the controls are just clunky and the car feels horrible to drive. also the achievements are asking WAYY too much i really dont wanna spend that much time on this game.

i guess the games cheap

It's a toss-away game. TBH. Just semi-poorly coded pixels. While it can be mildly entertaining something of a bit of mediocre fun. It certainly is not worth retail price(thankfully only 2 bucks at full price, but you may have more fun at a gumball machine). Very little depth, or breadth. And while I don't dislike or hate it, it simply isn't that good, granted with some mild re-playability. It is soon apparent that this is, simply it. Mobs are able to spawn nearly directly beneath the vehicle. And at all times they despawn distant mobs that you escape from for them re-appear right next to you. Getting and using repairs is almost a given no(In a game where you cannot afford to sit still). And tracking projectiles. For the reduced price I paid, all-in-all not a total loss, it will charm briefly, it just wears thin quickly. I just can't 'recommend' it to someone w/o a deep discount, and some disclaimers.

Howard Phillips Lovecar may pull you in with its intriguing art and Lovecraft theme, but it doesn't feel like a complete project.

The controls are loose and unpolished. Remapping the controller isn't concise; on top of buttons being triple mapped. This ends up having you quickly overrun each session (high difficulty).
Not optimized for 5.1 speakers; The sound is not balanced among the speakers and seems to come out haphazardly. It doesn't add to the ambiance, it's just distracting overall. Also, sound effects in the menu only come out of the rear speakers. Furthermore there is no music despite there being a very deliberate music volume level in settings.
Quick look at the leaderboards; the differences in score are obviously hacked/modded players. Does it really matter though if selecting tournament mode does nothing but exit (crash) the game?

Overall the game resembles a school project, an incomplete idea that would better serve the F2P bin.

Pros:
+ Interesting art style

Cons:
- Bad controls
- Bad Audio Overall (Also no music?!)
- Too simple yet high difficulty

Despite the price point, and distinctive visuals, I think it's held back from being worth the time playing it.
The audio sounds like it is in need of balancing, and the core loop gets old quick. It feels like a proof of concept or game jam entry in desperate need of a few more iterations. Additionally there are what feel like game breaking physics issues where you can either get trapped inside or next to one of the monsters or knocked out of one of the garages.

In general, it feels like something that would have been a hit on Armor Games or iOS circa 2012. Even at $1.99 I think you should give this one a pass.

Cool art style and idea but failed in the execution. Feels very empty, very repetitive, and i constantly die with no obvious cause.

Howard Philips Lovecar works well as a game made for a game jam but as a complete steam game it doesn't. I remember playing it years ago and thinking "what an interesting gameplay" but that was it, I dropped the game after some minutes.

I recently bought the game, knowing of the updates that tried to add more content with power ups, "tried" is the key word because it really didn't achieve anything. The game still feels like a prototype, it has a shallow gameplay and the "difficulty" scalates very fast that only consists of spawning the same enemies over and over again.

Think of the game as a donation for the indie studio, but don't think of having more than a few minutes of fun.

As of June 2017, Howard Phillips Lovecar is woefully underbaked; at this point it doesn't even feel like a proof-of-concept demo. Where to begin - I'll just make a list of things:

• No controller support, and its just the keyboard arrow keys which doesn't feel good.
  
• Takes *forever* for the real enemies to actually spawn.
  
• The artwork is not really interesting the color palette leaves something to be desired.
  
• Something bothers me about doing doughnuts with the car and the circles are perfect. I feel like there should be a bit of play in them.
  
• It all just feels hastily put together with little care and thought, which is perhaps the most important point. The store page states that it is trying to imitate Devil Daggers. Well, games in that niche category have one thing in common - complete attention to every last single minute detail. Every design decision is there for a reason, which makes it all work so great. I don't feel that here.
  
• The world feels empty. There are no obstacles or buildings or even terrain. Just one flat color as far as the eye can see. And two types of enemies - bipedal dudes, and those giant monster circle-ish things you see in the screenshots. Yawn.
  
• One side of the car shoots a shotgun, and one shoots a machine gun. Both have oversized bullets that could look better. Both are fairly boring. That is arguably an interesting mechanic, but I'll pass.
  
• As far as imitating GTA, I get that - but the cars in GTA had better physics and 'weight'. It still doesn't give the game legs to stand on.
  
  I know I know it's only a buck. Trust me, put that dollar into Devil Daggers or Tormentor X Punisher or any number of quality arena shooters that have much more polish.
  
  Thanks for reading,