Adding to the current resurgence of synthwave and retro-futuristic themes, comes Night Drive VR; a music-based driving game that takes elements from the aforementioned aesthetics and soundscapes. You can drive to your own music, but there are several excellent tracks in the game already that suit the theme and mood.

The soundtrack is pretty much the only good thing about this release. The controls are just awful, and to make matters worse very little is explained. I spent several frustrating minutes trying to figure out why I couldn't control anything in the car, only to realize that I had to yank one hand away from the in-game joystick to do anything. I tried multiple times to adjust the color of the car, but nothing that I did managed to work for that, either.

So the main goal of Night Drive VR is to drive and collect little green balls. If you get 20 of these, you can go to the main menu and unlock a prize. The pick-ups have one of the smallest hit boxes known to man, and you have to be exactly on top of one to get it to pick up; meaning your body has to be ON the ball... not slightly to either side, and it doesn't matter if the car actually touches it or not... YOU have to touch it.

So after collecting 20 of these suckers, I push the button to go to the main menu and I hit "yes". I was returned to the main menu with no collectibles. Turns out hitting "yes" means that you want to exit to the main menu WITHOUT your green balls. You're supposed to hit "no". What the ever. loving. hell. is that all about? That really needs to be changed, I don't even know why it's a thing. So I went and collected another 20 of these things, only to be given... three Steam achievements. I didn't see any collectible I could put on my dashboard.

To make matters worse, when you crash the car you're greeted with an insanely loud noise of glass breaking. This sound is above and beyond any other effect in the game; the blip from ball pick-ups? Barely hear it. The soundtrack? It's on point. Needless to say, my aversion to this ear-shattering noise made me git gud real quick so I wouldn't have to hear it ever again.

What Night Drive VR is trying to accomplish can be appreciated, but the game is seriously lacking polish. It'd fair much better as a $5-8 game that has more love put into it rather than a $3 title that feels cheap and rewardless. The environments would be a lot better if they weren't so dark and had more neon elements, rather than floating stamps that mimick signs which cannot even be crashed into. It's really a shame, since the concept is so promising.

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The developer provided a free copy of this game for review, through The VR Network's Curation page.

This is basically an endless runner where you collect objects (green balls) in night environments. You can play your own music or the in-game default files. I found the in-game soundtrack to be enjoyable for this type of motif. The gameplay is set at your own pace so it's very relaxing and non-stressful unless you go full speed.

There is no punishment for going slow or fast, other than it taking longer to collect more balls. You collect them to unlock prizes to place on the dash of your car. You can also open up the moon roof, which was a nice touch. You are encouraged to play the game seated and a 2 sensor setup (standing room only) setup is all you need.

My main problem with the game is the operation of the vehicle. The default arcade operation is almost not workable on the Oculus Touch controllers. You have to press click and the direction of travel to move car. One hand is for faster or slower. The other hand is for left or right. That is a horrible control scheme, even on HTC vive wands. The alternative setting is the one I recommend you change to. One motion controller acts as the speed by clicking forward on it. And then on either hand you can twist your wrists left or right to make the vehicle turn left or right.

This took a little bit of time to get used to, but I ended up easily controlling the vehicle with this control scheme. Then it's just a matter of how fast you want to go. I found going half speed was the most pleasant. Anything slower and you feel like you're going at a snail's pace and anything much faster, and you will have trouble collecting the green balls.

The first environment is a a night city with building and signs and you can see some air cars passing by that don't effect your driving. The second environment is a dark desolate space with these poles at the side. I didn't get much farther, because I crashed on an invisible obstacle / boundary. It was very disappointing to have to quit the game under these circumstances after getting the hang of the unintuitive driving.

I actually played Audio Drive Neon and I like that game better than this one (I'm still working on the review for that game, need to play it more). That game, however, you have to really focus on the driving and can be very difficult where this is a more relaxed ride. I found the interface to be very clunky. Getting my own music to play took longer than expected just because of the way the file explorer was setup.

The game is only $3. I think its' worth that. But just barely. There's just too much clunkiness. The game really needs a steering wheel you can grab to go forward. How about pressing the grab button to grab unto the steering wheel when close and then trigger to speed up and A or X to slow down. Just a thought.

Rate 5.5/10 A cool way to listen to your music for $3. Just beware all the clunkiness in game and the crashing into invisible objects/ boundaries in the second level/ environment.

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Poor driving controls with either option, no sound whatsoever in the game other than the music, the engine running (only one engine sound, whether you're going 100 mph across the city or just sitting still), and a very loud crashing sound when you.. well, crash. There's a volume wheel, but if you try to lower the music that also lowers the sound of the engine.

All you do is drive through a (randomly generated?) city that has all of one or two building types. It's extremely bland. There's nothing else really going on, other than silent cars flying by you.

All of this lead me to think, "oh this must just be an early access title," but I don't see any early access warning on the store page, and there hasn't been a patch since March.

I can't recommend this game in it's current state. It's barebones and I don't think it's even worth the $3. There's so little going on in this game, even if all you want to do is cruise around a cyberpunk city with some music playing, you'll have a hard time getting immersed. Some decent car engine and ambient city sound effects would go a long way, at the very least.

Edit: I've just discovered it's also completely free on VivePort. Another reason not to waste your money on this game, just go play it for free over there, though it's still a waste of time.

Thrown together shovelware. This should not be on steam...

It's ok for just listening to music. But the controls feels weird.