Summary

• Bold world design with black and white aesthetic draws the eye.
• Roguelite mechanics and choose your own adventure narrative are appealing.
• Solid racing with some AI issues and unique music integration.

Video games can often reach interesting places when they throw together seemingly disparate ideas. Whether it's the blend of deep sea exploration and restaurant management sim in the delightful Dave The Diver or the co-op smorgasbord of the wonderful It Takes Two, some truly enjoyable experiences can be found in these crossovers. Enter Heading Out from developer Serious Sim and publisher Saber Interactive, which takes an interesting approach to the racing game.

Heading Out is a game about escape, with the player taking on the role of a driver trying to run away from a nebulous fear. The title pieces together short form road racing with roguelite mechanics and a choose your own adventure narrative structure. The end result is something very engaging and rather replayable.

Bold World Design

A Focus On Black & White Matches Well With The Atmosphere

The first thing players will notice about Heading Out is its striking visual design. The game is in black and white, with an unrealistic, cartoonist flair, offset with occasional pockets of vibrant yellow, red, and sometimes blue. Other games have done similar before, but Heading Out nails the balance well, especially with the use of color to indicate different aspects of gameplay without it feeling intrusive.

It creates an excellent atmosphere, and Serious Sim offsets the concern about it feeling the same through other design elements in the races, with the locations shifting from marshland to farms to winding hilly roads. Meanwhile, the diversity of songs on the radio provides plenty of further variety, covering all sorts of classic genres to further enhance the ambiance. It definitely gives the atmosphere of a road trip, even if it's a rather intense one most of the time.

Players should keep an eye on their fuel consumption, as being unable to pay to refuel can lead to some awkward moments down the line. You can always make more cash with road races.

All of this ties into one of the core influences of Heading Out, that of the classic road movie. The game certainly matches his dynamic, from its racing to radio presenters that give an ongoing narration a la The Warriors, although that particular element maybe doesn't quite live up to the overall quality thanks to a repetition of DJ sequences that breaks immersion a little.

A Rogue Racer

Choose Your Own Adventure and Roguelite Elements Work Well With Racing

The game's atmosphere all ties heavily into the game's more roguelite mechanics, feeling more like an adventure than a rigid, pure racing experience. Referring to Heading Out as a roguelike isn't quite right, as it has more of a fluid approach and lacks the brutality that often connects to the roguelike genre, but nonetheless, it utilizes that same gameplay loop of retrying for progression and experiencing something different with every playthrough.

Heading Out shines the most when it taps into the idea that there are many varied strands of story and scenario to find. It acts similarly to the counterculture of Road 96, albeit within a very different genre, but with that same drive to uncover every snippet and meet every other character in the game. Meanwhile, the player can make choices to define their own history, dreams, and fears, which adds different flavor text throughout the game.

Heading Out is a road rather than a circuit racer, and calls back to such classics as the Outrun series and Road Rash in particular.

From a gameplay perspective, Heading Out then maintains tension through limited resources, such as money to buy petrol and wanted levels of the police to remain incognito and avoid further car chases. Meanwhile, the player is constantly being pursued by "fear", which is engulfing all the US behind where the player is going. Some of these resource management elements are more successful than others, with the "Focus" bar that leads to the player closing their eyes in races being a bit of a frustrating example, which feels like something to slow the player's progress rather than build tension.

Hard Driving

Solid Racing With A Few Quirks

Of course, a racing game still relies on having strong moment to moment racing to be successful, regardless of the extra gameplay structures around it. Here, Heading Out also achieves what it needs to, albeit with some flaws that stop it from becoming a must-have racing game. That said, these issues are relatively minor, and therefore some may be willing to entirely overlook them, while others may find these quibbles annoying rather than a dealbreaker.

In of similar games, Heading Out is a road rather than a circuit racer, and calls back to such classics as the Outrun series and Road Rash in particular, thanks to its emphasis on dodging traffic and barriers, and jumping via bumps in the road. Races are short and sweet, matching the length of the song choice from the radio, and the tie to music means it will be very difficult for them to wear out their welcome. It's actually quite a thrill to spot the timer ticking down and recognize it'll tie into the wider music, rather than an arbitrary finish line.

That said, there are some issues with the racing in general. Other drivers, whether opposing racers, cops, or simply the wider traffic minding its own business, are a little lacking in the AI department, being too easy to race or struggling to respond accordingly to aggressive driving. This is partially mitigated by rubber banding, although this rubber banding perhaps goes too far the other way, with a player who leaves an opponent in the dust seeing that opponent reappearing behind them very quickly if they get too far ahead.

Our Review Score & Final Thoughts

4/5 Stars - "Excellent"

Heading Out is an interesting racing game that blends narrative-driven elements successfully. The moment to moment gameplay is serviceable at the very least, with sections of real strength, but the experience is truly elevated by the game's atmosphere and structure. It won't be for everyone, but those who enjoy a title that tries to hybridize different ideas that shouldn't necessarily work together will certainly come to appreciate its full and compelling world.

Screen Rant was provided with a PC code for the purposes of this review.