Dead Static Drive

I really wanted to love this game. I wishlisted it ages ago and followed its development through delay after delay. Everything about this seemed like it would be right up my alley. But now that it's here and I've played it, I feel underwhelmed. The vibes are amazing, don't get me wrong. Blaring some classic synthwave as you tear past a bunch of ghoulish nightmares or switching off your headlights as you pass by a building just in case it isn't as empty as it appears feels fantastic. But so far, it feels like there's not much game here. It feels like Dead Static is going for something kind of similar to Pacific Drive with the whole feel of a haunted road trip, but after an hour or two playing, most of the time, I don't have to make the same choices I made in Pacific Drive. I don't have much of a reason to explore most monster-infested buildings. Gas is plentiful enough I can keep my car pretty well topped off and there's no real need to grab more weapons and ammo if I'm mostly just passing through most of the zones. I struggle to get a sense of what the game actually wants me to do. I'm mostly just zipping around the zones trying to find the exit while my character complains about how dirty the car is and I grumble about having no clear way to clean it (Normally I am the mortal enemy of excessive tutorialization, but here, I'd welcome a bit more). Yeah, I have an objective marker telling me where I should be trying to go, but there's no real sense I'll be rewarded for exploring this world beyond just following that red line. I wish there was just more to do here. And speaking of the world, it feels really empty. I get that's partly the idea, but it makes it feel genuinely really weird when you meet a friendly NPC and they're the only person around for miles in a town full of boarded-up pizza places infested with otherworldly horrors and they're just over here treating it like it's a normal Tuesday. The world either needs to feel more like people actually live in it, or the people who do need to act more like they're doing their best to live their lives in a blasted nightmare. And for a final note, there's still a lot of jank and clunk to this game. Menu management is cumbersome, combat feels clumsy, the camera feels too zoomed in when driving to feel like I can navigate the world well (I really wish there were an alternate camera mode when behind the wheel), and cars sometimes control oddly. And I hate leaving a negative review because again, I've wanted this game for years and I know the devs have been working on it for a long time. And with more polish and shine, it could be great. I love the atmosphere and the aesthetic, the friendship system is really cool and adds to the road trip feel. With some more attention paid to making the world feel lived-in, streamlined UI, and a little more incentive to explore - maybe some background lore in the form of journal entries or a safe player home that you can return to easily to keep a few cars and decorate at your leisure (as well as offload some of the junk in my far too small inventory) - this game could be great. But for now, I just feel disappointed.

Saw this on Skill Up and put it on my wishlist as I really liked the idea and the art style. Bottom line- Hold off on this for now or just move on. * When I went to change resolution you had to click up one level, let the game reinitialize, click up another level, let the game initialize, etc... 1/4 of my playtime was clicking the resolution up. I gave up when I hit a native aspect ratio for my screen even though I had a ways to go because I just wanted to play the game. I am trying to remember any time in the last 30 years I had to do that and I can't think of anything. * There supposedly is a manual outside of the game to explain keybindings? In Anno Domini 2025? Not even a static reference screen? Come on... Which leads me to * There is no tutorial. There is no introduction. There is no world building. There is almost no sound effects, eventually some music kicked in for a few moments until I got out of my car, then it stopped. * The dialog text is bland. "We're bored. That hardware store over there belonged to my dad but the keys are inside." Or "Here let me fix your car. There. Easy. Give me a ride home?" * The UI is... painful. And sometimes doesn't update the way it needs to. Want to fuel your car? Grab the fuel pump nozzle, go to the part of your car that says "fill up", hit F, then that takes you into your inventory and you select the gas pump that you're holding in your hands and hit E to fuel up. But you don't *know* that because the UI doesn't tell you that's possible. Meanwhile, interacting with other stuff in your inventory does show UI key prompts but doesn't explain what they do the first time. * In 20 minutes of play there's nothing to encourage me to keep playing. I think somewhere in some menu there's a 2 sentence pitch for why you're finding your parents and how things seem weird, but beyond that there's no world building to suggest that this is a world where something is wrong. It feels more like an alpha build early release and is absolutely not worth the $30 asking price.

