The stylish and abrasive world of Desert Child was an interesting project to play through, if a little too repetitive and thin. You go around a small town, and eventually a larger city, attempting to make money and win the interstellar hoverbike Grand Prix. It’s certainly designed in a unique fashion, as it was developed largely by one guy. The racing doesn’t really evolve the way I was hoping, but it’s fun none the less. The chill soundtrack perfectly fits the mood and tone of the game, and it has a strong sense of style – but it’s a little too repetitive for my tastes.

Desert Child is an a game I played about an hour of before shelving about a 3rd of the way through. Which makes it very strange that I'd probably reccomend the experience a great deal. I think this comes down to the fact that while Desert Child's core game loop is not great, it does so many other things so well or at least interestingly that it's worth checking out for the unique experience alone.

The game opens with the protagonist trying to get off earth, now in the far future existing as a barren desert mostly void of life (apart from loners on hoverbikes), through scraping together enough cash (by racing hoverbikes) to get to mars, the new frontier of humanity, in order to win a hover bike Grand Prix. If you've noticed the theme, almost all conflicts within desert child are resolved entirely through high-speed hoverbike races including money matches, pizza delivery, and hacking into corporate data vaults. The formula for each in-game day generally follows the formula of doing a maintenence task or too such as eating or fixing/upgrading the bike before hopping on the bike for another death defying thrill ride.

I'm not going into the fairly mediocre bike gameplay itself for fear of writing longer than it took me to play the game but also because the real meat of desert child lies more in it's little moments.

The moment when you finally make it to mars is overwhelming in a way I've rarely seen in games. Until now, all you've known are three stores on a tiny strip in the desert. Now the city expands all around you instantly. In a initially bizzare design decision, Desert Child lacks any kind of map and switches camera angle Resi style whenever you enter a new street, disorienting you and making it easy to get lost in the urban sprawl. This is fustrating at first but after a few in game days you'll start to learn which streets interconnect, gaining a mental map of how to traverse your enviroment.

I can understand that this decision isn't going to be appreciated by most players but as someone discontent with modern open world design, specifically waypoint based navigation, it was refreshing to be forced to think about direction and navigation. Choices like this are what adds to the life and feeling of Desert Child's city. There are secrets in every nook and cranny of it's world that beckon to the player and I just wish this sort of immersive depth extended to it's actual core gameplay.

Once you get to mars itself, you're asked to raise $10'000 cash in order to buy a ticket into the Grand Prix. When I got to this point I realized that I'd have to do about 50 races to just buy the ticket without factoring in repairs and eating so I decided I had had my fill. Overall, Desert Child isn't very great as an actual game but if you're interested in the medium of games and how they can present themselves I think it's worth a look.

A game cannot consist of music alone.

Alas, the main "racing" gameplay consists of a couple of primitive mechanics, and repeating the same races 50 times is unbearably difficult, I completed the game with multiple runs, there is also no plot, you just need to save up 10k $, relief - if you put everything in the bank, then $ is accumulating quite quickly, I managed to pass the game in 3.5 hours, but it felt like I had been playing for 6 hours already.

Between 1-minute races we have a small survival simulator here, you have to walk, buy food, fix the bike, you can upgrade it (but these upgrades do not give anything significant), you can try to earn money somehow differently, by taking the race to kill the opponent or delivery of pizza. "Cyberpunk" pixel city is made ok.

Refund this game calmly, even in the final there will be just 3 ordinary races and credits, but the game’s soundtrack is really unusual, although it’s not “perfected”, well, it’s not surprising, the game has no idea, just a talented composer decided, well I’ll write something nice, and I’ll make the most simple game for it, well, something will come of it, such a "chill-game", better buy the soundtrack separately)

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Игра не может состоять из одной лишь музыки
Увы, но основной "гоночный" геймплей состоит из пары примитивных механик, и повторять 50 раз одни и теже гонки невыносимо трудно, я прошёл игру с нескольких заходов, сюжета тут также никакого нет, вам просто надо накопить 10к $, благо если класть всё в банк, то копится всё достаточно быстро, сумел пройти за 3,5 часа, а казалось, что играю уже часов 6.

Между 1-минутными гонками у нас тут небольшой симулятор выживания, вам надо ходить, покупать еду, чинить байк, можно прокачивать его (но эти апгрейды ничего существенного не дают), можно попытаться как-то ещё заработать деньги, взяв гонку на убийство оппонента или развоз пиццы. "Киберпанковский" пиксельный город сделан более менее.

Эту игру спокойно рефандите, даже в финале будет просто 3 обычные гонки и титры, а вот соундтрек у игры действительно необычный, хоть и "не дожатый", ну неудивительно, идейно то игра мало из себя что-то представляет, просто талантливый композитор решил ну напишу чёт прикольное, и сделаю максимально простую игру под это, ну чёт получится, для "чилла" сойдёт, купите лучше соундтрек отдельно)

I was surprised by how this short game packed such a lengthy amount of gameplay and even lore. I consider this game an example of how to build a narrative from various, scattered pieces of its world. Even if getting currency in the game seemed to be the main objective, I found fun in poking between the stores and seeing so many different persons walking around. There were moments I saw myself living in this (awful) world and, even through the hardships, I thought it would at least be interesting to live in such a sincere world.

The gameplay is fast paced and fragmented, the kind you can freely leave and pick again, but I just couldn’t resist to keep playing it! During my short playthrough, I glimpsed an intricate system to improve the racing segments and I’m looking forward to getting back to it and get good at it.

I think Desert Child was appealing to me because of its sincere, humble approach to a racing game with a plot full of references to current affairs, while also keeping it cheery and fun.