Alright. Let's chat a little about [i]Long Way[/i]. This is an entry in the small but hopefully growing genre of driving games where your goals are less ubiquitous than simply racing around, performing time trials, and so on. Rather, this slowly growing genre has more in common with walking simulators, wherein you play at your own pace and kind of set your own goals. Although in Long Way, you can find actual goals to go along with simple exploration, making this kinda a tweener as far as driving sims go. And really, everything this game sets out to do is genuinely cool.
First off, the actual vehicle models look great, the driver looks incredibly silly and kinda funny, the roads and biomes look very cool, and the actual sounds of driving are quite visceral.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3299804279
However, I think the execution of said ideas is not so expertly done. The first thing I noticed is it doesn't actually seem possible to finish the tutorial, as once you get to the drifting section, there doesn't appear to be an exit point to either close out the tutorial or move on to the next part. I see that 13% of players have somehow finished it with the conditions set for achieving it, but I'm not quite sure how that has happened since the conditions are possible, but actually finishing the scenarios does not seem to be. That said, the tutorial does in fact do a great job of teaching you the gameplay mechanics, so while completing it does not currently seem possible, it does put you in a good position to start playing through the actual maps.
I think the natural inclination of players is to try to test out your ability to drive at high speeds and seek out that adrenaline rush. So far as I've played, this is not the proper way to play this game. For one, the actual roads are twisty and turny enough to discourage this. But even if they weren't, the biggest issue this game suffers from reveals itself in the actual driving of vehicles. Your wheels, regardless of which vehicle you choose, feel like they're on skates. The degree to which they slide around is largely determined by the type of vehicle and the way weight and shape affect handling, which is in and of itself a very cool gameplay mechanic. However, regardless of which vehicle you choose, they all feel more like they're designed for drifting than for casual driving. But, if you revv up that engine, you WILL lose control of the vehicle regardless of your vehicle choice. [b]Additionally, and actually more importantly, WASD controls (Specifically A/D) are far too sensitive. Each single press of a key can send your vehicle careening in the attendant direction. The sensitivity of each button press needs to be decreased significantly. This one change would actually mediate the drifting issue quite a bit and make these vehicles feel both more responsive and a bit more realistic.[/b]
The ability to really play around with your vehicle builds is a nice addition I'd like to explore. There are fun things like being able to use the sirens in government vehicles. Rocket boosting is hella cool. In fact, I'd say the implementation of most of the things in this game is done with a mind towards having fun and being able to personalize the experience.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3299804297
There are weird physics at play in this game which I feel are related to the float-iness of vehicles. You can literally move any vehicle simply by walking into them, and any vehicle can wreak havoc on any other vehicle. Like, an F-1 style car can pick up a semi and toss it aside by driving under it, lol. I don't know if it's intentional, but I do believe the same thing that causes that to be possible also makes the excessive drift-iness of vehicles a thing as well.
A couple bugs of note: The Z button doesn't work on overturned vehicles. Sometimes, braking/slowing down doesn't work. It's like the accelerator overrides slowing down and braking under some circumstances. I'm not exactly sure what triggers this override other than going four to the floor. Plus of course the drifting part of the tutorial needs to be looked at. And while not specifically a bug, what I mentioned above about A/D (left/right) controls definitely needs to be addressed.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3300409183
Do I recommend this game? Yes and no. I think if the control sensitivity is reduced, then definitely. Otherwise, I think your ability to enjoy this will be more about your specific ability to adapt to very floaty controls. But there is a game here, and a lot of thought has obviously gone into making it. So, maybe follow the game and see what future updates look like, make a decision based on that. What I do know is the developer is fairly active, so that bodes well. Here, I'm going to give this a positive rating. Via my curation, I will mark this as informational for now. And I'll keep this downloaded in anticipation of WASD controls seeing an update.
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