Still Better Than Hermes (Totally Reliable Delivery Service)

Game: Totally Reliable Delivery Service
Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Windows, MAC, Android
Played On: Xbox One
Price: £12.49
Available on Xbox Game Pass: Yes

Another day, another physics based game. I’ve seen a few gameplay videos and was intrigued by what I was seeing, so was pleasantly surprised to see that this game had been put on Game Pass for it’s console release. Totally Reliable Delivery Service is a 2019 game developed by We’re Five Games and Published by TinyBuild Games. So let’s see if this game is really as fun as it looks.

Physics based games have been on the up recently. Titles like Human Fall Flat and Gang Beasts really started putting them on the map. They use a very simple formula and that’s by giving the game ridiculous physics then comedy is almost assured as your character will be flailing and flopping without even trying. Add to it something simple (like delivering packages) and in theory you’ll strike gold.

As I’ve said, after seeing a few videos of this game and it looking fun I was ready to get going with it. The game is bright and colourful which I would expect nothing less when it comes to games like this. It’s cartoon like characters complete the ‘it’s not a serious game’ aesthetic and we’re away. I will say the character customisation screen was rather confusing and options were limited about what I could indeed customise, this is because you unlock more items as you go but this isn’t particularly explained anywhere.

We get into our game and get our first feel of how the game will control. Your character is loose and hard to keep in check, it does have the tendency to do nowhere near what you were originally trying to do. But you slowly get used to how you control and can sort of get the basics in going. The idea is to pick up packages and deliver them (predictably) and there’s different requirements, some are time related and others are condition related.

As you might think the first few are easy to do, but some require vehicles to complete and this makes things near impossible. Driving the vehicles isn’t too bad after some practice, driving the vehicles and delivering a package successfully is nearly unplayable. It becomes pointless to try and complete the game as you have to do every delivery and doing this on your own won’t happen, so play with friends I hear you cry!! Well...

You can get friends in however you all have to be on the same page to make this work, as soon as someone wants to do a different task you will fall apart. You’ll have about an hour of laughter and fun before the repetitiveness of the game starts to make it boring. And this is both playing on your own and with friends. The reward for completing anything is minimal so once the fund gone and the novelty’s work off, there’s nothing really left on this game.

Sadly for me this game doesn’t work, I mean yes it’ll load, yes it won’t bug or glitch, but as far as objective, and completing the objective, this game isn’t worth your time. It’s frustrating. It’s not fun, it’s frustrating and I’m not sure if it’s intentional but the controls need an update. Simply put, not only is the button mapping odd, but even what the buttons are meant to do isn’t great. And when you’re doing these actions whilst trying to deliver a package, nearly impossible.

This game needs work, it’s fun for a short time yes, but I’m sorry for me that doesn’t cut it, it feels like the games been lazily finished, which I’m sure it hasn’t, I’m certain lots of hours have gone into making this game. It’s not a lost cause by any means, and probably only needs some refining, but right now this game doesn’t deliver.

2/10

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