I've been waiting casually for this game for 4 or 5 years now, so it felt reasonable to buy on day one. I am only 30 minutes in, but already I feel that this version of the game leaves something to be desired. Right away, the UI feels basic and uninspired. As a small example, during character creation, the sliders suggest that you can click on the selector and move it around. But instead, you can only click on the left and right buttons to adjust. This might not seem like a big deal, but when there are 64 options for hair color, it would be nice to just scroll through them all quickly. On that note, the hair colors don't seem particularly organized by color or any other quality. I think a basic color selector would work better. There's also no real indication of how to play the game. In the opening scene I found myself breaking windows when I wanted to interact with the first character. I am all for games that thrust you right into the action, but some hints and tool tips would be nice. I've seen some forum posts asking how to refuel, and I think I figured it out? But again, this is an area that would really benefit from some instruction. I enjoyed driving around, though the handling felt awkward at times. Again, maybe that's an issue with using mouse and keyboard instead of a controller. At one point, a crow hit my car from the back and exploded, which was pretty funny. Overall, I don't think I can recommend the game in this current state. It feels unpolished, and I question how much play testing was done. I would love to see the game developed further, but for now I don't think I can justify spending $30.

i cant believe i waited 5 years for this ♥♥♥♥.

I waited for this game for 5 years and I'm genuinely confused. It feels incredibly unfinished from 30 minutes in. No tutorial, no rebinding. Playing with M+K nor controller particularly felt good. Navigating menus with no tutorial no intuitive tutorialization to ease you into the mechanics. I ran into a variety of glitches. I really feel awful choosing not recommended but this doesn't feel like a finished game. Aesthetically it's so cool, but actually playing it doesn't feel good. And not in a "obtuse but eventually intuitive" way, in a completely clunky and not well-tested way. For example, switching weapons doesn't feel great (having to go into a menu each time unless I missed something) and you have to hop into the inventory menu a bit more than I'd like. For $30 I really do not think this is worth it.

This price point for a game that at best qualify as a early access game is just crazy to me, onboarding the player and letting them know what is even going on seems to be something they entirely forgot. The NPC's will just stand there and let monsters kill them, they won't flee, won't use the weapon I gave them to defend themselves they will just stand there and wait until they die. Sure you can revive them, but I am not sure I should they clearly are sick of being alive. I don't know what the deal with the monsters are, they are just there, I haven't really seen anyone talk about them or even care so I assume they are just normal in the world.

