I know a lot of people that have very specific games that they play to turn their brains off or play because it gives their hands something to do while they focus on other things, and I never really understood it until I put 1000km (and stopped) into TLD.

The simplicity and ease of surviving in this game puts it above just a literal idle clicker or something, but once you get any amount of stored resources you could basically ignore any stops; the driving is what you really need to "pay attention to" because the biggest problem you'll face is some part of your car flying off due to the games janky physics.

The real point of this game though is just to give you something to do if you can't sit still with something else: you could listen to a whole book or long video if you wanted to. Hell, I even finished a whole movie while playing this at one point.

Has the potential to be genuinely amazing. Fun and gimmicky but broken as it is, I hope the dev and I agree on what it is that makes this game good. For me it's how little compromise there is for the player - you CAN totally just lose your car forever and wander on foot til you find a new one. Every little action has to be done in granular little steps - reloading the BB gun forces you to manually open and load it with the mouse. Clunky at first but satisfying to master and makes the gun feel that much more real. Uploading your own road trip music, being able to clean, paint, and maintain your vehicle, having to manually manage your storage as clunky physics items - all these are great details that really make the experience extremely personal and investing. You get out of it what you put in. Right now there are MAJOR hurdles holding it back from its potential (Managing your storage is less rewarding when your items will just clip out of the car sometimes) but hey, it's early access. I hope the game leans harder into the micromanagement angle and maybe fleshes out the survival mechanics, cause it could very well turn out to be a GOAT