‘Ship At All Prices’ is nearly the ‘Simpsons: Hit & Run’ successor I’ve at all times wished

It is already been a jam-packed 12 months for gaming, and that is why I feel Ship At All Prices will not get practically as a lot consideration as the opposite huge titles that already launched in 2025 (in addition to these to come back). Flanked on both facet by the releases of Doom: The Darkish Ages and Elden Ring Nightreign, it appears like Far Out Video games’ Konami-published debut is destined to be overshadowed. And whereas I do not suppose that Ship At All Prices is a few diamond within the tough that can overcome this summer season’s stacked launch calendar, I do suppose it is properly price a weekend playthrough.

Ship At All Prices is messy however plain enjoyable.

The setup

Set in a fictional and embellished model of Fifties America, Ship At All prices places you within the sneakers of Winston Inexperienced, a person on the run from his mysterious previous and the latest courier at Amazon-adjacent transport firm We Ship. By way of unconventional, quirky cargo deliveries and pickups that depart the sport’s eccentric open world in disarray (and in some instances, literal shambles), you will uncover Winston’s secrets and techniques and a sinister company conspiracy.

Chaos, however the good form

On a number of events, Ship At All Prices jogged my memory of taking part in by classics like The Simpsons: Hit & Run and early Grand Theft Auto once I was a child, and I imply that as a large praise. The sport’s total wackiness and dynamism introduced me again to these cherished gaming moments, besides this time, I bought to expertise them with a means brisker coat of paint and a contemporary physics system that offered me with hours of gleeful mayhem.

Over the course of Ship At All Prices‘ 20 missions, I encountered a solid of zany characters who all wanted my assist finishing some actually wild duties. Each has its personal distinctive mechanic that wildly adjustments the way you method every supply. Certainly one of my favorites noticed me transporting an assortment of balloons to would-be prospects, however every time my automotive hit a small bump within the street, I might go hovering by the air with no management, Up-style. One other concerned hauling a dwell marlin throughout the town to the native fish market whereas the large sea creature thrashed round in my trunk, throwing the car off track at each flip. A few of these errands fall flat, although — a number of are far too simple, whereas others offered a pointy problem spike. It is a disgrace that essentially the most disappointing ones occur in the direction of the sport’s conclusion, ending all the things on a little bit of a bitter word. Nonetheless, the highs of this assortment of missions outweigh the lows.

The completely ludicrous physics system is one other excessive level that basically enhances the enjoyable. Ship‘s detailed open world takes you throughout three distinctive areas, all of them utterly destructible right down to their final brick. Each dwelling, storefront, and high-rise might be decreased to rubble, sending particles (and typically civilians — don’t fret, they get again up) flying within the course of. The destruction is usually only for enjoyable — you’ll be able to go the entire sport with out deliberately inflicting any harm — however you would be robbing your self of many of the pleasure that the sport has to supply. There are penalties to toppling too many constructions, although, because the police will start to pursue you if you happen to get too carried away. I feel this method might’ve been minimize, although, as a result of it is means too simple to lose the warmth as soon as they’re on you are tail, making it extra of a fast chore than an exhilarating chase.

Every space can be plagued by collectibles, secret automobiles, facet missions, and challenges to interrupt up the tempo, however sadly, not a lot of them are price going out of your technique to expertise. The one time I felt that exploration was rewarding was once I hopped out of my car to have a look at the sport’s many vista factors, which brings you right down to Winston’s stage to admire the rigorously crafted environments that the devs labored so exhausting to deliver to life. Sadly, these on-foot sections are a bit boring and stiff-feeling, which is not helped by the sport’s dual-angle isometric view — I failed platforming sections time and again just because I could not get a deal with on the place my character was dealing with at a given second, which turned irritating. The POV works means higher whereas driving, which is why I principally stopped exiting my automotive.

The on-foot moments are a pleasant change of tempo, no less than for some time.
Credit score: Far Out Video games / Konami

I might even be remiss to not point out the well-realized Fifties aesthetic of the world, from the clothes, to the automobiles, to the rating — I even discovered myself buzzing alongside to a couple of the tunes whereas I wreaked havoc throughout city. I form of bought Destroy All People vibes from the sport’s world, however total, I favored this higher

A critical case of shedding the plot

Ship At All Prices‘ most notable weak point is its narrative. It is in every single place, stuffed with reckless style hopping and jarring tone switches that left me feeling hole on the finish of all of it. Beginning as an amusing and lighthearted office comedy, the sport shortly devolves right into a disjointed story of company conspiracy, to… properly, I will not spoil it for you, but it surely goes utterly off the rails.

The story’s sharp turns create an enormous downside for the precise gameplay, too. There are a number of situations throughout the narrative the place the sport’s characters expertise dangerous penalties, together with violence and, in some instances, even dying. Now, on its face, that is not an issue, however in a sport the place you’ll be able to comedically ragdoll a pedestrian with a truck, just for them to say “Ow!” and rise up and go on with their day, these moments really feel fairly dissonant. It is like if a Benny Hill Present sketch was sandwiched between scenes from Michael Clayton. It simply would not work. Ship At All Prices is at its finest when it is embracing its personal absurdity, and I feel that Far Out Video games made a mistake by not following that wacky spirit all through.

Nothing to see right here! Everybody go about your day.
Credit score: Far Out Video games / Konami

With Ship At All Prices, Far Out Video games has actually proven that it has the technical prowess to make a sport that is enjoyable and distinctive. Hopefully, with their subsequent at-bat, they’ll construct on what they’ve discovered of their debut and provide you with a story, in addition to supplementary content material, to match their genuinely satisfying gameplay.

Ship At All Prices is accessible now on Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Collection X/S, Epic Video games, and GOG.