Road trip game Ithaca presents a nice drive, but in a crowded car

My white whale remains a perfect road trip game. As I’ve said before, I’ve played games that have come close, but none that fully scratch my itch. If I found the perfect one, I’d probably play it forever.

To revisit what I said in my review of Keep Driving, “The game I envision requires four things: a car, an open road, a certain vibe, and a dash of challenge.” It’s one of those fast-cheap-quality diagrams, where you can only have a couple, but never all of the above.

So, here’s Ithaca, a game in development by The Pixel Hunt. It’s currently available for backing on Kickstarter, where they’re trying to raise the funds to fully develop it. I’ve played the prototype, and I can tell you that, from what I’ve seen, I’m still waiting.

GRAB THE SNACKS

Right off the lot, Ithaca has a bunch going for it that turns my wheel. You play as an eco-activist lawyer who has a kidnapped victim in her trunk and has to drive 1000km across the country to the titular city. From the looks of things, you’re along for the entire, unbroken journey. Cool.

While the demo just has you just sitting in the driver’s seat while the protagonist does all the driving, that’s not entirely the plan for the finished version. Developer notes within the game explain what hasn’t been implemented and the functional vision. Driving, for example, is supposed to allow the player some space to contemplate the information thrown at them, and also allows you to gain experience.

However, most of the runtime is likely to be on autopilot, because the bulk of the game seems to involve navigating social situations. You can answer texts, make phone calls, explore the interior of the car, and listen to the radio (and maybe podcasts later.) There are also opportunities to reflect on the character’s past and make retroactive choices, not unlike in Kentucky Route Zero. I’ve always been a fan of this approach, because it gives the player agency, even when they’re in the shoes of an otherwise defined character.

Plus, the landscape is nice. It’s a bit rough in the prototype for the obvious reason of it being unfinished. However, it generates itself rather nicely, and while the game is seemingly set in the present day in terms of technology and politics, the world has a surreal and stylized quality to it. It gives you eyes a lot to take in for the long ride.

HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY

There’s also the promise of stopping along the way at stations, diners, and tourist spots. This, I think, is key for a road trip game. Unfortunately, not a shade of this has been implemented in the prototype, so I have to keep dreaming as a drive past darkened gas stations.

However, the incomplete state of the game doesn’t really bother me. It never has. In fact, I think Ithaca’s playtest shows an impressively clear vision and viable development path. No, what bothers me is something that seems core to the experience.

I don’t want to play as this character.

Penelope is an environmental rights lawyer. In terms of character development, there’s a lot that I like to see. She has a living, direct family that she’s in contact with, and they haven’t died to give her motivation. Well, one of them is dead, but, as far as I know, that’s unrelated to Penelope’s ambitions. I don’t think she choked on six-pack rings.

DEAD SHOPPING MALLS

But that’s sort of the problem: she’s a realistic character with realistic problems. Sure, the world is stylized, everyone has names from Greek mythology, and the world’s politics are slightly shifted from where they are now, but Penelope is completely normal. Her relationships, good and bad, are normal. Her motivations, while a bit extreme, seem normal. And the issues around climate change are things I’m largely familiar with. I don’t need a video game to experience these problems. Plus, you wouldn’t catch me dead dating a YouTuber.

I understand that the game is maybe going to explore the point at which resistance becomes radicalized, but I already feel enough frustration with the world, that I don’t really wonder.

Years ago, I made the mistake of getting on social media after holding out for quite a while, and I hate it. I hate being party to everyone’s problems. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s that I care too much. I don’t need a game about, “powerlessness, violence, and the climate crisis,” I have to stew in that every day. I carry it with me, always. Unless you can frame it with a lot more subtext, I don’t need it.

Add to the fact that the whole game is about social interactions. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s a novel and interesting framework for an adventure game, and Ithaca demonstrates that it can be done effectively. It’s just I don’t like to text or talk on the phone in real life. I don’t want to be glued to it for the duration of a road trip. Unless, perhaps, the distance social aspect won’t be quite as pervasive in the full game. It’s possible.

BITTER WEATHER

Anyway, I think you should back Ithaca on Kickstarter if it interests you. Personally, I want to see it made, even if, based on the prototype, I don’t really want to play it. I’d like to see, at the very least, whether it can push the road trip genre closer to where I want it to be, even if it isn’t it.

I also respect that The Pixel Hunt has a clear vision, and the prototype has proven they can execute on it. This could be a me problem. Maybe the overtness of everything won’t bother Ithaca’s intended audience. Others might have more of an appetite for it.

In terms of being an ideal road trip game, it gets the car, the open road, and maybe even the dash of challenge right, but the vibes are all wrong. I don’t want to navigate someone’s social life, especially when it’s so believably mundane. Minus the car, this is exactly how I have to experience the problems depicted in Ithaca: through text and conversation. I don’t need that simulated, because I’m already living it.

This preview was conducted using a pre-release prototype of the game. The author went through the normal channels of requesting access through the Steam store page.