Heading Out review

Crunching Koalas’ Heading Out isn’t your typical driving game. Instead of focusing on shaving micro-seconds off of lap times or maintaining clean racing lines, the game is more concerned with the portrayal of an existential road trip. While there’s a bit of racing (sometimes fear will literally chase you down), at least some of your interstate trek will take place in greasy diners or arbitrary encounters that put your ethics to the test.

A Land of Lament, Loneliness, and Legend

At its core, Heading Out is as much about storytelling as it is about driving. Players embody a fugitive who’s running from the past. But you’re never quite sure if the road ahead offers salivation or damnation. Every pit stop along the way introduces voices on the radio, chance meetings, and moral quandaries that embody the contradictions of life in the United States.

Here, America isn’t just a monolithic set of values, but a dissonant mix of legends, fears, and barren landscapes. One moment you’re presented with the opportunity to race for money. The next, you might be chased by faceless patrol cars or have your empathy tested by encounters with the less fortunate. All the while, your journey is broken up by the ramblings of a radio DJ who seems to be speaking to you directly. Collectively, Heading Out’s dilemmas, dialog, and strange disc jockey make for a road trip that feels like a fever dream.

One Interstate Jackalope, Many Roads

One of the most remarkable aspects of Heading Out is the way it constructs its narrative across each play through. Instead of relying on a static script, branching selects help shape your road trip’s direction and tone. Here, interactions at cafes, gas stations, and roadside accidents aren’t filler. Many strive to express your character’s backstory.

Intriguingly, the game’s intermittent predicaments aren’t just basic personality assessments. Each decision also affects your wealth, reputation, as well as the condition of your car. The end result might not deliver the same kind of immersion and closure as a scripted tale. But the finale can offer a surprisingly good appraisal of your values if you let it. But that said, Heading Out’s road trips are fragmented and often eschew the heavy-handed morality of many games. Sure, a selection might be greyed out if you’re an angel or complete asshole, but the game favors the observational rather than being judgmental.

A Vehicle for Storytelling

The game’s vehicles attempt to play a role in how your story unfolds. But sadly, Heading Out’s roster or roadsters don’t vary much beyond their top speed and a slight difference in handing. Sure, muscle cars provide speed at the expense of handling and fuel consumption, while sedans provide increased reliability. But I never felt my selection was all that significant to the story. For many American road novel, the car is a companion and an extension of the driver’s psyche.

At least the route you take can have more impact. Highways might promise faster travel but can be more dangerous, while backroads wind through small towns filled with strange characters and unexpected detours. These diverging paths aren’t just geographical choices but reflect the driver’s disposition. Will you push ahead relentlessly toward your goal, or meander through America’s alcoves, amassing stories and scars along the way? The branching road system gives each playthrough a sense of discovery, and no two trips feel the same.

Fleeting From Fate

The inclusion of roguelike elements is undoubtedly Heading Out’s most interesting aspect. Failure isn’t just about starting over. Instead, it’s more about crafting a new narrative culled from different choices, roads, and encounters. This unpredictability gives the game an alluring, almost addictive quality, as you’re compelled to see how far Heading Out will let you take it and what kind of story can emerge.

But that’s not to say the execution isn’t free the sporadic pothole. Although, it’s pretty subjective, the tone of some of the radio broadcasts didn’t always mesh with the tone of a particular run. A few encounters can feel more like filler than revelation. Since the game depicts psychological states like a lack of sleep, I’m not sure if the occasional loss of visual smoothness represents a condition. But it did make driving a bit harder. Still, even when the road wavers, the game’s mix of myth and melancholy makes it a trip worth taking.

Heading Out was played on PlayStation 5 with review code provided by the publisher.