The Drifter Is An Upcoming Carpenter-Inspired Adventure Game With Killer Pixel Art
Slathered in several layers of pixelated pulp, The Drifter is an upcoming point-and-click adventure game that cites King, Carpenter, and Crichton as influences, something clear in its synthy score and genre fiction setup. Its demo (which will be available during next month’s Steam Next Fest) begins as Mick, the protagonist, delivers his backstory via hard-boiled monologue: he’s a drifter returning home after a five-year absence to attend his mother’s funeral. But as he begins to disembark from his freighthopping trip, something shocking happens, and he watches as unseen assailants open fire and riddle a man full of bullets. Terrified and confused, he dives out of an escape hatch, landing with a thud in the underpass below. From here, he works to recharge his dead cellphone so he can call his sister and get to the funeral on time.
Despite this hardcore introduction, things slow down a bit as Mick works through a series of adventure game-style puzzles, finding items that allow him to interact with the environment and acquire even more items. On a mouse and keyboard, interfacing with the world is what you would expect. You hover over objects of interest and then click to make an observation, pick something up, or use an equipped item on that object. It’s very standard stuff, but where things get a bit unique is that there’s a great twin-stick setup on a controller that allows you to easily move to key spots and skip out on pixel hunting if you so choose. While none of these initial puzzles were out of the ordinary, they were also intuitive without feeling overly simplistic: I had to figure out how to get an abandoned car running well enough to pump out some electricity, which involved a refrigerator, a self-defense weapon, and quite a bit of convincing. And perhaps most importantly, these tasks have you investigate this strikingly presented world and meet the people who live there.
Much like their work on Crawl, Powerhoof once again delivers gorgeous pixel art that sets the mood, essentially putting us in a digital paperback novel. Not only does the retro aesthetic tie in perfectly with the specific era of games it’s drawing from, but it also is an ideal match for the throwback qualities of its pulp aesthetic: there’s a skyline set against a moonlit night that would fit in nicely in a detective film, and later there’s an underwater graveyard filled with swaying bodies that hits like a hair-raising horror punchline in a King book. These atmospheric sights line up nicely with Mitch’s neo-noir narration, as his gravelly voice describes near-death experiences and disturbing sights.
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