Driftwood Review

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Fast Facts

Have you wanted to skate down hills as a sloth, riding around some low poly scenic mountain ranges? Well, Driftwood might be for you.

Looks Anything but Slow

So the game doesn’t have much of a story outside of you being a sloth and you like going down mountains fast. Driftwood’s low-poly look doesn’t seem out of place at all with this vibe, even with the idea that you are a sloth, the slowest creature known to man, going fast down hills. The music selection also revolves around songs that are seemly based in surfer/skateboarding culture, which is nice, but you can turn it off and also just put you’re Spotify playlist in the background, which is my preferred option, honestly.

Chill Yet Challenging.

Honestly, Driftwood doesn’t have a lot of substance. But, it’s very good at executing its core concept. At the start of the game, you can select you’re board and wheels, and you go down hills, trying to dodge traffic and get to the bottom of the mountain as fast as possible. You can take alternate paths, but it’s also very fun to see how fast you can go.  The controls are easy to grasp – move the left stick to move left and right, forward on the left stick allows you to crouch to get extra speed, and back on the left stick acts as your air break. You can also hit your left and right bumpers to gain speed by drifting.

I’ll admit now while the gameplay isn’t the most thrilling thing in the world, it’s also just very relaxing in its own way. It’s fun just to be able rack up the speed and see how fast you can go without bailing, which will happen one way or another, as this game is still very much in beta, and I found myself clipping through the ground or just bailing from run for no reason, which but I also bailed plenty on my own, as it’s very fun to see how far you take the speed as you try to find alternate paths and reach goals to unlock more gear.

You get to levels by driving this caravan to the next location, which, while novel, doesn’t really control well in the over-world, as it is primarily controlled by the joystick, and it can be hard to keep the acceleration up.

Thrilling Speeds of Descent

The levels are themed after mountain ranges, so there are plenty of twisting roads that you can go down. Each path is filled with switchbacks, tight turns to drift around and long straightaways where you can gain tons of speed. Driftwood is well-designed around the need to do those things, as levels are about 5-7 minutes long, and there are 6 of them. However, I did find myself clipping through the ground and crashing for no reason from time to time. It took me a while to get used to these glitches. At least it’s excusable for an early-access game where things are still being tested.

There are also daily challenges and customization of your sloth, but I haven’t really dived too deep into that, but from what I’ve experienced, it’s pretty cool.

Final Thoughts

Driftwood feels like a good base for what’s to come, as they are still updating the game out of the beta phase. I do think there are a few things that need work, such as the bugs that see you crashing randomly and the driving in the overworld. However, I think the level design and controls make Driftwood fun to play all on its own. There’s not a lot in the game right now, but given that the devs have been updating the game even as I’ve been writing this review, I think it’s easily worth the £10 price point.