Blowing things up is fun. Many hours were spent taking down monolithic structures or leveling industry across dozens of games in my youth, partially due to the sheer destructive nature of it all, but also due to the spectacle. A man-made piece of masonry, a testament to humanity’s will and fortitude to reach the skies, being brought down by ludicrous explosions or hefty bombardments always appeals to that carnal desire to see things go up in smoke. It’s admittedly pretty hilarious, too.
Deliver At All Costs initially promises such a level of wanton destruction caked in Americana theming, with an emphasis on delivering precious cargo under strict time limits. At least, that’s the impression I got before playing it. During my brief time with this newly-released title by Far Out Games and Konami, I was admittedly surprised to see that the game veered in a direction that I couldn’t ever have expected — for better or for worse. Is Deliver At All Costs worth trying at all costs? Or does this madcap delivery service fall short of its lofty ambitions?
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It’s the end of the 1950s as you enter the shoes of Winston Green — a fiery man who, despite running low on cash and opportunities, has been cautiously tinkering with all sorts of machinery in his spare time. In desperate need of a cash flow before his pending eviction, Winston takes on a job offer from a family-run courier service by the name of We Deliver. It’s not a pristine job, but it’s a job nonetheless. Things are going great at first: deliveries are made, Winston gets paid, and he gets to fund his more ambitious projects from the comfort of his cramped apartment. But as Winston builds a friendly rapport with the eccentric faces at We Deliver, incredulous eyes find themselves drawn to his mysterious past, unveiling a conspiratorial plot and a web of lies that nobody could’ve ever predicted.
Deliver At All Costs is all about driving. The game is played from an isometric perspective in a semi-open world, allowing Winston to freely roam almost everywhere on the map during and between deliveries. Split across thirteen chapters, you’ll zip and zoom across busy streets and scenic routes to deliver just about anything you can think of: munitions, rotten fruit, camera equipment, and so on. It’s straightforward, but satisfying.
You do have some freedom to explore off the beaten path. Specially-marked crates can be busted open to get some petty cash, landmarks can be visited for some pretty set dressing, and there are even a handful of side activities that provide a bit more novelty against the main missions. One example of this comes early in the game, where you’re given a small on-foot platforming section in order to grab some upgrade parts. It’s not necessarily essential, but it does break up some of the occasional tedium of just driving around. You can even find other cars to drive that can temporarily replace your official company truck.
Speaking of which, your truck is as much a character as Winston is. You can eventually develop upgrades for your truck that not only enhance its capabilities but also allow for much greater variety in the game’s later missions. A winch, for instance, allows you to effectively tow items around or lift heavy cargo into your truck bed. Hydraulic doors will allow you to fling angry civilians off of your vehicle should they try to hitch a ride, whereas a device you affix onto your roof allows you to temporarily slow down time in order to better react to upcoming obstacles.
With all this in mind, I do feel like the game’s difficulty isn’t necessarily as high as you would expect. Checkpoints are fairly generous (barring the game’s finale), for one thing. Dying or failing to complete an objective isn’t so much a fail state as it is a temporary inconvenience. I don’t dislike this necessarily. The game being heavily reliant on its weighty physics means that you’ll occasionally plummet to your death after an errant turn on a dangerous mountainside, or you’ll be crushed by falling debris after cutting a turn a little too wide. It’s a decent compromise for some unpredictability.
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Speaking of which, we have to mention the level of destructibility here. Just about every building on the map can be taken down to the foundation by just plowing straight on through them. Other motorists can be flung from their cars if you get into a head-on collision with them. In fact, causing as much wanton destruction as possible often opens up some shortcuts that you can use to get around more effectively. The novelty does wear off after the first hour or so, but the sheer level of detail in the destruction, down to the damage your own car takes as you put it through the wringer, is easily the game’s biggest selling point. You can just as easily spend an hour leveling the city and hiding from the ensuing police in a dumpster as you could playing one of the game’s main missions.