I have decided to review my experience with the first confusing 80 minutes of this game. This will be a long one, since I will list every problem I have encountered. I would not have written this in review form, but instead reported them as bugs, had the devs opted to mark this game as Early Access which it very clearly is. It almost feels like an alpha, if I'm being honest. So instead I write this in review form to inform others like me, who want to give this a chance despite the harsh reviews, so they have an inkling of what to expect. So, I'm from Sweden. Meaning my keyboard layout isn't matching the tutorial inputs and as of writing this review, just post day 1 patch, there is no option to rebind keys. Also, Tab and Esc does the same thing. Take you to the map. What this means is that any time I want to access my inventory, I instead open the map. And when I try to leave the map, I open the map. Apparently "q" takes you back to the game, but not with the inventory open. I fixed this by accessing the inventory through opening containers, and when your guns run out of ammo they will reload if you try to fire them empty. Given that you have ammo in your pockets. There are monsters, randomly placed across the map when you leave the starting area so let's talk about the combat for a moment. The feel of combat, and the controls for combat, does its job. The only thing I miss really is some kind of dodge/roll mechanic but it doesn't bother me too much. With that said, the combat plays and feels a bit like Silent Hill 2. No, not the new one. I don't mind. (Also there might well be a dodge thing, I just don't know about it.) One thing I like is the mouse lock on, which gives an idea of the accuracy of the weapon you're using. And also, unless locked on, you will not fire the gun but use it in melee. The monsters are weird and cool in design, and very very deadly. But dumb as bricks and often doesn't aggro unless directly attacked. So a group of five wendigos can be take out one by one, as me shooting one of them doesn't at all register with the others. The controls in general are... Okay for what they are. Mind you, there is no way to see an overview of the controls. One of the devs claim they have written a manual for the controls, and put them on "the games page". I still haven't found it. The car has no engine sound. This I have read is a choice made by the devs. I guess the thought was to not drown out the music while driving. The music isn't bad, but it's not good enough for that and one of the few settings they actually have are for balancing the volume of the games music, ambiance and sound effects. There are some NPCs, who will just stand around. There are NPCs who will follow you, and one of them taught me I could vault over fences. That was the first and last time she vaulted over a fence. There are two options for camera. Isometric and Chase. I don't like the Isometric camera for driving, but I don't really like the feel of the chase camera at all. I like the inventory system, for what it is. It doesn't always make sense, but it's more or less the only intuitive thing about the game so far. Last but not least, and the only thing that actually bothers me with the game: The roads. The layout of the roads in the towns and areas make less sense than car play mats for kids. I don't mind the fact that all I have to orient myself is a general direction on a compass. Not at all. But when the roads don't make a lick of sense it's very frustrating. A long and winding road in the general direction you're supposed to go ends in a roundabout, for no apparent reason. There are basically NO straight roads. It's all curves. And since most of the maps are flat and empty sparse woods, this makes zero sense. No sense at all. Only straight roads would have been boring too, of course, but this is simply ridiculous. Will I refund it? Probably not. I'll wait for now and see where the patches goes. Was it worth the wait? Not in this state, no. Is it fun to play? Kinda. I had a good time with it, mostly. I'm curious to see where it goes as I just reached Chapter 1. But I won't play it for a bit since I might need to refund it. Recommend for balance, and also for attention. ♥

You might surmise, as I did, from the original trailer that there is some sense of desperation and urgency to the game play. There is neither, along with little if any concrete plot. This was clearly meant to be an early access title and it really isn't ready for release. It feels like all of this games systems and mechanics were assembled independently from one another without any thought to them progressing the story. The game ferries you into the first boss battle without giving a single reason why should pick up and collect food, guns or ammunition. Quests appear broken, Achievements show up without anything being done. Monsters are everywhere with little or no explanation. The over prevalence of soft locks and broken dialogue chains imply the devs did not test their own game, or did not hire testers at all. Worst of all is the lack of logic behind the hitchhiker system. These npcs have no reason to be in your car, and no story reason to actually leave their home. conversations can only happen on the loading screen for some reason, never when you are scavenging or doing nothing. The game claims to evoke 'americana', but was clearly made by people who have never been to America, and lacks even a surface level understanding of the dangers of hitchhiking and why it arose because of the atomization of american life and industry. Why would these strangers, without any relevant narrative reason be eager to climb into a strangers car and help them shoot monsters in the middle of nowhere? Not even game logic can rationalize that in the abscence of the plot.

I expected the game to involve a lot of scavenging and exploration, but instead spent most of my time driving between objectives with no obstacles blocking my way, only stopping to hijack another vehicle whenever mine broke down/ran out of fuel. The game started with barely any introduction, but I was able to work out most of the mechanics through trial and error, although I still have no idea how you're supposed to work out if I'm going in the right direction until I hit a loading screen. I got as far as reaching the Hunter's Lodge, where I couldn't find how to progress further, before calling it quits. Part of me feels like they uploaded the wrong build, 'cause it feels like an early access game. The charm I had seen in previews before release is still there, but there's nothing requiring you to interact with different parts of the game so most of it is missable. The lack of any quality-of-life features also makes stuff like managing your inventory feel inconvenient and a little tedious after a while. The game needs a lot more polish to be worth the asking price, which is unfortunate since I've been keeping track of the game's development for the last few years. I hope the devs stick with it because the game doesn't seem too far away from becoming something I'd recommend playing, but for now it's too rough around the edges to be worth the asking price.

I gave up when I found out the lack of engine noise was intentional, not a bug. The developers later announced they'd add it, thankfully, but it still shows how far their vision is from what I expected.