Death Road to Canada Review/Retrospective: Telling Random Strangers to COOL IT Since 2016 (PC)

    As much as I hate to admit it, I have a pretty sizable amount of games in my Steam library that I have yet to play. These games range from games I heard were good and picked up during a sale to the occasional day one purchase (including Undertale, just to show how unselective my apathy can be.) I always say I'll get to them soon, but I still have a whole collection of games that have never seen the light of my computer screen. Since today is as good of a day as any, I'm going to review one of these games.

Sorry, Mae. Not yet. I promise one day. Tell Toriel I said the same about Undertale.

    The game I am talking about today has just turned one year old, so it seems like a good time for me to jump into this pile of living corpses! It's Death Road to Canada, by Rocketcat Games!

    Death Road to Canada could be described as Oregon Trail except with more zombies and less dysentery, except the game Organ Trail has claimed that title already. Because of this, I'll say that DR2C is Organ Trail with a greater focus on run-and-gun gameplay and humor. Zombies have brought civilized society to its knees, with one of the only bastions of humanity left being America's hat, much better known as Canada. Why is Canada the one nation able to stand against the legion of the dead? My shot in the dark would be something about cold temperatures being bad for decaying flesh but don't mind me. I think too much about silly details. Now let's get this review/retrospective started up and see what this game's aboot, eh?
    DR2C had its first birthday recently, and celebrated with the Duodenum update. It's a theme of theirs to name major updates after somewhat obscure body parts, like the aorta and the coccyx (tee hee, obvious joke.) The updates bring new characters, gameplay updates/tweaks, and more. This one in particular gives us an updated lighting system with the inclusion of flashlights, the ability to find rare trading camps which offer special trades, and "spooky ghosts you can kiss." The developers plan to do more content updates over the next year, and they've got a shirt for sale at Level Up Studios.

Dang it

    Each game of DR2C, no matter the difficulty or special modifiers, has your team of survivors going on a road trip as they try to get from Florida all the way up to Canada. Along the way, they'll have to deal with getting supplies, fighting off zombies, dealing with the sorts of events normally found in a post-apocalyptic world, and sometimes, avoid getting on each other's nerves.

The reason it stinks there is because they slept in a movie theater that played The Emoji Movie. Have you *tried* getting that stink out??

    The gameplay is divided into two modes. The first mode has your team driving (or walking, if you're unlucky,) down the road while you sit back and watch. You can pause to check their stats, but otherwise you just watch as they go down the road until they hit an event, such as trying to open a truck of Twinkies or deciding who should get to read a prepper's magazine. Characters in the game start with most of their stats (represented by smiling or frowning faces) hidden, and have to be discovered and raised through usage and training. Having high stats or special personality traits/perks can open up options in the various events, such as a mechanic being able to fix the car or a frantic whiner telling someone to COOL IT. Every day ends with an event involving camping, and just because you camp, doesn't mean you can't do something interesting, like shooting some cans on a fence. 

Local bully to Scotsman: HAW HAW!

    When you have to get down and dirty with zombies, gameplay switches to a run-and-gun section where the characters move around, grab loot, and smash the dead. One character, with a second if you have a friend, is controlled by the player while any others will follow along and use an AI script that can be modified to change their aggression or preferred type of weapon. The game only needs the keyboard for this section, as your characters will attack the direction they're facing and auto-aim if using a gun. The AI works relatively well, but it can get a bit derpy if you use throwing weapons (other than throwing furniture. That stuff is totally fine and highly effective.) The AI will never use them, thankfully, but they tend to get a bit too close to the danger zone, resulting in more inanimate corpses than you were expecting to create. This mode is also used when visiting trader camps, but no matter how much you may want to, the traders and other NPCs are surprisingly immune to your weaponry.

Word of advice: Airhorns never break, but they still suck as a weapon.

    One of the cool things about the game is how despite being a game about a zombie apocalypse, it manages to be surprisingly upbeat. The chiptune music that plays throughout is very well made and always manages to stay catchy and optimistic. A personal favorite is 'Rigor Mortis Rag,' which combines a jaunty piano with the catchy chiptune rhythm. The game also lets you recruit a variety of wacky characters, including dogs, luchadores, magical anime girls, and clowns, although that last one probably would never be considered as something that would make something upbeat. The game's writing also manages to be pretty lighthearted, showing how even after the world ends, your characters can be pretty petty and will still say things like "swole" and "dingus" without a trace of irony. Below are some highlights from my first forays into the world of DR2C:'

They were right. ANIME WAS A MISTAKE!!!!

Turns out Canada managed to master robotics and lasers way before Japan. By the way: Neon Genesis EH-vangelion. Do you hate me now?

Walking though zombie innards? That's nothing! Touching dog poop can permanently damage someone's morale!

VIDEO GAMES WERE MADE BY THE GOVERNMENT TO TRAIN A NEW GENERATION OF ASSASSINS!! WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!! ...and so on.

    In my time making my way to the border, Death Road to Canada has managed to charm me quite a bit with its silly take on the end of the world. It's easy to get frustrated with the swarm of zombie...themed games that seem to pop up every day, but this one has managed to be quite the hit. I'll probably be playing this one a good amount before I inevitably get sucked back in to playing rounds of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ while watching Youtube videos. Hopefully I'll be able to find more games that really manage to drag me in and give me an amazing experience.

I KNOW, MAE. I'll get to it soon!