When Outlast 2 was released, there was a viral marketing initiative that included a disposable diaper. I found this to be equal parts hilarious and exaggeration. In all seriousness, who loses control of their bodily functions due to a video game? Well, if you’re playing Totally Reliable Delivery Service, the answer is my seven-year-old son.

Initially, I thought this was going to be a chore simulator in the vein of Overcooked with a Death Stranding twist, requiring you to deliver packages. On some levels it is just that, but on a much more relaxed scale. The entirety of the game takes place in a decently sized open world in which you use vehicles, random obscure objects, or hoof it on foot from various points to deliver packages as quickly and carefully as possible, which can be accomplished solo or with up to three friends locally.

The game overall is pretty janky, but it feels like it’s the intentional variety akin to Goat Simulator. The biggest challenge I faced was guiding the character around the map, largely due to the fact that the carriers all appear to be drunk, which if you personally know any UPS or FedEx drivers like I do, you probably know this is pretty accurate. Regardless of whether you’re driving one of the many vehicular options or walking, it always feels like you’re helping an intoxicated friend home from the pub.

This also translates to using the avatar’s arms, as each hand is controlled by one of the triggers, while the bumpers are used to raise their arms above their head. Most of the time this works as it should, but in the event you’re trying to cram two players and a package into one of the vehicles, it becomes cumbersome. You’ll struggle to grab exactly what you’re aiming for, often grabbing the side of the transport, the other player, or really anything but the package and/or the steering apparatus. The controls also felt quite awkward when lifting the package, requiring you to use both the index and middle fingers to hold all of the triggers and bumpers at the same time.

I spent almost the entirety of my time with this game playing cooperatively with my son, who loved this game more than life itself. I am not sure if it’s the fact he’s been cooped up in the house for weeks now due to the stay at home order, or the fact he could mess with me at every turn, but this quickly became his new favorite game. The smile on his face and near-constant laughter made these shortcomings seem nonexistent and resulted in him pissing himself from the gut-busting laughter (a total of four times, or almost every session) every time something went wrong, or he managed to pull me out of a moving helicopter while hanging on for dear life.

If you prefer to take a break from delivering packages, you can explore the open world and find a surprising number of items that can be interacted with and just explore the various islands and towns hidden within the world, each with their own set of challenges and rewards. There’s not much direction aside from the initial encounter with an NPC and the controls popping up on the loading screen. You’re set free to do as you wish, with little to no stress triggers which was a huge turn off for me when it came to the Overcooked series. If you fail, you fail and can start over. If you happen to fall into a pit or body of water, you respawn somewhere on the map and just go on about your day.

In my adventures within the game world, I didn’t run into any game-breaking bugs on the X1 version provided; however, I would like to mention Jason had the opposite experience when playing the PS4 version, as the software completely signed him out of the PSN when he would launch the game. He was able to run the Switch version without many issues though. There were plenty of assets clipping and the token draw distance issue most open-world games face where items pop in and out of view, but nothing that distracted me from the one on one time I had with my kiddo.

There is a wealth of content here if you choose to pursue everything the game has to offer – featuring a ton of unlockable customization options for your avatar, as well as vehicle skins, and well over a hundred deliveries to make. I can’t say I would enjoy the game playing solo, but I would recommend Totally Reliable Delivery Service if you have some little ones in your life. At the very least, it will probably give you a reminder that they need to be bathed every few days.

7 out of 10

Pros

• Low-Stress Version of Overcooked
• Staggering Number of Missions
• Solid Co-Op Play
• Made My Son Piss Himself Out of Joy

Cons

• Made My Son Piss Himself Out of Joy
• Some Minor Control Issues

Totally Reliable Delivery Service was developed by We’re Five Games and published by tinyBuild. It is available on Android, iOS, NS, PC, PS4, and X1. The game was provided to us for review on NS, PS4, and X1. If you’d like to see more of Totally Reliable Delivery Service, check out the game’s official site.

 

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