Totally Reliable Delivery Service wobbles awkwardly into open beta
Everything comes tumbling down.
The humble fetch quest - mindless fodder for an MMORPG hero, but a terrifying ordeal for the wobbly balloon people of Totally Reliable Delivery Service. While playable solo or in split-screen for up to four, We're Five Games want to test the networking for their flailing comedy deliver 'em up. That's good for us, as it means we can all try it free. Starting today and for the next two weeks, you and pals can try to wrangle crates around a world that feels like it's made entirely of polystyrene. It's good, daft fun. Grab the beta version free, here on Steam, or check see the trailer below.
While there's easy comparisons to be drawn between Totally Reliable Delivery Service and recent wobbly people games like Human Fall Flat or Gang Beasts, I'm most reminded of Amazing Frog. Yes, the enduring Ouya flagship, the world's premiere Swindon simulator. There's a bit of its style to this game's open world map, letting players bumble around until they activate a mission, at which point everything turns into a comedy of errors. The controls are simple whether you use mouse and keyboard or gamepad, but not easy. They're engineered for comedy failure, not precision.
Aside from a deliberate pratfall button, controls are limited to basic movement, camera control and ordering your stubby-yet-noodly arms to grab whatever's in front of you. Once grappled, you can lift your arms, but that's about it. Vehicles are controlled by hopping onto them, grabbing their control stick and wiggling it. Cars feel almost drivable until you attempt to go around a corner, and you learn that everything needs to be taken slowly if you don't want to completely demolish what you're trying to deliver.
While you can play solo, this is obviously a game meant to be played with friends, if only to have one person sit in the back of the lorry and hold the boxes down. You can cram up to four people onto one screen, or (as is the purpose of this beta) go online.
You can grab the Totally Reliable Delivery Service beta here on Steam, and play it free until July 8th. The full game launches later this summer, and can be found here on Steam. It's published by Tinybuild.