I don’t know if this is the Death Stranding effect, result of online shopping becoming ubiquitous or just natural happenstance, but there’s a lot of delivery games being made in the indie space these days.
The idea of travelling from point A to point B with some form of parcel is something I thought would become forgotten as mails and postcards becoming less important to our daily lives thanks to emails, personal phones and the internet.
But here we are, in a world where the humble delivery person can still make rounds hustling by doing the legwork many of us can’t be bothered to. Just a shame that it’s a hustle, as these folks are likely working under a some soulless megacorpo out to only pay the most minimum as possible for each gig.
That’s not just me spouting drivel just for the sake of having an intro, hustling as a delivery driver under a mega corpo is the premise of Easy Delivery Co., this delivery driving game by Sam C published by Oro Interactive. Imagine having to do delivery runs in some rural mountainous area where it’s snowing all year round. No one goes outside. And you’re here, alone, in your little truck that could, going back and forth and helping out folks for literal dollars and pennies.
Easy Delivery Co. can be a nice, chill, delivery game that provides this fantasy of working a small job in a small part of the world away from the bustling cities. But it also delicately balance the cosy chill vibes with the chilling ramifications of having to work all day and night long, with interaction from your superiors limited to only what’s more or less an app, and just earning enough to survive the day.
It’s that duality of “chill” and “chilling” that makes Easy Delivery Co. a standout game. And it being this small-scoped, focused, indie title just makes it better.
Presentation
Easy Delivery Co. runs on the Unity Engine, but it tries its best to present itself as if it’s a PS1 game. Low-poly textures, crunchy aliased lines, a little texture wobble here and there, simple animation work, low draw distance justified as the natural weather of being in the snow-covered mountains. I don’t think it’s a full-on replication or a perfect recreation, but just enough imitation to respect the inspiration without any of the technical limitations of the original PlayStation. That’s dedication.
The audio side of this also reflects the games of the late 90s and into the early 2000s. A lot of short loops for the kei truck engine notes, simple blurbing sounds for any dialogue and… drum n bass.
If you didn’t know already, drum n bass is now making a resurgence if you check out the indie music creation space, just the right time when people start getting nostalgic of it which is around 20 or so years since its peak popularity. You can tune in to a few radio stations in Easy Delivery Co. and one of which is dedicated to music that can be described as drum n bass. Is it actually jungle? Intelligent DNB? Liquid DNB? That’s for you and music critics to decide, but what I do know that there are sweet, sweet chops of the Amen Break in one of the tracks.
And if you’re not into that sort of music, thankfully Easy Delivery Co. also has lo-fi music, of the lounge variety. Perfect tunes to chillax in a rainy—snowy in this case—day.
You can sample the full soundtrack here.
The presentation of Easy Delivery Co. is simple but deftly executed. The PS1/PS2-era aesthetic is an inspired choice that really shows off the game in a great light. It may not set the world on fire, but the folks who grew up with this aesthetic, or longing for an experience like this but was born on the wrong the decade, will find the game’s look, sound and feel endearing.
Gameplay
In Easy Delivery Co., you play as the new delivery driver for said company, tasked to fulfill your duties in this unnamed mountainous area. The main game loop is you accepting jobs, go and fetch the parcel and then deliver it. Simple as.
But there is more to it.
First, let’s talk about the map. This isn’t part of the marketing blurb you’d see for the game, but Easy Delivery Co. will require some navigation ability. There’s no mini-map. The main map you can pull doesn’t have GPS so you don’t know exactly where you are. So you better know the surroundings, get your bearings and have a mental notes on where to go.
Thankfully, the maps for the three regions you deliver stuff in Easy Delivery Co. isn’t too big and the road network is just a handful of junctions. But it’s just enough of a handful to cause a handful for the navigationally challenged. You’ll have to rely on signboards which tell a town name or point what town goes where, and regularly check the map to see you’re in the right spot by comparing the road you’re on with the map. It’s too dastardly in that pickup locations and drop points do have clear signs- look for the shop with the bright light for pickups and there’s a indicator of where exactly the drop point is when you’re near it. By the fifth delivery you should be able to get your bearings, work out how to use the map, or even just memorised the road layout. The maps’ smallness works in the game’s favour. And the fact that you’re encouraged to stick to the road for most of the game due to the kei truck’s lack of off-road prowess also helps.
