Dustland Delivery plays like a funny, tough, post-apocalyptic Oregon Trail

Road trips with just two people always have their awkward silences. In Dustland Delivery, my character, a sharpshooter, has tried to break the ice with the blacksmith he hired a few towns back, with only intermittent success. Remember that bodyguard, the one I unsuccessfully tried to flirt with at that bar? The blacksmith was uninterested. What about that wily junk dealer, or the creepy cemetery? Silence. She only wanted to discuss "Abandoned train" and "Abandoned factory," even though, in this post-apocalypse, abandonment was not that rare. But I made a note to look out for any rusted remains; stress and mood are far trickier to fix than hunger and thirst.

Dustland Delivery, available through Steam for Windows (and Proton/Steam Deck), puts you in the role typically taken up by NPCs in other post-apocalyptic RPGs. You're a trader, buying cheap goods in one place to sell at a profit elsewhere, and working the costs of fuel, maintenance, and raider attacks into your margins. You're in charge of everything on your trip: how fast you drive, when to rest and set up camp, whether to approach that caravan of pickups or give them a wide berth. Some of you, the types whose favorite part of The Oregon Trail was the trading posts, might already be sold. For the others, let me suggest that the game is stuffed full of little bits of weird humor and emergent storytelling, and a wild amount of replayability for what is currently a $5 game. There are three quest-driven scenarios, plus a tutorial, in the base game. A new DLC out this week, Sheol, adds underground cities, ruins expeditions, more terrains, and a final story quest for four more dollars.

Driven to survive

I'm about five hours into this game, and so far, like Steam reviewers, my impressions are Very Positive. The interface is pixellated and a bit irregular, forcing you to learn where to click to get out of different screens. The tutorial mission is helpful to get started, but you'll definitely have to discover a lot of mechanics and failure states by trial and error. The basic gameplay loop, however, seems well-tested and considered. Dustland Delivery plays like a mix of FTL: Faster than Light and the overland travel mechanics of fantasy RPGs, mixed with the random encounters and gritty humanity of the 2D Fallout titles. You're constantly taking risks and running imprecise calculations. Should you push your truck's tire wear and engine coolant, and your team's hunger and fatigue, to make a big score on quail meat so that you can upgrade your hull armor? Or will that put you in a part of the map where fuel costs a lot and the terrain slows you down? How much virus exposure will you risk for a shortcut through the main quest? All that, too, is before you establish your own settlement, staffed by your truck's crew, later in the game. Dustland Delivery will pull you in for some long sessions, but it easily fits into work breaks and "Just one more city" sprints, on just about any PC that can run Steam. Jump in the cab, haul some goods, and ask your cabmates later what they think of those mutants you fought 300 kilometers back.