Deliver At All Costs Review — Chaotic Couriering

There’s a certain appeal to wanton destruction in video games. One of Battlefield’s main draws is its destructible environments. Crackdown is chock-full of over-the-top explosions. Knowing GTA: San Andreas cheat codes off by heart so I could go on a rampage was the ultimate power fantasy as a kid. Deliver At All Costs aims to provide you with that carnage in a slew of creative and silly assignments, woven haphazardly into a compelling narrative that doesn’t match its tone.

Winston Green, a former engineer, finds himself hired as a runner for the “We Deliver Co.” courier service and tasked with delivering some especially unconventional cargo. The story is initially set up as a compelling mystery, rife with uncanny characters and a certain air of mystique surrounding our down-on-his-luck deliveryman.

Wildly chaotic throughout, DAAC’s narrative is aimless and constantly clashes with the tone of the game’s wacky, unserious gameplay. The narrative wants to take itself seriously with solid voice acting and dramatic story beats, only to transition to a pickup truck demolishing an entire movie theatre like it’s a house of cards and then have its wheels and doors kicked off by random, angered citizens. As the story progresses, this separation grows, almost feeling like two completely different pieces of media. 

Strangely, on a deeper level, Deliver At All Cost’s gameplay is at odds with itself. Tearing through buildings like a hot knife through butter and coming out the other side unscathed, your truck is nigh-indestructible. If your car is destroyed, the game simply respawns you like nothing ever happened. Being this unstoppable force of nature should feel fantastic, and it does to begin with, but after a little while, I realised the game is apathetic towards this. The game itself doesn’t care that you can do all this; there’s no real reaction, consequence, or reward for demolishing a city block other than the very occasional cop that will try to chase you.

Once you begin a delivery, all bets are off. You’ll be painting rotten watermelons in the bed of your truck in one moment, and dodging either literal or metaphorical bombs in the next. Certainly, the highlight of Deliver at All Costs, the quality and difficulty of these missions can still vary wildly, with more than a handful feeling samey. One of my particular favourites was driving several remote-control cars, zipping under and around regular-sized vehicles while being pursued by a special tiny division of the police force. Conversely, there are some downright stinkers, particularly the mission that made me quit on several occasions, in which I was dodging a constant barrage of mortar shells. These high and low points were exacerbated by the game’s touchy controls and awkward isometric camera, either heightening my enjoyment in the lower-stake missions or frustrating me endlessly anytime precision was even remotely required.

Outside of missions, Deliver At All Cost’s world is beautifully detailed, driving around the city with long shadows cast by the setting sun is so pleasing. The cartoony aesthetic works quite well with the comical destruction this game puts on display, with pieces of buildings and car parts flying off everywhere. With all this in mind, the world is still quite barren of interesting activities. There are upgrades you can buy and craft for your pickup, like wheel spikes or a gigantic foghorn; although, with a car capable of such destruction on its lonesome, these often just feel ornamental. Optional pursuits like lookouts, spots that give you a cinematic camera pan across your surroundings, and mystery cars are shallow and hardly worth actively searching for. They’re more suited to be convenient pastimes if you come across them on your way to the next delivery.

Side quests are a little more worth your time, depending on which ones you go for. Scaring some c-suite stooges by driving recklessly through the streets, stumbling on a box-pushing puzzle to help a man escape a shipping crate, or racing down a mountain in a race against a base-jumper. It’s these moments that I was having the best time. Just cruising around, listening to the 1950s-inspired soundtrack and enjoying life.