Driving Is Hard Recensie (PC)

I must’ve missed the part on my theory test that asked if I had any intention of barreling a bathtub on wheels down an ice-cradled ravine. I also must have missed out on the question that asked if I’d be willing to take Jeff under my wing as a replacement navigator if push ever came to shove. Over a decade later, and it feels as if I’m back behind the wheel as an apprentice. Before, driving was simple. But now, with Jeff donning the role of passenger princess, I can honestly confirm that Driving Is Hard. Who’d have thought?

Jeff, being the “hero” in this soapbox expedition, has problems. And I don’t mean, Bennet-stuck-to-a-giant-hammer kind of problem, but real, emotional issues that relate to growth, forgiveness, and kin. But sadly, most of these issues are rooted deep within a comical nightmare that, frankly, doesn’t make a lot of sense. It talks about problems, yet the biggest of them all isn’t within Jeff’s mind, but within a world where bathtubs glide and headaches are given out like cotton candy on Halloween. And the worst part is, it asks you to steer the flagship and bring the tub to the soap, so to speak.

Here’s the catch: steering the aforementioned flagship isn’t a simple task. As the title painfully implies, it’s about as tedious and as rage-inducing as one might think it would be. A bathtub on wheels; nine themed worlds with deadly declines and a host of nonsensical obstacles; and a wannabe hero who just wants to find a solution for his problems. It’s all rather ridiculous. But, annoyingly, it’s also fodder for a surprisingly entertaining game.

The whole point (if you can call it that) of the game is to guide a bath on wheels through a series of stages, some of which pose as tame environments, others that seem moronic and borderline impossible to navigate. In a bath that you can fully kit out to fit your sudsy needs, you enter each world and, through a whole lot of trial and error, fight to reach the checkpoint. Sure enough, it sounds relatively easy on paper. And, to an extent, it is. That is, if you can afford to lose your sanity en route to the final destination. Spoiler alert: your sanity isn’t replenished at the final hurdle. Go figure.

In the spirit of a traditional rage-baiting game, Driving Is Hard tasks you with piloting a vessel that is about as structurally sound as a foot stool with one leg through a plethora of toy box biomes. Similar to Getting Over It—a rage flick that is notorious for being one of the most irritatingly difficult games of its kind—Driving Is Hard doesn’t offer you a helping hand or a useful checkpoint system (unless you’re willing to dial the difficulty setting down to Easy) to make your voyage any easier. Instead, it gives you a meager safety net—a parachute, surprisingly—and a chance to rectify your mistakes for whenever you accidentally fall into the abyss. But that’s about as much slack as it is ever willing to give you. It doesn’t want you to succeed; it wants to dangle a carrot on the end of a stick and set fire to your chassis.

In light of its malicious nature, driving a bathtub in Driving Is Hard is a lot of fun, believe it or not. Painful, but annoyingly satisfying. Like those that have come before, the act of beating a course comes with a lot of rewards. Bragging rights aside, you have a little more leeway to make sense of the plot and its characters. And I’ll be honest, if it didn’t have a story or a carrot on the end of a stick, then I probably would have abandoned the bathtub long before finding the first bar of soap. Yet, it had something for me to chase — and that alone was enough to entice me. For a short while, at least.

As I said, beneath its hair-tugging mechanics and disastrous vessel-based shenanigans, Driving Is Hard does have a plot for you to explore. It’s an odd plot, and one that, frankly, you probably won’t find the time to unpack between brief spells of therapy. That said, there is a storyline behind all of its soapbox kookiness. There are also collectibles for you to gather and a number of add-ons for your bathtub to unlock, weirdly. And so, to that end, Driving Is Hard does pack a heftier punch than most of its kind. Oh, it’s still about as frustrating as love letters to Getting Over It come, but surprisingly, it harbors a lot more than mere rage-inducing antics.

On the subject of collectibles, Driving Is Hard does feature a great variety of components, skins, and other seemingly futile fixtures. Granted, at no point are you ever led to believe that the simple addition of a fresh lick of paint will elevate your confidence — but it does remind you that, if you’re going to go down in flames, then you might as well go out in style. Or in a bathtub. It’s the same thing here, I think. The point is, it doesn’t matter if you collect bars of soap or spend an awful amount of time fleshing out your ride, because at the end of the day, it makes absolutely no difference to the journey.

All in all there’s a silly, somewhat pointless experience here that probably won’t do you any favors. It’ll make you laugh, and it’ll make you cry. It’ll also make you loathe the name Jeff, too, to be honest. However, if you can stomach the turbulent nature of the journey and enjoy it for the bite-sized perks that it frequently brings to the circuit, then you might just find yourself a new best friend here. It’s a long shot, but at the end of the day, it could be a lot worse. It could be Bennett riding shotgun in the bathtub.

Verdict

Driving Is Hard lives up to its reputation as a rage-inducing soapbox romper that can and probably will make even the most adept wheelmen feel incompetent and vulnerable to emotional distress. If you’re able to gloss over the fact that it is an insufferable pain in the backside, though, then there’s a good chance that you’ll enjoy it for the fickle fodder that it brings to the bathtub. You’ll still hate it, but there is a silver lining here somewhere on the far horizon. It’s finding the patience to locate it, that’s the tough part.

Of course, if you have enough hair on your scalp to lose, then I could think of numerous reasons why you would enjoy a game like Driving Is Hard. It isn’t for the faint of heart, so I’d suggest taking it all with a grain of salt. If it’s a story-driven platforming game that you want, then you’d be better off giving this world a wide berth. If it’s an opportunity to rampage around in a bathtub that tickles your fancy, however, then you honestly needn’t look any further than this.