But Deliver At All Costs, believe it or not, is a game that places extreme emphasis on its overarching narrative, admittedly to a degree that I wasn’t really expecting. Which is strange, given that what you’re doing in the game itself seems to spoil the mood. What I mean is, as the threads of an almost noir-like conspiracy start to unravel, Winston is casually plowing through buildings and flinging pedestrians into the sky with his company’s work truck. I couldn’t help but feel some kind of disconnect as the game heavily weighs the importance of Winston’s past and his potential ties to technology ripped straight out of science fiction, only to handle a mission involving an honest-to-God UFO abducting cows in almost the same breath. I can’t get into too much detail here, as it quickly verges on spoiler territory, but I certainly didn’t expect things to go where they did. I wasn’t a big fan. However, thankfully, all cutscenes and dialog portions are skippable. Although I wasn’t as invested in it as I would have liked, I was still somewhat intrigued by the game’s methodical escalation of stakes.
I do have a few other complaints, though I don’t really feel as strongly about them as I do for the game’s narrative. For one thing, the routine that you fall into for a majority of the game does feel kind of padded out — wake up, head to We Deliver, do what the game is primarily about, head back to We Deliver, get some story bits, then go home. By the time the third act rolls around, where your home is regularly stationed two or three loading zones away from We Deliver, it does get to be a little annoying having to constantly head back and forth between the two locations.
So too does the occasional bug involving the game’s physics. Towards the end, it wasn’t uncommon to see a car fly into and out of the corner of the screen in just under a second, or occasionally flip up into the sky as you approach. These are funny, sure, but other instances — namely, a mission involving catching falling crates from the sky — did present some tangible issues. Have you ever seen a crate get stuck in mid-air as it attempts to land in your truck while simultaneously trying to plummet to the ground? I have. A few times, actually.
This isn’t a deal-breaker either, but the game’s presentation is a mixed bag as well. There are some pretty beautiful vistas to find, and the inclusion of era-appropriate original music was certainly welcomed. It definitely gives all the chaos more of a humorous edge. But character models, some animations, and even some of the vocal performances do feel a bit more shoddy in comparison. Again, I don’t mind that necessarily. In fact, I think it adds to the game’s charm. You can tell where most of the effort went in the game’s presentation — the destruction, you know — and that part is what especially matters most.
Should You Play Deliver At All Costs?
I can’t in good faith dogpile on Deliver At All Costs. For what it’s worth, the few moments of absolute bliss I had plowing through buildings, ferrying fragile watermelons around, or fleeing a burning trail of napalm did give me that fun, madcap feeling I was initially looking for based on the game’s promotional materials. While I didn’t necessarily care too much for the game’s growing emphasis on its narrative elements, I can at least respect the effort placed into them, especially when it comes to the game’s third-act twist, which is so off-the-wall that I dare not even describe it here.
Deliver At All Costs ultimately feels like a game that focuses on too many things for my taste. Does it want to be a tense noir story loaded with mystery and intrigue? Is it trying to be an over-the-top arcade game with ludicrous physics and wacky scenarios? As a strange mishmash of the two, I feel that the strengths each could provide are ultimately diluted by a lack of commitment.
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But is it fun? Yeah. When the game does what it does best, it’s pretty fun. The driving itself feels great, utilizing your car’s weight and inertia to bounce around obstacles and maintain your top speed is really fun. Having to deal with how each delivery affects your car’s movement makes for interesting challenges. Does it do all it can with the driving? I don’t personally think so, but that’s not to say that this can’t change in the future.
I think going into Deliver At All Costs knowing that there’s going to be quite a few talking heads will ultimately make your end experience all the more better. There’s some charm to be found in its colorful setting, its occasionally offbeat missions, and the gradual power creep you can find in your truck’s numerous upgrades. I always got a kick out of barging through just about anything in my truck’s way, society be damned. Whether or not you’ll get a similar level of enjoyment depends on how well you jive with everything else Deliver At All Costs is trying to do. If you do have fun, that’s great. Maybe I’m just a stick in the mud.
Deliver At All Costs is available on Steam, the Epic Games Store, GOG, PlayStation, and Xbox.
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