The fourth episode of a short series on games I discovered at EGX Rezzed 2018.
Tel Aviv-based collective Lo-Fi People has been working on a driving game called Blind Drive in which you are blindfolded – and forced to drive.
Yes, this is an audio game. The idea is quite mad: you must listen out for approaching vehicles and swerve left or right to avoid them. Now, it’s not exactly driving, because the game only cares if the player moves left or right in response to sound quickly enough and players will realise Blind Drive doesn’t care where you are on the road or even your trajectory. Nonetheless, it is effective and the audio is really well done, often making you feel like you’ve just missed that car or bicycle. Or ice cream truck. It reminds me of abandoned audio-only game Three Monkeys which I encountered at the Eurogamer Expo in 2013; Blind Drive, in contrast, feels much closer to a finished product.
The minimal visuals cleverly evoke a dashboard without actually being one and the focus of the display is a set of white bars that shudder with the roar of the engine, swerving left and right as you do. I don’t know how far the concept can be extended – there were several changes to the scenario as I played through, some of which made me laugh. It’s held together with dialogue between “you” and some omniscient bad guy using a voice scrambler. It’s here that Blind Drive seems off, as if uncertain whether it wants to be a Hollywood thriller or black comedy.
But most importantly, I came away from Blind Drive with a smile.
Blind Drive will be coming to mobile, PC and Mac.
Interested in other games I’ve dabbled with? Check out the series index!
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This sounds really interesting, and perfect for mobile with headphones. I hope it goes the black comedy route wholeheartedly.
I found some of the narrative bits a little offputting, as did Gregg, as it doesn’t feel quite consistent. It’s possible embracing the black comedy completely would fix it. The start gives the impression of a thriller and it’s later the… uh… veil is lifted from your eyes.
It sounds like the mechanics and interactions are simple enough (though I appreciate you tease us with mention of a few changes to the scenario :)). I imagine that this will be carried by the narrative experience, so I hope they commit to a vision.
Yeah I didn’t want to spoil the little “tweaks” they were what made the game worthwhile. I was grinning at its stupidity.