American Fugitive - rural GTA1-alike

[henke]

This thing came out today.



I've only played the first 50 minutes yet. It's got some unexpected and novel features, like when you enter buildings it goes into a pause-time RPG-y mode, and also there's a leveling up system. My only complaints so far is that the camera is too close when driving, making it very hard to not crash into things, and also the cops are the most tenacious I've seen in a game since Driver 1.

Here's how my first cop chase went:


Second chase after that one I did manage to slip away however, and then snuck into an RV and stole some new clothes. Gonna play more of this tomorrow, but yeah, so far I'm digging it.

[henke]

Alrighty, I'm now 6 hours into the game and I only JUST got out of the first part of the map.



This is pretty much the whole map, and you spend the first 6 hours in the part in the upper left corner, which is, frankly, too long. It's not like I did much besides the missions either. Speaking of missions, so far they've been mostly tutorial-y stuff that are mostly just there to introduce you to all the stuff you can do in the game. I don't mind, cause the core gameplay is good enough that it's entertaining, but it could do with one or two more big, memorable set-piece-heavy missions. Remarkably little focus on combat so far as well. I think I've only been in 2 or 3 shootouts so far.



I do love the look and feel of the game. Disregard my complaints about the cops and the camera above, I quickly got used to the controls and have managed to outrun the cops in all my run-ins with them since the disasterous first attempt. The wanted system is one I haven't seen the likes of since Driver:Parallel Lines. Basically there are different wanted-meters for you and your car. So if the cops are on the lookout for your car, you can ditch it when noone's looking and be in the clear. Likewise if you're wanted on-foot, you'll be in the clear if you manage to get into a new car without anyone noticing. It works really well and I wish more GTA-alikes did it like this. I'd even say the game is too easy, as I've only died twice in my 6 hours with it. I also feel like I've unlocked most of the significant upgrades and I'd guess I'm only a third of the way through yet.

Overall tho, yeah, it's good stuff!

[henke]

I really like the car handling in this. Before I picked it up I saw a user review describe the cars as "handling like blocks of ice". This is one of those phrases that are meant as a negative, but actually sound like a positive to my ears. I like my cars to feel weighty and sliding all over the place. It's just no fun otherwise!

[henke]

Finished it!

Review:

There's a lot of things wrong with this: lacklustre mission design, poor AI, the performance is occasionanlly choppy regardless what setting it's on, the gameworld isn't interconnected but rather split up by loading zones and it takes like SIX HOURS to get out of the first part of the map. And then there's the story, which starts off interesting enough, doesn't GO anywhere interesting, and is poorly paced.

Despite all that, I did enjoy this moden take on GTA1-gameplay. The new mechanics, like breaking and entering, are a welcome addition, and the wanted-system is really great. The vehicle handling is fantastic, with proper weight to the cars making them skid all over the place. Overall I enjoyed my 12 hours with the game!

Score: 7/10

[henke]

Big ol' content update just dropped that takes da carnage to a WHOLE NOTHA LEVUL



Also it's -50% on Steam right now so if you were ever gonna get this game, now's a good time.

[Tomi]

So I started playing this an hour ago. I came here to complain about the car handling, only to find out that henke finds it fantastic. Perhaps it just takes some time to get used to, perhaps I've only driven bad cars so far, but there's something that doesn't feel right to me. Maybe I've played too much art of rally lately, so my expectations are too high for a game like this. On paper a modern version of GTA 1 sounds awesome, but so far I haven't got very excited about American Fugitive. And yeah, the camera is zoomed in way too close when driving, but that was always just about the most annoying thing in GTA 1 too.

[henke]

Yeah I liked it, but it's possible that coming fresh off art of rally it's gonna feel lacklustre. Give it a little time tho.

Y'know, many years ago when I was driving around the open world bits of Absolute Drift (the predecessor to art of rally) it made me daydream of what a new, rural GTA1-alike would be like. It would need to be rural because it needed low buildings that allow for a slightly angled camera. I was actually thinking about making this game myself, but then one day the trailer for American Fugitive popped up and someone had beaten me to it. This game has its issues, but overall I liked it.