This driving horror game still looks wonderfully awful
Delightfully horrible
I was reminded this morning of Driving Survival, the upcoming driving horror game where our car careens through sodium-orange murk pursued by murderous drivers. The bits we've seen before made me so uneasy that, naturally, I went looking for more. Turns out creator Ondřej Švadlena has shared a few more video clips since we last looked and yep, it still seems wonderfully malevolent. Everyday things--a supermarket car park, a small town, light pollution--seem terrible when you're watching the headlights of a clapped-out murdercar draw nearer in your rear-view mirror.
Here's a video, labelled a test, from August 2017:
Whatever it's testing, I like the outcome. I'm really into the thick fog and diffused glow of the streetlights making everything a little dreamy. And how enemy headlights cut through the fog as a threat visible long before the car is.
Here'a test of night and day in the same area, also from last August:
So day's not much friendlier, then.
From July 2017, a test of ambient sounds from Guillaume Blondeau:
Going further back, to January 2017, chasing through a forest after a car carrying... children? Those might be children.
Well, maybe children.
I adore this. Driving a car in a game usually makes me feel powerful but here the driver seems so helpless, or at least no more powerful than enemies - who don't seem nearly as interested in self-preservation. Early footage showed the almost-people hopping out of their cars to batter yours with bats, though I don't know how much of that is still in the game. This is all early days, all of these videos are months old, and I don't think even the game's name is settled yet, so everything may yet change. But I believe Švadlena's plans for the game include pootling, exploring, fleeing, and hiding, and I'm up for all of that.
Whatever it ends up as, I have hugely enjoyed watching (and rewatching) these bits this morning. You can follow development on the game's TIG Forums thread.