The power of nostalgia is undisputed but it’s also a trap that far too many game developers have fallen into. There’s been so many remakes, demakes and other attempts to revive games of the past that have, in my opinion, mostly fallen completely flat. There are however other games which leverage the aesthetic of the past whilst creating their own unique experiences, keeping some of the constraints of the past but not letting that constrain the creative vision. Easy Delivery Co. walks that line perfectly as, on the surface, it appears to be another PS1 nostalgia grab but the actual core of the game and it’s narrative are much more than that.
You’re Seb right? Wait no you couldn’t be, he said he was retiring. Ah well it doesn’t matter, you’re the new delivery guy yeah? Good to meet you and welcome to our little township. Things have changed every since Easy Co. showed up, what with their giant factory that they put up over there. Most folks have moved away since then, so it’s mostly just us folk who run the stores around here. Can you take this over to the folks in Easton? I think they’ve been waiting a wh[SD02-error]ile for this one, bet[004656884698]ter not keep them waiting!
Easy Delivery Co. nails that PS1 aesthetic perfectly by constraining your resolution to 4:3 (to match playing on a good old fashioned CRT), limiting the colour palette to a paltry 16 bits and deliberately turning off anti-aliasing to give you the true jaggies experience. There’s surprisingly few shortcuts taken to get this kind of art style working too with things like flat sprite trees which must’ve been a real pain to get working in a modern engine like Unity. Similarly it’s clear there’s a modern physics engine underneath it here but it’s been deliberately tuned down and many “fixes” put in place to reduce its fidelity. The audio has received the demake treatment too, with the sounds all of a quality that is befitting the visuals. The only cheat I can see is was the slightly-more-modern particle system used for the fire but you wouldn’t even notice that unless you were really looking for it. Honestly the commitment to the bit here is commendable and the workmanship that’s gone into this is top notch.
The core game loop of Easy Delivery Co. is a delivery sim where you’ll be taking jobs from the residents of the various locales in this mountainous area. You can choose from either local or intercity jobs, with the latter paying a lot better given the distance you’ll have to travel. Each delivery nets you some cash which you’ll need to spend on coffee, fuel and other resources that’ll help you keep making deliveries. Along the way you’ll get to know many of the residents of this place and gradually uncover its history, the relationships between all of the people and definitely not uncover any secrets. Nope, there’s nothing strange here for you to investigate. Have an Easy Day!
The driving is done well, aptly emulating the driving experience you had in games 30+ years ago. The controls are simple, the suspension overly bouncy and the physics of the objects that you’ll be carting around in the back of your kei truck suspiciously generous in how they react to your questionable choices behind the wheel. The game states up front that you only need to deliver 1 piece of cargo to meet the requirement of delivering everything and, unlike other games where there’d be some kind of secret tracking or reward system for getting the full delivery, as far as I could tell this was accurate. So you should cast caution to the wind and take whatever route suits your fancy.
Of course there are limits and I had a handful of times where I’d taken the…shorter route down a mountain that saw my cargo arrive much quicker than I did at the destination. That’s where I discovered that yes, you can destroy your truck and it is 100% possible to soft lock yourself into not being able to get your cargo back. Thankfully the game’s rudimentary save system only gives you checkpoints at the end of deliveries so you’re never too far away if you have to restart from a save. That being said with the right gear it’s possible to cut your delivery times on certain routes by more than half if you play your cards right.
The narrative takes some time to get going as much of the initial interactions with all the characters is very surface level. As time goes on and the deliveries start racking up though you start to get invested in certain characters and relationships. The main campaign missions have the most depth to them, of course, but there’s enough flavour from the other interactions to give the story the level of depth it needs. I won’t comment too much on the overall narrative itself as that’ll quickly devolve into spoiler territory but it was interesting enough to drive me through the game’s relatively short play time. I will have to chide it though for going with the end-o-tron choose your ending option at the end thing but I guess that’s somewhat in keeping with the style of the time.
Easy Delivery Co. is the exact kind of game you need to play between games. With it’s perfectly realised PS1 aesthetics, chill vibes and just general overall sense of not being too demanding on you the player it’s something you can just enjoy without thinking too hard about it. It offers you enough freedom to fuck around and find out whilst also putting in enough guardrails that even the worst mistakes won’t lose you too much progress. Suffice to say I’ve been charmed by Easy Delivery Co. and can’t recommend it enough.
Rating: 8.75/10
Easy Delivery Co. is available on PC right now for $19.99. Total playtime was 3.8 hours with 54% of the achievements unlocked.
