Jalopy Preview – The Eastern European Version of Journey

<p class&equals;"western">Every so often&comma; I stumble upon the type of game that would never sell in an elevator pitch&period; The classic being <em>Papers&comma; Please<&sol;em>&period; Hell&comma; imagine EA or Activision green-lighting <em>Spec Ops&colon; The Line<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Verdun<&sol;em> or <em>Neverending Nightmares<&sol;em> in a purified unaltered state&period; Yet these bizarre ideas are magical to me&period; They provide unusual experiences that&comma; good or bad&comma; I can say I&&num;8217&semi;m pleased to have experienced&period; So as soon as I heard about <em>Jalopy<&sol;em> &lpar;created by Minskworks&rpar; I knew I wanted to preview it as it is in a pre-alpha state&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><em>Jalopy<&sol;em> has an unusual amount in common with <em>Papers&comma; Please<&sol;em>&period; Both have the Eastern European tinge to it&comma; although <em>Jalopy<&sol;em> mentions the region by name&period; As you must drive a car through the 90&&num;8217&semi;s version of Eastern Germany&comma; Hungary and Yugoslavia&period; Although rather quickly you&&num;8217&semi;ll see the journey isn&&num;8217&semi;t a sightseeing tour&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115442" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115442" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115442 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;18132600&sol;20161116200407&lowbar;1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Jalopy&comma; Excalibur Games" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115442" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Jalopy<&sol;em>&comma; Excalibur Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Rather instead&comma; and fascinatingly&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s about your car&period; Your car based on the infamous Trabant 601&comma; here called a Laika 601 Deluxe &lpar;after the time Russia sent a stray dog into space&rpar;&period; Seven engine parts&comma; four wheels and a very limited storage space is all you have to carry you to each checkpoint&period; Checkpoints linked by roads that wind and bend in unusual ways and sometimes demand you to go off-road with it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Although that likely sounds easy&comma; so easy you probably expect a timer or it to be a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;walking simulator in a car&period;” No to both though&period; What you have are parts so flimsy and disintegrating you&&num;8217&semi;d think it was made from caesium&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll be lucky to hit one checkpoint without something being close to falling apart&comma; if they haven&&num;8217&semi;t already collapsed&period; So you have to swap your engine parts around&comma; repair with repair kits &lpar;which you can buy&rpar; the ones you want to preserve like an insect in amber and keep going&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Although this isn&&num;8217&semi;t cheap&period; Along with the hotel fee needed to get to complete the checkpoint&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll eventually run out of the money you start with&period; So you have to get creative&period; Specifically&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll have to drive along keeping an eye out for cardboard and wooden boxes on the side of the road&period; Then it&&num;8217&semi;s all about opening them up and selling them to the nearest shop&period; At least with the hope they haven&&num;8217&semi;t picked that moment to discount it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Even for a pre-alpha&comma; I admit I&&num;8217&semi;m finding <em>Jalopy<&sol;em> incredibly relaxing&period; While there is a degree of management&comma; most of the time is spent just driving along the empty roads&period; Watching the sky slowly darken&comma; making you pick between burning the battery by putting the lights on or driving in the dark&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s no deep narrative here&comma; nor any attempt to make you feel fear or tension like a lot of journey-based titles&period; Especially ones with scavenging mechanics&period; Just you&comma; the road and your car&period; At least up to the moment you have to walk because it broke down again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">To get the obvious out the way&comma; there are bugs aplenty if you buy into <em>Jalopy<&sol;em> now&period; You can carry things into the car with you&period; A few times it seemed I got free petrol&period; I also lost most of my journeys because of the anti-theft shop gate remaining closed&comma; even after I paid for everything&period; There are also content amount concerns&comma; what with three levels existing currently from what I can tell &lpar;paranoid anti-theft gates being why I can&&num;8217&semi;t be certain&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115439" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115439" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115439 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;18131656&sol;20161117211946&lowbar;1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Jalopy&comma; Excalibur Games" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115439" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Jalopy<&sol;em>&comma; Excalibur Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Yet&comma; you don&&num;8217&semi;t necessarily get <em>Jalopy<&sol;em> for the challenge&period; Especially right now where you can easily hilariously cheat the system&period; You get it for the tranquillising atmosphere of just driving&period; Of mothering your dear companion back to health when it begins to wear down&period; Of trying to play luggage <em>Tetris<&sol;em> to fit as much scavenged loot as you can&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">If you have an itch for something more on the inoffensively odder side&comma; then drive your <em>Jalopy<&sol;em> across Eastern Europe&period; Spot where the Soviet Union tide broke and swept back as you scavenge what was left behind&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western" style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC Preview Code for <em>Jalopy<&sol;em> was provided by Excalibur Games for the purpose of this preview<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;