Heading Out

Heading Out is one of the most inventive games I've played all year, with plenty of replayability, great ideas, and an engaging story.

If you go into Heading Out expecting a driving game, you’re probably going to be sorely disappointed. It’s something entirely different from that – and, improbably (given the different genres being thrown together), it works incredibly well.

I hadn’t heard anything about Heading Out before it landed in my lap for review, and I am so grateful it did. I absolutely loved the gritty, 70’s feel of the racing and multiple vehicles. And I already gushed over the awesome soundtrack and radio personalities, as a fan of the talk radio in the recent GTA games this felt right up there as far as production value, content, and laughs. Mix all those things together and you end up with one mesmerizing road trip, that fans of the genre will be glad they took.

On the streets of Heading Out, there is some confusion. Serious Sim's game tries to combine racing and storytelling through some micro-management mechanics, but the balance between the parts does not hold for the entire game, and every now and then the narrative path seems inexorably shaped by the availability of resources. Heading Out, however, shows his best to eyes and ears, as the gray roads of North America flow beneath the wheels and the cassette tape in the stereo blasts a perfect travel soundtrack into the speakers.

Heading Out seems like a great start to a game or a series that could continue to expand and get better. It lays the groundwork for some impressive ideas and concepts that racing games don’t usually tackle and offers you a chance to reflect on your own life in a surprising way.

Heading Out is a decent game for those looking for primarily a driving-based game, and it delivers a fun, fast-paced adventure game where you choose how your story will play out.

Some of the short stories are nice to listen to and the driving itself feels good - but that's about it. The decisions made have no consequences worth mentioning, neither on a large nor small scale, the many repetitive races against depressingly lame opponents are potently sleep-inducing and even the protagonist's story is frighteningly irrelevant. Neither the damn good soundtrack nor the strong presentation can really do anything about this.

Heading Out es un título algo breve, con un planteamiento que intercala la novela con las carreras. Bastante permisivo en los errores durante la conducción, con muchas interacciones durante el camino. Aunque tiene muchas carreras, el objetivo está más en la narrativa que en la competencia en sí. Una forma interesante de construir tu propia historia mientras recorres los caminos de Estados Unidos y las dificultades de la vida. Con una buena rejugabilidad para descubrir todos los eventos que puede tener, además de las rutas a usar.

This definitely wasn't what I thought it would be. Looked like a fun car game, sort of an Outrun style game maybe with more of a roguelike approach to progress, but instead what this is turned out to be some highly narrative driven almost storybook game. The driving is broken up into what feels like almost minigames, just a simple outrun the timer or an opponent sort of thing, most of the time you are just managing a simple map and making "do this or that" decisions. Then there's the radio which is basically a source of more narrative dialogue you are supposed to listen to. It's like this game just wants to bombard you with it's story with the actual gameplay taking a backseat. What's even worse is being how this is so narrative and dialogue driven, the writing is just awful in my opinion and highly political, like it's basically just bombarding you with politics, and not even fake video game politics it's all very focused on political ideology today. Reality is this simply isn't what I come to play video games for. If I want to hear people's political banter I will tune into the news or browse social media or something. I play video games as an escape from that and that is what I wanted here, just a nice little game where I could drive a muscle car in a point to point go anywhere fashion. Yet what I got is something that just constantly tries to pull me back into the real world not allowing me to get immersed in a game world. IMO this is just bad game design and it makes me wonder why they couldn't just make it focused on driving.

I really like the art style of the game but the story and gameplay is uninteresting and repetitive. Almost every race feels the same and travelling between cities feels very slow. There are some interesting mechanics like the focus and fear but the races themselves are very boring, even on the highest difficulty.