''Roundabout'' is an open world

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific go ...

video game developed and published by American indie studio No Goblin LLC. It was released for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

Mac Mac or MAC most commonly refers to: * Mac (computer), a family of personal computers made by Apple Inc. * Mackintosh, a raincoat made of rubberized cloth * A variant of the word macaroni, mostly used in the name of the dish mac and cheese * Mac, ...

and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

on September 18, 2014, for

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

on February 20, 2015, and for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

on May 26, 2015. A

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international terri ...

port was released on June 26, 2018, as a

cross-buy Cross-buy is a feature of some digital distribution systems available across multiple device platforms, where users who purchase a license to a specific piece of software are able to use the versions of the software for different device classes at ...

title with the PlayStation 4 version. The game involves a constantly-rotating

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment. A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a pro ...

which the player has to drive around an open world while completing miscellaneous objectives such as picking up and dropping people off or finding collectible items. The gameplay has been described as inspired by ''

Kuru Kuru Kururin is a puzzle video game developed by Eighting and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance video game console, handheld video game console. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and in Europe and Australia on June 22 as a launch title. ...

'' (where the player also controls a constantly-rotating vehicle), and ''

Crazy Taxi ''Crazy Taxi'' is a series of racing video games that was developed by Hitmaker and published by Sega. The first game appeared in arcades in 1999 and was very successful, prompting Sega to port the arcade version to their Dreamcast consol ...

'' (where the goal of the game is to drive

Non-player character A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster ...

s from one location to another).

Gameplay

The player drives a constantly revolving limousine, and must deliver passengers (introduced through

full motion video Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information duri ...

cutscenes) to their intended destinations while avoiding obstacles.

Plot

In 1977, Georgio Manos becomes the world's first revolving limousine driver, taxiing the citizens of the city of Roundabout to various destinations. A frequent passenger named Elizabeth earns Georgio's deep admiration, and a romance begins to develop between the two. Georgio also develops a rivalry with Ronaldo, another limousine driver who steals Georgio's technique and overtakes them as the #1 revolving limousine driver in the city. Desperate to defeat Ronaldo, Georgio acquires some candy dots with the help of Mickey the mechanic, which causes Georgio to hallucinate and see Jeffrey the Skeleton. Guided by Jeffrey in a candy-dot-fueled frenzy, Georgio goes on a murderous rampage through the city. Spurred on by Elizabeth, Georgio then challenges Ronaldo to a race, during which they run Ronaldo off the road, destroying his car and killing him. Six months later, Georgio has retreated to the northern mountains out of shame, as destroying someone else's car is akin to treason in Roundabout. Having lost Elizabeth and running low on candy dots, Jeffrey urges Georgio to get their act back together and win back Elizabeth's heart. At the same time, Georgio is hounded by Ge-Op (Georgio Operations), a police squad tasked with hunting them down. In the end, Georgio and Elizabeth are reunited, and Elizabeth explains that she is tired of Georgio's constant spinning, pleading with Georgio to drive straight for even a little while. After Georgio awkwardly attempts to drive straight, Elizabeth decides that she should not force Georgio to be someone they are not, and the two drive off into the sunset together.

Reception

The game's PC received favorable reviews, while the

version received mixed reviews upon release. Dave Tach of ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed '' polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two t ...

'' praised the game stating "Combining elements from driving, puzzle and FMV games without becoming a product of one genre" and saying that the developers made "a unique hybrid." Phil Kennedy of ''

Push Square Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British mass media company based in Brighton. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and ot ...

'' criticized the game's lack of content saying "Failure of missions is impossible with death just meaning a respawn a short distance away." As a result he said he "breezed through the game relatively quickly, with each mission taking around five minutes and the story about three hours in total." He didn't feel "particularly inclined to revisit any of the stages a second time in an attempt to better our scores." ''

IGN Spain ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' called it "a disappointing game that was aiming to become the next ''

'' but fails on achieving it. Short, ugly and not even funny"

References

External links

*{{official website, http://roundaboutgame.com 2014 video games Indie games Full motion video based games Linux games Open-world video games MacOS games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation Vita games Racing video games Single-player video games Steam Greenlight games Video games about taxis Video games developed in the United States Video games set in 1977 Xbox One games Video games featuring female protagonists LGBT-related video games