Backseat Drivers

I've organised enough Saturday night co-op sessions to know exactly which games survive contact with a rowdy group and which ones collapse the moment something goes wrong. Backseat Drivers lands firmly in the first category, with enough asterisks to fill a parking lot. The core loop is almost offensively simple: one player drives as Gramma, completely unable to see the road properly, while the other sits in the back and shouts directions. The catch is that the car itself is fighting you the whole time. Brake pedal slid under the seat? Jam a cassette tape into the gap. Steering wheel gone? A frying pan will have to do. The improvised-repair mechanic is genuinely funny for the first few levels, and the intentionally awkward controls, which the Steam community has literally tagged as such, mean that even competent players feel equally helpless. The structure gives you a Story mode and a Carpool mode. Story is the main two-player campaign, a journey through eight levels that escalate from mundane suburban roads into underground tunnels and settings the developers describe as interdimensionally strange. Carpool opens things up to four players across two cars, which is where the game earns its keep as a party title. There is also a Race mode in the works, where two car-and-passenger pairs compete to beat a level fastest while employing dirty tactics against each other, though it was still locked at launch and the developers have flagged it as coming post-release. Worth knowing before you buy if competitive play is your main draw. Now for the honest part. The recent review trend on Steam has tilted toward mixed, and reading through player feedback, the difficulty curve is the real culprit. Some groups hit level two and stop laughing, because the steering requires more deliberate mouse or stick input than most casual players expect, and the navigator role can tip from fun-chaos into frustrating-blame pretty fast. That tension is partly the point of the game, but it is not always obvious from the outside that this is a game designed to stress-test communication rather than reward smooth driving. Groups who lean into the absurdity and treat every crash as content will get a lot of mileage. Groups expecting a gentle kart-racer will bounce off it. On the hardware side, full controller support is listed and the game plays well on a gamepad, which matters when you are squeezing four people around a PC. There is no split-screen, so this is an online co-op experience only, and the Friend Pass system means one paid copy lets one friend join free for Story mode. For three or four players you need at least two paid copies, which is worth factoring in if your group is price-sensitive. A potato mode is available in launch options for lower-spec machines, which is a thoughtful touch from a small indie studio. With around six hours to finish the main story, it is not a long game, but it is the kind of game you replay with different people rather than grind solo. Bottomline: this works best as a voice-chat party game for two to four people who are already comfortable yelling at each other. It does not hold up as a solo experience, and the difficulty spike in later levels will split casual groups right down the middle. Go in with the right crowd and it is a reliably chaotic good time.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

Be the first to comment on Backseat Drivers.