Speaking of the kei truck, let’s talk about the star of the game. A delivery game is only as fun as how the journey is, and that journey in Easy Delivery Co. is defined by this charming and surprisingly nippy little pickup truck.
The handling physics is immensely fun. The truck seems slow but when it holds speed it gets scary (slow acceleration rate but dramatically rises as you get closer to top speed, for the car nerds out there—I’m car nerd). The brakes are good, maybe too good that it will likely catch you off-guard when it snaps and makes the whole thing twirl (load transfer is a thing and when a sudden deceleration happens, you can get lift-off oversteer, also colloquially referred as snap oversteer). And it sure has some lofty suspension, which means it can drive through bumps but expect this lumpy to be very jumpy, which is fun! Unless you’re carrying something behind that truck that’s heavy enough to plant it down and make it stable at the cost of speed.
That something, the parcels you’re tasked to lug across towns and cities, also abides to the laws of physics. You don’t attach them securely in any way other than having the tailgate closed (something you must do manually) so expect loose, stacked items to drop off quick. Fortunately you’re not penalised for dropping those loose items, you’re only getting less payment if you drop everything, in which a new stack of the same items respawn for you to pick back up on put on the pickup truck.
I appreciate the dev making this call, letting players hang it loose with the wobbly handling physics is much more fun than having to carefully drive at a leisure pace so that you don’t drop anything. Though no one’s going to stop you for doing so. The lo-fi station is there to keep you company for the long hauls. But if you prefer the riddim of jungle, hey, go haul ass that tiny truck like you mean it and earn that $4.99 payout like it’s Crazy Taxi. As long as you land on all four tyres square and one item is in the back, you’re good. And maybe go to the EZ Mart and see if there’s an item that can tie those loose packages. Of course there’s a way to tie up the loose cargo. For a price.
Between testing your navigation skills and having a proper fun vehicle that requires some finesse to drive through the rough terrain, Easy Delivery Co.’s simple game loop is perfect. I haven’t even mention how weather can make things riskier as you have even more reduced visibility or impact your handling. Or how there’s a first-person view and you can see that, like an authentic kei truck made in Japan, you drive on the right side of the vehicle.
But delivering stuff for the sake of delivering isn’t what Easy Delivery Co. is about. There’s a mainline plot you follow, marked as objectives. A lot of them involve purchasing something, which means the money you’re earning has to go into something, and that something is gameplay progression. But that’s not the only reason you have to earn money.
As any Grab or FoodPanda rider knows too well, there’s upkeep cost to the gig, and in some days the challenge is to get enough jobs to just break even. In Easy Delivery Co., that’s manifested in your energy meter and fuel. You need fuel for you kei truck and prices for gasoline here is insane—I am so grateful of government-subsidised petrol prices Malaysians get. And you need to fuel yourself as well with energy drinks or, if you can afford it, coffee. The upkeep isn’t that demanding all things considered, and the punishment for failure isn’t too bad, but it’s always in the back of your mind that you’re going to need to do a few more delivery runs than expected before you can buy that one thing to unlock the next step in the story.
There’s also the bit about the cold outside. The moment you step your feet outside of your kei truck, it’s a ticking timer before you get frozen off. You want to park the truck close to the shop’s door. Even better, you might want to park in the way the right side of the truck’s door faces the shop—unless it’s blocked you will always exit on the right side of the truck. Things can get dicey even when you’re just going to the vending machine to get a drink only for the machine to get stuck and you have to kick it a bit.
There are moments where you must navigate outside on foot and you have to use every item you can put in the inventory—items sold separately—to keep yourself warm and tread through the snowy outside. I feel like this system could be expanded, or used in more ways, but as it is it’s an interesting mechanic used sparsely to shake things up a bit after doing one too many delivery run. It’s silly that whenever I get drowsy, I have to stop the truck, go outside, open the inventory to find my stash of energy drinks, chug it while the cold envelops the screen and head back in safe and warm. “Don’t drink and drive” I guess.
