WHAT THE CAR? was provided by Triband for review. Thank you!
Triband is a unique developer to me. They make distinct games, taking normal ideas and going crazy with them. In their first game, they decided to turn Golf into one of the most hilarious experiences by making it about anything other than golf. Now, their next game is taking another concept and going into the absurd almost immediately, and it all revolves around a car. After playing it, I can say WHAT THE CAR? is an essential game to your libraries, especially if you enjoy good humor, enjoyable gameplay, and an adorable aesthetic.
It's hard to pinpoint exactly what kind of game WHAT THE CAR? is because the gameplay constantly changes from one level to the next. The bulk of the levels will be trying to get from one end to the other, avoiding obstacles with level-specific abilities like boosting or jumping. However, we also have levels where you can take it easy and make a burger or mow a lawn. It's all over the place, but there is one constant: You are a car.
The levels are separated into themed Episodes, and your car will morph in some way in each area. You start as a car with legs running around, but at the next level, you could easily be a bowling ball, a car with three giraffes hanging out the windows, or a car acting like an accordion. Each version of the car behaves differently and has a different ability you can use to propel yourself towards the goal, and they all feel very distinctive.
With each area's specific theme, every level feels special to some degree. From the snowy mountains riding skis to the mountainous regions with ridiculously long legs, each level is a joy to play and feels engaging in new ways. I loved figuring out how to manipulate my newly morphed car and navigate the landscapes differently. A nice amount of replayability is involved, with cards to collect, times to beat, and user-generated levels to play through. It can feel a little aggravating to try to get a better time as well, but I think that's half the fun, and I loved finding little shortcuts I could take to get better times.
Some of WHAT THE CAR?'s levels completely change the gameplay, albeit not as many as the main loop. Some levels will see you flipping burgers, others could see you mowing lawns, and even one had me chopping fruits and vegetables. These levels didn't overstay their welcome, and it was a nice change of pace from the usual mechanics that I was used to.
To get to each level, you must go through the overworld, which I found mostly tedious. It took a decent amount of time to get from level to level, and with each level having separated episodes that you have to take Minecarts to get to, it felt like a nuisance most of the time. I wanted to go quickly from level to level, and I just ended up disliking traveling back and forth to different episodes to backtrack and try to get better times. The overworlds have cool designs, but some can be downright obnoxious. Like in Episode 5, you have to go across a spinning wheel to get to levels, and you can fall off the wheel and have to go through it again just to get to another level! It is a bit ridiculous.
Even still, roaming through the world and levels is just a joy. From the cars to the bears and giraffes, every character has a cutesy design that I love. The world itself feels pretty joyful, and the use of minimalistic 3D landscapes with nice colors is just a great combination. It's Triband's distinct style, and I don't think they need to change a thing. That, along with the popping music, makes this a joy to play and experience, even with a ridiculous transition to new levels.
And yes, the game is great to play on the Steam Deck.
Even though the game uses a minimalist 3D art style, I still had my worries about how well it would run on the Steam Deck. I have seen games that look like this struggle to some degree, and I was a little worried. Luckily, that worry was for nothing since WHAT THE CAR? is a fantastic experience on the Steam Deck, albeit with one minor change I would make.
The game runs like a charm without any changes, easily hitting 90 FPS on the OLED Steam Deck, but I noticed one issue: Battery drain. When you are in levels, the game runs extremely well and smoothly, with an average 11W battery drain, but in the overworld, some pockets can go up to 18W - 19W. This is a bit too much for me, so I decided to see if the game would be better at 60 FPS and a TDP limit, and it was great. This brought the battery drain down to 8W in levels, with an 11.5W maximum in the overworld (average around 9.5W).
The game feels very smooth in the levels, but I did feel some stuttering in the overworld. I also felt this at 90 FPS, but it wasn't as apparent. Thankfully, this isn't an issue when at a level, so you will feel everything at a buttery-smooth pace when you really need stability.
There aren't a ton of options to change in the game. You can play the tutorial at any time, change language and controller rumble, toggle screen shake, change audio sliders, and choose different save slots, but that's about it.
Luckily, the game does have 16:10 resolution support, as well as controller and cloud save support. There are no HDR settings.
WHAT THE CAR? is quite possibly one of my favorite games I have played this year. Every single level was a blast to play, and with the smaller minigame breaks and the fantastic aesthetic, I can't get enough of it. I do wish navigating the overworld was a bit faster and less fragmented, but even with this, I still say the game is amazing. It drains a little more on Steam Deck than I would like, but a 60 FPS lock with a TDP limit fixes that up and still feels great to play.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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WHAT THE CAR? is a fantastic game that feels engaging on each level and has a cute aesthetic I couldn't get enough of. It's also a great experience on the Steam Deck.
