Heading Out preview [PAX] — Driving Past

Recently, I was lucky enough to attend PAX East, and while I was there I sat down to play Heading Out with the guidance of the developers at Serious Sim. Taking inspiration from 70s road flicks, Heading Out is a heavily stylized roguelite racing game steeped to perfection in the mythos of the American West.

Play as Jackie, a rebellious racer who’s running from his past, which is represented by a creeping red aura, standing out in a world of black, white, and grey. Starting the game will prompt you to select a variety of rumors about you, such as your first love, relationship status, and greatest regret. In addition, the songs played on the radio will be chosen depending on how you answered the questions in the opening.

On top of escaping your past, your goal is to find your way to a legendary racer and challenge them. There are three layers to your quest: racing, managing your resources, and playing story missions. Starting with racing, it feels weighty and dynamic. A song starts playing, and the race will end when the song does. Motion lines appear when you hit higher speeds, really delivering a feeling of velocity and power. The constant oscillation between overtaking your opponent and being overtaken means that you will stay locked in until the end. Even when you’re behind, a shortcut can help you take the lead. Races can get dirty, at one point I PIT maneuvered my opponent to great success. Your rewards for winning are a fistful of cash (mostly ones) and a boost to your fame.

Heading Out wears its comic book inspiration on its sleeve, as the road signs that inform the player of curves and forks pop up as panels on the side of your screen. A panel of your foot hitting the gas appears when you speed up, and when you alarm police or other racers, speech balloons pop up with exclamation marks. The whole experience was thrilling, my heart was racing as often as I was.

Moving on to resource management, it’s a delicate balance. Between races, you’ll be traversing the map by moving your car linearly along one of the main highways between cities. Given that your past is constantly creeping along the highway, you might want to drive faster, but that will cost extra gas money. Run out of cash, and you’ll need to steal to get by, which people don’t take too kindly to. Speeding will also run the risk of getting you in trouble with the police. You can either let them pull you over and hope they don’t recognize you, or kick off an escape sequence. Other stats to keep an eye on include focus and car condition (mine wasn’t too hot after the PIT maneuver), which can be restored for a cost once you reach a city.

While driving along the highway, you could run into any number of story encounters, each with its own enduring narratives and outcomes. One of my favorite encounters was when a mysterious sage in a Vote Nixon hat and his trusty buffalo approached me. He offered me a choice between two figurines, a goat or a boar. The former would increase my fame, and the boar would decrease my wanted level. In the course of 30 seconds, I was baffled, intrigued, and given a free buff—all things I can appreciate.

Every story encounter ties into the Western Mythos theme neatly, giving off an air of freedom with a touch of desolation. Of course, pulling over to hang out with the mystical, the broken, and the famed could cost you time, depending on which dialogue option you go with. The quests also tie into the comic book feel of the game, and it’s no surprise how well it was pulled off given that one of Serious Sim’s founders, Tomasz Pstrągowski, has a PhD in autobiographical comics narration. All in all, I only got to taste a handful of the over 100 story segments, and I’m eager to play more.

Of course, the Western freedom of the road aesthetic would be incomplete without sick jams and a radio. The developers took inspiration from the sounds of Mumford & Sons and Creedence Clearwater Revival, and the resulting soundtrack had me banging my head while drifting into the lead. Then there’s the other side, talk radio. There are plenty of hosts, all of whom have their own opinions and stories to tell. One of the hosts is a cringey teenage girl named Riley who has two things: her own news station called Rainbow Revolution and a lot of headcanon about Jackie. Another host, Steve Landry, is basically a mix of Steve Bannon and Alex Jones. Steve is to Jackie what J. Jonah Jamison is to Spiderman, and frankly, I’m surprised he didn’t call me a road-running menace. That being said, Heading Out does an excellent job of ensuring that these caricatures don’t spin off the tracks and become jarring, as they monologue in short bursts, and you can skip them at any time.

Heading Out is an extremely promising, action-packed racing game with a banger of a soundtrack, a hooking narrative flow, and a strong understanding of its own aesthetics. I’m looking forward to playing more in the future, so stay tuned to GamingTrend for the full review. Heading Out released on May 7th on Steam.

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