RV There Yet? Review

I've been far removed from any multiplayer games for a few years, as I've never really been a big fan of the genre’s overall structures. Keeping my friend group tightly knit, I never really partook in the Among Us or PEAK hype, instead opting for single-player experiences I could enjoy side-by-side with my wife. Yet, I'm not a believer in "never say never".

As I worked through my Top New Steam Game Releases a few weeks ago, a particular multiplayer title caught my attention, though I bore it no mind at the time. RV There Yet? by Nugget Entertainment offered the opportunity to drive the recreational vehicle home through Mabutts Valley, inviting friends and family alike to make it through the perilous environments.

As it climbed Steam's Top Trending and Top Selling ranks rapidly, my interest piqued, and eventually, my wife and I decided to give it a go ourselves. With vacations now in the past, it was time to drive home past beautiful greenery, canyons, and many other varied environments with unique gameplay elements.

The journey across Mabutts Valley begins at the end of the vacation period, as players are prompted to help load up the RV with a slew of items. Characters are only able to pick up one item at a time (you need space to smoke your cigarettes, duh!), so off we went to gather our belongings, pick up useful items, and hide everything inside the RV so that the movement physics don't throw everything out every which window.

Once set up, it's time to select a designated driver and start the adventure — taking the driver's seat has you manoeuvering the RV through tight spaces using manual controls. Though I've never really driven a car (having lived pretty much my whole life in a small town without much need for one), it's safe to say that picking up the controls and learning stick driving was interesting and, honestly, pretty damn fun.

Driving is surprisingly easy, and even if you've never driven before, it should be simple to understand. While you can play with the five gears of the car, going past the second one is seldom a necessity, as most of the obstacles along the way require precise driving and careful handling of the delicate physics that RV There Yet? is jacked up with.

Players need to handle two health bars at any given point, with the individual one being affected by breaking bones (falling, getting slammed, though feel free to run over as many people as you want with repercussions being pretty much zero), burns, and poison. Unlike in PEAK, player damage doesn't affect anything of the actual gameplay, as the player characters work essentially like an all-terrain vehicle themselves; no stamina to handle.

The RV's healthbar is the one that will have friend groups screaming at each other, as it has two layers: the guard that the RV has from repairs that prevents it from being a glorified frame and the overall damage that it has taken throughout the roadtrip. It's surprisingly in-depth, and proper management of this will be the clear difference between how easily any group will make it out the other side and how few fractured friendships will be along the way.

Every element of the RV can be damaged, and hitting the same place whenever it is no longer reinforced by Scrap Metal will start dealing damage to the frame of the vehicle. Blue damage can't be repaired until you reach specific points, yellow damage is done to the wheels and can be fixed by drilling them up, and red damage is to the engine, which requires oil for you to recover.

It's pretty intuitive, and how much or little attention you pay to this system will decide how often you need to restart back at the latest checkpoint. Having a designated hoarding goblin is extremely useful, as all sorts of items are essential in their own different situations, and items are hidden throughout the valley, often without roads even leading to them.

Despite the graphics having put me off originally (I'm not a big fan of any game that puts so much of an emphasis on smoking), I have to say that RV There Yet? is a beauty to behold. Its open-area design means that my wife and I often parked around and took in the scenery between our screaming matches, and finding a place to park and look around was always a welcome change of pace from the hectic driving gameplay.

Mabutts Valley also offers a great opportunity to explore at any given time, with various glasses and hat customisables that let you differentiate yourself from the other clones driving the RV. Nuggets Entertainment really wanted players to engage with the world and landscapes, and the efforts put into making each one unique and challenging kept the experience entertaining well past some of the learning hurdles.

That said, it's not a perfect experience, as the difficulty ramping can feel extremely punishing after reaching a certain level. At one point, RV There Yet? dons the hat of a pseudo Foddian game, which halted us from our continuous forward momentum into an abrupt stop that took us several hours to beat just a few puzzles. While it never got infuriating, and the gameplay remained enjoyable throughout, it felt like some areas were introduced too early, before the player group could be accustomed to using every tool available in the RV.

Halfway through our climb past the Foddian peak that had seen us stuck for a few years (it felt like it, at least), we encountered several bugs and glitches. It's the fate of every title that plays with momentum the way RV There Yet? does, as the vehicle could sometimes explode with minimal impact — minor bugs didn't bother me, but outright crashes nearly a month after launch lost us progress near the end of arduous sections.

With all that said, RV There Yet? changed my mind on some multiplayer experiences — its fun, team-focused gameplay kept me engaged throughout dozens of hours, with more to be had, and despite the gameplay never changing, it was entertaining all the same. Its lack of progression means that your knowledge is the only thing keeping you from reaching home, and it's convinced me to try other such titles, like R.E.P.O. and Lethal Company. If nothing else, changing my mind nearly a decade into my philosophy is an admirable feat I won't soon forget.