ROAD TRIPPIN'

Strap in for a surreal ride across the American midwest in HITCHHIKER.

- Robert Zak

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?

A surreal narrative-driven game following a hitchhiker

EXPECT TO PAY £11

DEVELOPER Mad About Pandas

PUBLISHER Versus Evilz

REVIEWED ON Ryzen 7 5800H,Nvidia GeForce 3080, 16GB RAM

MULTIPLAYER No

LINK hitchhiker-game.com

I’m strapped into the passenger seat of a car somewhere in the American midwest. I don’t know how I got here, just like I don’t know how I’ll end up alongside the next four drivers I hitch a ride with in Hitchhiker. In an even vaguely real-world context, this scenario could be a little alarming, given how vulnerable I am as an amnesiac hitchhiker with no sense of direction.

But as soon my driver, a raisin farmer called Vern, starts musing about everything from relationships to philosophical raisin-based analogies, a wave of comfort washes over me and I’m all aboard for the ride – wherever it may take me.

Why our protagonist is hitchhiking across America will eventually become clear (sort of ). But while I’m riding shotgun with this procession of philosopher-drivers ruminating about everything from relationships to ageing, to the strange world that exists beneath shopping mall escalators, the protagonist’s own story about his relationship troubles takes a backseat.