Convoy

My first honest reaction to Convoy was relief: it is shallower than FTL in raw system complexity, which actually makes it a better entry point for players who bounced off that game. Where FTL asks you to juggle crew placement, door controls, oxygen levels, and weapons timing all at once, Convoy narrows the plate-spinning to resource logistics on the overworld map and vehicle positioning during real-time combat. That narrower scope cuts both ways, but more on that in a moment. The core loop works like this. Your spaceship Mercury has crash-landed on the hostile planet Omek Prime, controlled by three warring factions. You deploy your Main Combat Vehicle, the MCV, and escort it with up to four support cars, all of which can be outfitted with offense and support weapon slots. Fuel and bolts (the local currency) are the two dials you watch constantly. Safe camps are spread thin across the procedurally generated map, and you can only upgrade, repair, or equip newly looted weapons at those camps, not mid-run. That restriction creates genuine tension: finding a top-tier weapon loadout means nothing if you cannot reach a camp before the next ambush tears your convoy apart. The overworld also forces a road-versus-terrain decision on almost every route, since paved roads cost less fuel but expose you to more enemy contact. Each radio signal you pick up resolves as either a text-based event (think lightweight Fallout-style choices with moral trade-offs), a chance-based roll, or a straight fight. The variety is decent early on, but the text event pool is noticeably thin, and by the third or fourth run you will recognize the same scenarios cycling back with some regularity. Combat itself is real-time with a pause function for issuing orders. Your escort vehicles move freely across the combat lane while the MCV rolls forward automatically, using its own abilities (stun weapons, shields) on long cooldowns. The support car positioning matters more than it looks on the surface. Critics who called the combat brainless were mostly playing early runs against weak raiders; mid-game and late-game enemy density punishes anyone who just points cars at targets and clicks. The bigger mechanical complaint that holds up over time is the wildly variable difficulty. A run can hum along beautifully until the game spawns a heavily armored group that outclasses your current loadout, and the recovery options are limited once your escort cars start dropping, since permadeath applies to those vehicles too, with the entire run ending if the MCV falls. The mod support via Steam Workshop is a genuine bright spot that has extended the game's life well beyond what the base content alone would justify. The Metacritic aggregate settled at 72, which is about right: a solid concept that shipped slightly undercooked in terms of event variety and combat depth, but one that Steam players have rated at 78 percent positive across over a thousand reviews, which suggests the core audience found enough to love. The pixel art holds up fine; the soundtrack gets repetitive faster than the combat does. Writing quality is uneven, leaning on sci-fi pop culture references so frequently that several reviewers flagged it as a creativity gap rather than charm. For the strategy-first crowd, Convoy is worth picking up if you prioritize the resource-tension decision loop over deep tactical layering. Think of it as a road-trip logistics puzzle with guns attached. Manage your fuel budget tightly, diversify your escort build (mix offense and support slots rather than stacking pure damage), and treat each run as a learning exercise rather than a campaign to win. It respects your time in short bursts better than it does marathon sessions.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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