I love snow. Not a huge fan of winter because it gets really dark really early, but that’s the tradeoff for snow. I love how snow hides things. Heavy snow hides the horizon. Fresh fallen snow hides the sounds of the city. Deep snow is perfect for temporarily hiding bodies. When a winter storm kicks up, I wish it would just never stop.

I’m also a big fan of open roads, but I’m not going to get deep into that one. I’ve already shared my love of road trip games on a few occasions. So, Easy Delivery Co. sounds like the perfect concept for me. It’s all about making deliveries through snow-covered streets. In a Kei Truck! 2025; year of the Kei Truck.

AND IF THE SNOW BURIES MY, MY NEIGHBOURHOOD

There isn’t really any exposition to give you a narrative foundation. Right away, you begin working for Easy Co., doing gig-work style delivery jobs. The whole world is buried in a deep winter, as though it’s immediately after a blizzard or during one. While the roads seem to be maintained, snowdrifts often create challenging hazards. But this also means that you’re the only person crazy enough to attempt deliveries in such conditions. The roads, such as they are, are yours.

And that’s a lot of it. Aside from shopkeepers, there’s just one cat who wanders about. They’re the person who gives you the main overarching quests, which largely just entail getting an item and using it to get to a new location.

It’s about the vibes. The snow, the truck, and the music (if you visit the radio towers). There’s an underlying mystery to everything, because I guess there has to be. Shopkeepers act a bit squirrelly and confuse you with a previous carrier. There’s maybe something sinister about Easy Co. There’s some subtext, if you’re into that kind of thing. But most of the time you’ll spend with Easy Delivery Co. will be driving the quiet roads in your Kei Truck and making deliveries. So, hopefully that sounds good to you.

HEATED SEATS

As I mentioned, this is exactly the sort of thing I connect with. And, if you’ll pardon the pun, Easy Delivery Co. delivers. While the world isn’t exactly big, it’s sparsely populated enough to provide a sufficient amount of open road. It doesn’t jam in life simulator elements, but between surviving the cold temperatures, keeping your energy topped up, and making sure there’s fuel in your tank, there’s enough to give meaning to the work.

The aesthetic, the snowy world as depicted in a crunchy, PS1-inspired, lo-fi sort of way, is effective. There are some small details, such as the time-of-day lighting, that could have been better, but it’s convincing enough. And while the soundtrack isn’t robust, it provides a few styles (presented via car radio, of course) that are all suitable to fill the quiet. It’s a small production, and it feels the part, but it gets a lot of mileage out of its look and feel.

CONTRAST KNOBS

There’s one thing that bothers me with Easy Delivery Co., and at first this is going to sound like me projecting my desires onto it instead of judging it based on its own merits, but hear me out.

One of the things that I love about snowy weather and winter in general doesn’t have anything to do with the harshness of it. Instead, it’s how it isolates everything. You wind up with these little pockets of comfort. When you come in from the cold and shake the snow off; that’s a great feeling, and it’s such a universal sensation (to anyone living in a climate that enables snowy winters), that transitioning from cold, drab colours to warm ones typically gives a tangible feeling of comfort and relief.

Easy Delivery Co. is very bleak from top to bottom. All of the interiors are very dingy and poorly lit. The streets and storefronts are mostly dark, and the rare sources of light are very muted. There are no indications of warmth anywhere. And that may be the intention, which I respect. It’s entirely possible that Sam C. wants you to feel hopelessly uncomfortable.

But if that’s the case, I don’t think it’s utilized effectively. Thematically, the narrative doesn’t really seem to centre around isolation. In fact, honestly, I’m not completely sure what it’s supposed to be about. Or perhaps I understand completely, and it isn’t about much. The only thing I’m certain of is that I was presented with a choice at one point and felt like I didn’t have enough information to understand or care what the consequences were. I didn’t feel a connection with any of the characters. I felt like a visitor to the world, rather than absorbed in it.

TINY TRUCKING

So, that’s my point. If Easy Delivery Co. wants to be cozy, then it misses a massive opportunity by stifling all of its warmth and adhering to a drab colour palette. If, on the other hand, it wants to be bleak, then it doesn’t wield it in a way that strikes pay dirt.

But, that said, Easy Delivery Co. is one of those rare games that, even after I’ve hit the credits, I started it back up just to play some more. I don’t see it retaining its appeal indefinitely. There aren’t many activities outside of delivery that you can do, and it’s the driving that draws me in; not the actual world, and not the narrative. But it at least gets the driving very right.

While there isn’t anything wrong with Easy Delivery Co., what I find irksome is that it’s clearly made with a love of something I find so appealing, and while it delivers in some aspect, it’s breathing on the neck of greatness. It has all the mechanics down – it feels great to drive the Kei Truck through the snow – but when it comes to conveyance, it lacks a punch. One might say, it doesn’t quite nail the delivery. Oh, wait, I made that joke already.

6/10

This review was conducted using a digital pre-release version of the game. It was provided by the developer’s PR.