Speaking of quirky things that should be considered a fix, I’ve found a couple of occasions where I somehow the parcel ended up in a place where I cannot ever grab it. In one instance, it was after this sick crash. The parcel respawned, but the the back of my truck landed next to a pole with a red light, and somehow the parcel ended up on top of said pole. And the truck wasn’t upgraded yet so it can’t plow down the pole. Another instance is when I grabbed the parcel from a shop and accidentally put it down behind the counter, rendering them unreachable. You can reset the truck, but you can’t reset the parcel in case of odd cases like this. The only workaround is to abandon that delivery job, eat that loss, and get hustling. A minor oversight, but one needed a simple fix nonetheless.
For a small-scale game with a short-ish playtime, Easy Delivery Co. delivers a fantastic combination of fun vehicle physics, mildly challenging navigation hurdles and a little pep from its survival mechanics. It’s a concoction of elements balanced well that, like I assume how a well-made cocktail is made by a proven mixologist, goes down smooth. It helps that mixtape keeps the vibe of being a hustler in awful weather a relatively pleasant experience.
Content
It took me 5.5 hours to see an ending in Easy Delivery Co. And yes, there are indeed multiple endings, though it’s the “choose option A or option B” variety.
The story is very indirect, but you will pick up on cues how the town here isn’t as what you’d think. It’s not as cosy of a setting, but it’s only intriguingly spooky rather than an attempt to scare. Unsettling, is the word. But being a replaceable cog in service to a megacorp is always unsettling. Though there is more to unpack in this little package of a game. The payoff at the end is bittersweet, though your mileage may vary depending on whether you find the cast of townfolks, the shopkeepers, endearing or not.
The pacing ramp-up is a bit steep. Early on, you just need to one or two deliveries to progress the story, it seems to move too fast, even. But then, the final act requires you to save so much cash and do a number of long trips that it feels comparatively draggy by the end. The pacing is a tad off by the tail end, essentially.
Easy Delivery Co. doesn’t overstay its welcome, the relatively short runtime hits the right spot.
Personal Enjoyment
Easy Delivery Co. is an example of a game that arrived at the right time for me. I am in one of the few folks currently rediscovered drum n bass and riding the soundwaves of its resurgence. I did grew up in the era where this level of graphics is expected. And I do love games where you drive cars and/or trucks and/or wheeled vehicles of sorts. Doing delivery rounds? Love those too. And I’m up for another vehicular and/or logistical challenge.
That being said, I’m aware that this might not be the case for many other folks. Easy Delivery Co. hits a specific niche. But boy does it hit hard and good. This is something I seek out of an indie game: with the liberty to create whatever you want with only the usual limited budget and resources, these games should go do something weird, wild, or highly appealing to a dedicated audience that will sure as hell appreciate the minute details of everything laid out here. This game isn’t made to appease shareholders, or to capture a market. It’s just here to make people who love the specific things it does enjoy their time with it. Not all games should be played in perpetuity, like the Easy Delivery Co’s story implies, there’s magic in this fleeting moment of our existence, and best to enjoy them while it lasts rather than cling to it forever.
Also, I do appreciate the silly puns that goes into all the song names.
Verdict
Easy Delivery Co. is a complete package of fun driving physics, intriguing premise, and just enough of a navigation challenge. Its aesthetic choices are inspired, and it all comes together perfectly wrapped.
This parcel isn’t for everyone, but if you appreciate the art of driving well, map-reading and some good drum n bass beats, you should order your copy of Easy Delivery Co. today, comes with free shipping, same-day delivery. You too can learn the struggles of a delivery driver hustle, and it’s real.
Played on PC. Review key provided by the publisher.
Easy Delivery Co.
Easy Delivery Co. is a complete package of fun driving physics, intriguing premise, and just enough of a navigation challenge. Its aesthetic choices are inspired and it all comes together perfectly wrapped.
- Presentation 9
- Gameplay 8.5
- Content 8
- Personal Enjoyment 10