Products You May Like
As Graham pointed out earlier this year, A Difficult Game About Climbing is a difficult game about climbing. A Bennett Foddy’s Getting Over It-inspired limb-flailer, where hoisting yourself up a mountain as a bald man is painfully moreish. Well, let me introduce you to A Difficult Game About Driving, a difficult game about driving. Again, you play as a bald man (called Jeff) who sits in a 4×4 bathtub and must ascend a series of difficult roads. There’s a demo out now and let me tell you, it’s awfully good.
Jeff’s Bathtub Defender reminds me a bit of the vehicles from the PlayStation 1 game Speed Freeks, where the wheels were like, way bigger than the main chassis. Anyway, you’re to drive upwards. You tickle the throttle, feather the break, press space to jump, and frantically tap WASD to avoid tumbling off gigantic gnarled tree branches and floating rocks. If you do? A parachute will engage, but the likelihood is you’ll float right back to where you started.
Early on at least, it doesn’t strike me as always twisty and turny for the sake of it. The game understands that in order to mess with drivers, it must tap into everyone’s desire to go fast.
Occasionally it offers you a ramp with an enticing hole to launch yourself into, which in any other game might be the way forwards. Or you might transition from tree branches to a race track, with the game suddenly timing your effort. Take the bait and forget the premise of the game momentarily, and that’s Jeff sailing back to the bottom. The game is dastardly, I have to give it that.
Another thing I like: it’s fairly easy to control. Although overly heavy keyboard inputs can spell disaster, you’re not forever wrestling with limbs and trajectories in your head. The straightforward movement gives things a nice flow while also providing a steady trickle of anxiety.
A Difficult Game About Driving is due out sometime in early 2025 and you can find the Steam demo here.