Driving and escaping the storm, a loyal companion, and simply moving forward—that's the premise of Long Drive North, where you travel through the forest in a caravan. It's a multiplayer game, but I played it alone, since everyone would be in their own caravan, so it didn't make much sense to me that it was designed that way. The game is in early access, but I tried the demo at the Steam Demos. Whenever that event is on, I check out the available games, and this was one of them.
In the game, you repair the caravan, search for food, and find places to sleep and eat, like a survival game, but there are no enemies chasing or attacking you, just a vast emptiness, roads full of cars that have nothing, absolutely nothing, except for a few items you'll use on this adventure on the road.
There's snow, there's darkness, and a lot of solitude, in landscapes that are pristine, with sunlight, nightfall, and the constant escape from the storm. Although I escaped the storm quite a bit, so I didn't really experience that in the game.
I think the game has potential, but it's in early access, so I think it still needs quite a bit of content to be a complete game. While driving is a relaxing and entertaining experience, after a while it feels a bit repetitive.
If the game had a story where we had to investigate what happened with all this disaster, since this is implied by the wrecked and abandoned cars on the road, it would be much better.
The inspiration for this game is based on three games: The Long Dark, The Long Drive, and My Summer Car. I only played The Long Dark, and that inspiration is somewhat noticeable, but I think it needs polishing in the areas I mentioned. The concept is quite entertaining, but with more content, I think it would be a very interesting game.
There are some landscapes we can see that are very beautiful, beyond all the aesthetics of the photography, you can see a kind of nostalgia in the development, I hope the game is developed with more content and if they make good changes it won't be a bad proposition to play alone or with friends, although it would be better if it were just a caravan that can be upgraded and expanded.
See you next time ❤️ Yowi.
All photos were taken by me