CRASH: Autodrive puts players in the of shoes of Emily Knight, a down & out college student who must investigate a murder with three strangers after the self-driving Autocab they are in hits and kills a cyclist. I got the chance to give the game a try and here are my thoughts.
A copy of this game was provided for the purposes of this review.
The gameplay is very straightforward, mostly driven by point-and-click investigation of areas and dialogue choices as you speak with your fellow passengers and learn more about them and their connection to the victim. You’re giving different choices for how to handle information your gather, be it to publicly contradict your companions or speak privately to them. How those choices unfold I’m not certain of, but I imagine how you handle working with the others does effect how willing they are to help you.
The game is diverse with the characters and differing topics associated with them, which I was surprised by. LGBTQ+ representation is there as well as referencing the Black Lives Matter movement. Neither are preachy or shoehorned in awkwardly, as both are relatable to the story to some extent. If these topics have deeper meaning further into the mystery I don’t know, and I’m not sure I’d want them to be necessarily attached so deeply to a murder mystery.
Story wise, the murder-by-AI is interesting and timely. From the start the mystery didn’t seem to be very deep, with the motives being a bit obvious and the method being specific enough to dismiss certain suspects quickly in my opinion. But I can say for certain that, based on how far I have gotten, I don’t have a definitive answer for who the whodunnit is. So while it doesn’t come across as the most complex mystery ever, it is certainly not obvious.
I want to commend the team who created this game as it was quite small, with only three names credited total. And you can’t tell it was a small team game with how smooth and professional the outcome is. It is genuinely quite impressive and you can see they put a lot of care into making a good game.
Overall, CRASH: Autodrive is a well-made game with an interesting premise that any level of sleuth can find enjoyment in. It’s not overly complex but it still has a solid mystery worth exploring to learn more about not only the suspects but the victim too.
You can currently grab a copy from Steam.
