Deliver at All Costs Review: A Destructible Playground Wasted
A new game from Konami, "Deliver at All Costs", has been released, promising a thrilling experience as a delivery driver in the late 1950s. According to a review by The Guardian, the game looks fantastic in motion, with almost everything on the map able to be destroyed, providing immediate fun in causing chaos with your truck.
The review states that the game’s potential is glimpsed during a mission where the player must race to catch up with a rival’s delivery truck and steal their package while fending off other drivers. This mission leads to some "wonderfully comic scenes" where a hotel owner thanks the player for a consignment while standing in front of the ruins of their newly destroyed establishment. The Guardian notes that if the rest of the game followed this path, with a "Crazy Taxi-style mad dash against the clock between pickup and delivery", it would have been a more enjoyable experience.
However, the review criticizes the game’s inconsistency, stating that each mission "varies wildly in content and quality". Some missions, such as taking photos of a UFO while avoiding its laser beam, are passably enjoyable, while others, like delivering balloons tied to the back of the truck, are dull and irritating. The Guardian concludes that the game’s concept of delivering things is eventually ditched in favor of a "dim-witted story" told through "relentless dull cut scenes" with poor writing and acting.
The game’s protagonist, Winston Green, is described as one of the most unlikable video game protagonists ever created, with a murky past and a storyline that veers into po-faced sci-fi nonsense. The review also criticizes the game’s lack of exploration, with little to find outside of the delivery truck, and a shop that sells spare parts that are mostly superfluous.
The Guardian’s review concludes that "Deliver at All Costs" is a frustrating game that offers a beautiful destructible playground but barely utilizes it, instead focusing on a bizarre and half-baked story. The game is set to be released on May 22nd, priced at £24.99.
As noted by The Guardian, "Deliver at All Costs" feels like a wasted opportunity, with the game’s developer, Far Out Studio, seemingly inviting players to a "glittering champagne reception" only to subject them to a conspiracy theorist’s "hokey sci-fi novel" for the rest of the game.
In terms of gameplay, The Guardian notes that players can explore the environment, but there is hardly anything to find, save for a few viewpoints and a tiny handful of side missions. These side missions range from fun activities, such as racing a parachutist down a mountain, to boring tasks, like finding a man who looks like the mayor.
The final verdict from The Guardian is that "Deliver at All Costs" is a "criminal waste" of its potential, with a destructible playground that is barely utilized in favor of a poorly executed story.
The game "Deliver at All Costs" is developed by Far Out Studio and published by Konami. For more information on this game and other gaming news, visit The Guardian’s gaming section.
