Slow Roads, quick assessment

Most games that irk Seth, my inner rural realism pedant, do it with dodgy flora or agriculture. Slow Roads, a relaxing £6 driving diversion from Topograph Interactive, does it primarily with questionable fencing. Good luck finding a Street View-able spot in the English Peak District where post and rail fencing like this (↑) flanks the road.

While I love the idea of Slow Roads and have nothing but admiration for its ability to reproduce the strange transcendental beatitude of long-distance, cross-country driving, the fundamental simplicity of its procedurally-generated landscapes and the woolliness of its vehicle physics feel like missed opportunities.

Whether you opt to traverse English hills, coastal California, or Martian desolation, no matter how long/far you drive you’re never going to encounter a road junction or lay-by, or glimpse a building, power line, or parked car.

If straightening serpentine curves and slingshotting around slow moving traffic wasn’t so pleasurable, and signs, markings, and roadside barriers weren’t constantly catching the eye, the environmental simplicity beyond verges would, I suspect, prove pretty distracting.

Harder to ignore are conveyances that sometimes feel more like low-flying magic carpets than vehicles constantly braille-reading road surfaces with restless wheels. Dialling down the generous default stability and grip settings, makes cornering and overtaking in the five steeds (sedan, 4WD, sports car, bus, and motorbike) much more interesting, but nothing I did in the tuning menu completely removed the air of sedation.

I’ve found myself gravitating towards the motorbike because, in first-person view at least, its seesawing handlebar gives it liveliness and legibility the bigger vehicles can’t match. More aural feedback from tires, engines, and transmissions, and more pronounced body roll and vibration, would definitely up the appeal of the game’s four-wheeled options.

An hour with the demo should tell you whether Slow Roads’ therapeutic strengths outweigh its simulatory failures.

Personally, for the moment at least (updates have been promised) I’d rather get my road-based relaxation via OMSI or one of the SCS trucking sims than this clever tarmac generator.