The Drifter

The Drifter was provided by Powerhoof for review. Thank you!

I did not go into The Drifter with any real expectations. Usually, when I try out an indie game with a lot of promise, it's after I've done some research or gained knowledge about it. I was living under some rock the last few months because ot has enjoyed an incredibly successful Next Fest campaign, with the demo sitting on Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam.

Although I was familiar with the game before, the point-and-click genre isn’t what I usually play. However, after my time with the game, I can say that its positive preview reception is wholly deserved. The production quality of The Drifter is quite impressive and could be a landmark in how future point-and-click games will be judged. Even I will be judging them!

Things start with an amble as we take on the role of deadbeat vagabond Mick Carter, who is returning to his hometown to attend his mother's funeral. This guy casts a desperately pathetic figure as he had to bum a ride on the back of a train, and the whole atmosphere feeds off that. It is a quite despotic and miserable world that our protagonist finds himself in, and the game does an excellent job of setting the scene. What starts as a simple plot quickly unravels into a quagmire of conspiracy, madness, and a sinister cloud over the city.

Things go downhill very quickly for Mick, and it's one hell of a rollercoaster ride. In the opening hour, I witnessed my train companion get murdered, saw a reporter get dragged away by strange people in military outfits, and even get thrown into a river. All in all, I've had better welcome-home parties.

Mick drowns, but shockingly, that is only the beginning. You can no longer die with a strange, supernatural force reviving you and throwing you back in time to the point before death. Things continue to go out of control for our hopeless protagonist, and he’s thrown into the deep end to work out what’s happening to the city he ran away from. It's deeply compelling, and the narrative is the best part of the game.

Being unable to die is a curse for Mick, who is slowly growing mad from the hallucinations. It becomes a battle to rescue not only his sister from the mysterious killers, but also himself. He’s a hopeless case who has run away from everything that threatened him before, but his literal death and rebirth change his perspective, and the game’s narrative reflects it.

The Drifter features full voice acting, and everyone pulls their weight. I can’t express how well the characters are developed; each person feels real, with their own ambitions and personalities. The worldbuilding is stellar, and the atmosphere completely sucked me in.

Moving on to the gameplay, The Drifter holds up well. While it is a point-and-click game, a surprising amount of depth sets it apart from similar games. By collecting and combining items, you solve environmental puzzles and threats, and the game has many ways to interact with the world. Mick usually has something interesting to say with every interaction, and the puzzles are pretty challenging in places.

It didn't take long for my lack of talent in puzzle games to become apparent. While the game provides numerous tools and intuitive ways to track objectives, its hands-off approach to problem-solving is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, I love how it leaves things to the player, as too many of these point-and-click games hold the player’s hand to the point of wiping their arse for them. However, I’ll admit I was often stumped on how to proceed. I flailed around in every location I could access, trying every combination of items and interactions like a hungover groom on his wedding day until I blundered into the solution. I don’t find this a fault with the game itself, but rather due to my lack of intelligence with puzzle games.

In terms of performance and controls, The Drifter runs like a well-oiled machine. While it lacks critical features, such as key bind changes and graphical customization, it plays and runs well. I ran into a few minor glitches, such as Mick getting caught on some terrain, but after a couple of funny moments with Mick going haywire, they would fix themselves. I had no crashes during my playthrough, which every game should strive for. I was surprised I didn't run into more bugs with all the combinations of items.

This is a modern recreation of how a point-and-click game should be. Excellent writing, solid gameplay, and voice acting make a tasty sandwich. My only downsides have been my confusion in achieving some leads and the handful of animation bugs, but otherwise, this is a rock-solid game.

The Drifter - Steam Deck Performance

While it lacks any graphical settings for us to tinker with, The Drifter is a delightful experience on the Steam Deck. Right out of the box, it works great with standard settings on the OLED Steam Deck (by that, I mean 1280x800 resolution, unlocked TDP, and 90Hz refresh rate). The game also features full controller support, and It should have no problems getting Steam Deck Verified.

Even with stock settings, I found it doesn't require much power. Although the game has some impressive animations and visuals, it has modest pixel art. The power draw does spike during these scenes to around 12 watts. More often than not, however, it averages out around 9 watts. This granted me around 5 hours of battery life on the OLED Steam Deck, a notable improvement. However, we can do better.

推奨設定

To my pleasant surprise, The Drifter scales very well on lower TDPs. Our in-game tools for managing performance are limited to adjusting the frame rate and screen resolution. However, if you are willing to keep it locked to 60 FPS, a 4W TDP limit is the sweet spot between performance and battery life. It maintains a smooth framerate while consuming less than 7 watts with these settings. That’s an extra 2 hours of battery life!

We can further limit the framerate to 30 FPS and a 3-watt TDP, which still provides solid performance and over 8 hours of battery life. You will experience a few frame drops in this mode. However, I prefer my recommended settings. For example, if you want an extra hour of battery life on a long plane flight, The Drifter can accommodate.

Some text can be challenging to read due to the small font size; however, you can enable HD font in settings to alleviate this issue.

アクセシビリティ

Currently, only English and German are available. The accessibility features are somewhat lacking. You can adjust the screen resolution and volume, toggle subtitles, and limit the frame rate in the main options. There are some nice options, such as highlighting interactable areas and turning on HD font, but otherwise, there isn’t much else. Currently, there is no way to change keybindings or controller buttons.

結論

The Drifter is the medicine for those looking for an evolution of the point-and-click genre. The gameplay is solid and supports an excellent narrative featuring great characters and dialogue. I won’t be surprised if this becomes a benchmark for all upcoming games in its genre, and being fully playable on the Steam Deck is the icing on that delicious buttery cake.

このレビューはPC版に基づいています。

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