept of escaping the stresses of life with nothing but the open world and the beautiful countryside around me has become a much more appealing fantasy. Keep Driving is the first game I’ve seen that not only portrays that fantasy but does so in a creative and engaging way, turning the idea of a young twenty-something first road trip into an exciting RPG adventure.
Keep Driving is an atmospheric RPG with turn-based combat and management features and is also what I would describe as a roguelite. The game begins when you are invited to a concert on the other side of the country and tasks you with making the arduous but exciting journey there. Along the way, you will collect hitchhikers, battle obstacles in your path, and listen to some incredible music in what truly feels like a memorable adventure.

The first thing you do in Keep Driving is customize your character through a variety of simple questions. You’re given a background that determines how your character fares on the road with a variety of passive abilities, a selection of equipment to start your journey (I always pick the guitar and case of beer, don’t ask me why), and, most importantly, your relationship with your parents—a hilarious slider that goes from 0 to 10 that determines how likely your parents are to come bail you out if you’re met with failure on the road.
Keep Driving separates each leg of your journey through stretches of road that operate sort of like roguelike levels. On each one, you’re met with different obstacles, with the promise of a series of awards at the end, coming in the form of shops where you can buy goods, gas, or upgrade your car. You’re given a map showing the many interlocked roads to your goal and are able to choose any of the branching paths forward at each node (or rest stop) at the end of a stretch of road.

The road hazards in Keep Driving are portrayed as little turn-based battles, challenging you to use your accumulated goodies to protect your resources.
See, in Keep Driving, you have your energy, gas, car integrity, and mood to protect while on the road. Various events can affect these, but they are mostly diminished through these turn-based battles, as road hazards represent different threats to these resources. To defeat them, you use a collection of card-like abilities that each target a specific type of hazard and in a specific order. The goal is to use the right cards to most quickly and efficiently take out the hazards before they start to diminish your resources.

Items can be collected and used from the glovebox and act sort of like cards of their own with limited uses. Other consumables can be stored in your car, which uses a Resident Evil-style physical inventory space that must be managed with each object you collect. These objects can be car repairs you have yet to equip or consumables like chips or beer that help you fight status effects and stay on the road longer.
Your road trip comes to an end if you run out of energy or if your car breaks down. Doing so will give you a sort of sub-game over where you can use the different tools at your disposal to try and fix the car or take a nap in the back seat. This is also where you can call your parents to bail you out if you choose to have a good relationship with them. If you can’t do either, the game ends.
The best way to avoid catastrophe on the road is to pick up hitchhikers. These characters often have their own dialogue, sometimes a mission objective to drop them off somewhere, and cards of their own to help you out with hazards. Like your objects, they take up space in the car, giving you limited room with the passengers you collect.

You can essentially picture Keep Driving as the Oregon Trail of the 2000s, and the game certainly lives up to that vibe well. Along the way, you’ll see incredible procedurally generated pixel art backgrounds that really paint the picture of a European road trip. The different cars you can unlock are fitting for the era, and the game’s incredible soundtrack of “Local Swedish indie bands” feels like what I imagine taking a road trip back then would have sounded like. I can’t tell you for sure—I was 2.
I’ve yet to complete a full map of Keep Driving, which I think speaks to the game’s difficulty and playtime. However, if the game’s description is to be believed, I don’t think the game continues after you reach your concert destination and make the drive back home. If this is the case, I would love to see the game updated with more road trip adventures, perhaps ones that take place in different countries, have different characters, and different destinations.
The Final Word
Keep Driving is an incredible road trip adventure game, truly living up to the vibe of an early 2000s drive across the country. Every aspect of the game wowed me, and I was left with no desire other than to get even more from the experience. Here’s hoping the developers launch some future DLC for the game.
Try Hard Guides received a PC review code for this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Keep Driving is available on Steam!
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