Long Drive North: Co-Op RV Simulator

I went into Long Drive North: Co-Op RV Simulator with a measured kind of optimism. The DNA is genuinely interesting: you are fleeing a catastrophic storm northward through a post-disaster American wilderness, keeping a beat-up RV alive by scavenging engine oil, coolant, batteries, and tires from abandoned cars while hunting deer and managing hunger, thirst, and sleep. On the surface, it sits in a lineage that includes The Long Dark and My Summer Car, two games I hold in high regard. The problem is that right now this game is a noticeably thinner version of both. The RV maintenance loop is the strongest thing here. Monitoring your engine, oil and coolant levels, battery charge, fuel, and tire wear creates a tangible rhythm that a sim-leaning player will recognise and enjoy. Scavenging parts from derelict vehicles, stocking jerry cans, and upgrading your rig using a crafting station mounted on the exterior of the motorhome all feel purposeful. A recent major update added shared-RV co-op, meaning up to four players can now bunk inside a single vehicle, cook on a propane stove or a foraged microwave, and divide labour between driving and scavenging. That is the version of this game worth being interested in, and it is meaningfully better than launch. The cracks, though, are structural. The survival balancing is uneven in ways that hurt both ends of the player count. Solo sessions can produce absurd item surplus early on, while co-op at higher player counts strains resources because loot does not scale. The procedurally generated world repeats itself fast, and the feedback from the community has consistently flagged a lack of meaningful objectives beyond the general directive to keep heading north. There is no story yet. The developers have confirmed narrative content is planned, but that roadmap is long. The UI is clunky, inventory management has quirks that frustrate rather than challenge, and bugs ranging from items falling through the world to late-game crafted items with unclear functions are still live. Steam reviews sit around 39-40 percent positive overall, which is a signal that should not be ignored. For the right kind of player, the bones here are worth watching. If you enjoy the slow, methodical loop of keeping a vehicle running and you have two or three friends willing to treat Early Access as a participatory process rather than a finished product, there is a specific and pleasant type of road-trip chaos available. The atmosphere, the freezing wilderness, the dog companion, the improvised kitchen inside your rolling home: those elements carry genuine warmth. The developers have committed to an 18-to-24-month Early Access window and have been patching actively. The shared-RV update was a meaningful step. But as a sim player who tracks development cadence closely, I cannot in good conscience frame this as a complete experience today. It needs more time in the garage.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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