Death Taxi 3000

[h1]Top Notch Recommendation! Fans of Quarantine, Crazy Taxi and one of my all time favorites--Cruis'n USA will feel right at home with Death Taxi 3000. This game delivers! Great music, sleek controls, immersive qualities and passengers.. so many passengers![/h1] As a big fan of both the style and music of [i]outrun, retrowave, vaporwave and synthwave[/i] found myself powerless from purchasing this title. I just had to. It called out to my soul. And I got to say, I am so stoked I did. Best 10 bucks spent in sometime! [b]It's a blast to play and just soak in.[/b] For me it's part game, part music player, part digital artwork. Whenever I power it up, I become immersed--living out my 80's outrun fantasy of drifting around the streets of Tokyo in my taxi with my synth tunes turned up to 11. It's just an incredible feeling and if you are a fan of the style, the music or retro racers, you'll be captivated and enthralled by DT3000. [i]Fair warning.[/i] While this game is definitely inspired by Quarantine, even carrying the word "Death" in it's title--there is no guns, blood or real deaths to be had. You can definitely beat up your ride. I haven't fully experimented with the damage mechanics but can say after hitting a few objects, my windshield gets cracked and my steering veers to one side at which I usually b-line my way back to my garage for repairs. It might be possible to damage your vehicle so badly its unable to continue on, I just haven't tested that out. But I can't kill people or even die, so there's no death to be had. Bottom line--it shares some aspects with Quarantine but ultimately they are completely different (both incredible in their own rights!). To me, it feels more similar to Crazy Taxi with a sweet outrun/retrowave vibe that hearkens back to the 90's racers of old. I simply LOVE it. [b]A few things I like worth noting[/b] [list] [*]-[b]Music.[/b] Easily the #1 thing I love about this game. It needs a Soundtrack DLC pronto! Very good synth tunes. [*]-[b]Visual Presentation.[/b] You'll look at the screenshots and think "man, that looks like ass" but trust me; once you enter the cockpit and fire up your engine, you become completely immersed as you would any modern racer. [*]-[b]Procedural Generation.[/b] Every time you leave the garage, the weather will be different, time of day, passengers in need of rides or potential illegal contraband delivered. Not sure if the city is generated but it's ok due to its size--it's HUGE. [*]-[b]Career Mode.[/b] A nice touch to the game that caught me by surprise. You start out from nothing and have to earn money the hard way to accumulate star ratings and cash that can in turn be used to upgrade your ride. Very fun and rewarding. [/list] [b]Some things I'd like to see improved or added[/b] [list] [*]-[b]Steam integration.[/b] Not 100% but it seems absent. Dev said on forum that you can use Steam's f12 for screenshots. As of time of writing this review, I've been unable to do that. Hopefully that gets sorted out eventually. [*]-[b]Steam Cheavo's.[/b] Though dev has expressed interest in possibly adding some down the road. Would be awesome! [*]-[b]Music doesn't auto-play soundtracks.[/b] I reported this to the dev and it seems it was design choice. Kind of a bummer as the music is a huge drawl for me. It's not a deal breaker, you simply have to start each song as you are driving using F keys. [*]-[b]More incentive for Career Mode.[/b] Career mode while I commended the game for having it as I wasn't expecting it, seems light on incentive to play it past simply upgrading your ride. After an hours time, I nearly maxed out all my parts. After that, there's little to inspire me to continue playing it. Dev did say that he might add more options to increase difficulty, increase upgrade requirements and stuff like that to help extend the gameplay for the mode. I'd love to see things like being able to buy different interior views, interior decor (like a dancing hula girl on the dashboard), different taxi's (maybe even unconventional vehicles like spaceships or something silly) and things of this nature. Just more unlocks in general that are worthwhile and fun. [*]-[b]Lacking certain visuals that would be nice to have.[/b] Again, something I love about the game also carries some desire to it. The visuals are awesome--don't mistake me but I would of liked to see street lights that actually lit up or headlight/brakelights on other vehicles. Just little thing details I felt got missed but this is something that can be improved upon down the road and by no means takes away from the otherwise awesome game. [*]-[b]Might be cumbersome for some to get working[/b]. Fortunately, I was able to get this game up and running without having to download any weird programs or drivers though I've read some might need to download DDOS box or something like that. Could be wrong but I did read a few folks had issue with the game running on their system. Again, for me, it was just like any other Steam game. Downloaded it and played it for 10 hours straight. Still a noteworthy con. [/list] [h1]All in all like I said--this game DELIVERS and has some very strong outrun/vaporwave vibes. If that's your jam, you'll be in heaven like I am.[/h1] [b]It pains me that this title isn't more popular.[/b] Hopefully word gets out and people are able to check it out because it's totally worth it and near criminal to go on ignored. [b]It's a masterpiece![/b] [i]Thanks Coconut Pizza and best wishes on your future endeavors! Keep up the amazing work.[/i]