Road to Guangdong
From developers Just Add Oil comes Road to Guangdong, a road-trip simulator where you play as Sunny, a recent art graduate travelling across China with aunt Guu Ma to collect recipes from various members of the Tong family. Sunny has just inherited the family restaurant - and car, lovingly nicknamed Sandy - after her father Ba Ba’s passing, and it’s these recipes that could be the key to saving the restaurant.
Much of the gameplay consists of driving from one point to the next, keeping a close eye on the petrol level as well as ensuring that Sandy is in decent running condition, after all - you don’t really have the funds to keep up with expensive breakdown costs and repairs. Periodically you will be able to stop off at scrap yards in order to replace any poor condition parts. It becomes a checklist of sorts: how’s the petrol doing, is the engine temperature okay, what needs replacing? Luckily most things to check can be seen within the car, however a quick stop to check under the hood is required every now and then to make sure everything is in tip-top shape. Garages are a godsend too as they can result in a little bit of profit-making from any excess scrap picked up on your journey, and a little bit of extra cash always comes in handy in case of an emergency. Running out of cash or crashing (bumping would be a more appropriate term) into anything will cause a Game Over, requiring you to restart, so you’re definitely better being safe than sorry.
There’s something very relaxing about playing RtG, as the road-trip itself takes up a large part of what you’ll do. Bonding with Guu Ma, and reconnecting with distant family members allows for a slight variation of gameplay in that you will have a bit of control over responses in conversation. Some of the worse options can result in family members shunning your request, something which is immediately noticeable during the end of the game. At times this relaxing nature morphs into a more tedious one, which is more than a tad disappointing.
The soundtrack within Road to Guangdong consists of a few simple, peaceful tracks on one of the two in-car radio stations, and more lively music on the other. The peaceful tracks definitely felt way more suited to the scenery and simplicity of the journey, so I stuck with that station for the most part. Roads are very quiet, actually too quiet, which is a little bit jarring as it would have added a little bit of interest to see lots of other cars passing by. Instead you only get the occasional point of interest on the road, with much of the rest being repetitively placed trees and phone-lines. You’re also pretty much forced to drive slowly in order to conserve fuel, as driving too fast will turn your already gas-guzzling car into a bottomless pit, which makes things feel more tedious as you inch along the long stretches of road.
The game can be completed in approximately four hours, so it’s a relatively quick game to complete. I feel that it could have done with being a little shorter just from being able to drive a bit faster than the pitiful speed I was at, that way you still get the same experience, just a tiny bit more fun! Priced at £16.74 on Xbox One, it seems quite expensive for what it is, so I’d recommend holding on for a discount unless you’re really in the mood for a slow, peaceful journey through China.
In the end, we decided to give Road to Guangdong the Collecting Asylum rating of 5.5/10.
Have you played Road to Guangdong yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Excalibur Games for the Road to Guangdong Xbox One review code!
