There are solely two radio channels within the slice-of-life driving simulator, Road to Guangdong–one performs some mix of milquetoast “oriental” music, whereas the opposite broadcasts extra upbeat and decidedly fashionable synthwave-inspired melodies. It’s this gulf between the 2 genres that additionally appears to encourage one of many few highlights behind Road to Guangdong: the light-hearted ribbing between you and your Guu Ma–the Chinese honorific for aunts–as you embark on a highway journey collectively. The aged Guu Ma’s disdain for the pulsating grooves of digital music means she is going to all the time attempt to change the radio channel again to the vaguely Guangdong-esque music she’s extra accustomed to, after a lot grumbling in regards to the unrefined state of contemporary music. You can, after all, flip the channel again once more, if solely to bother her–and cackle at her exasperation as she reaches out to alter the music as soon as once more.While this small interplay is mildly amusing, it would not maintain the sport’s novelty for lengthy. Road to Guangdong is a long-winding, exhausting ride–and I do not imply when it comes to hours. Not solely is its pacing extraordinarily sluggish, its characters’ minimalist expressions are additionally overly mechanical and too restricted of their vary to convey any emotion–an unlucky design selection that solely brings extra consideration to the sport’s flat, lacklustre dialogues. This is made extra obvious when Guu Ma often sprinkles some canned recommendation over the course of your infinite drives, one in all which is a recurring suggestion to alter your radio channel. But why would you counsel that, Guu Ma, if the one different choice is these trance-like bangers you hate a lot?This unnaturalness–even a way of aberration–also extends to the remainder of the sport. You play as Sunny Tong, a younger college artwork graduate whose mother and father have not too long ago handed away in an accident. They’ve left behind a restaurant so that you can handle, and accompanied by your Guu Ma, you will be driving your dad’s closely battered, decades-old car–lovingly nicknamed Sandy–to go to your family throughout Guangdong. At the identical time, you will even be accumulating hand-me-down recipes from them to run the restaurant with. One half interactive novel, one half highway journey simulator, Road to Guangdong alternates between driving to your family’ properties and interacting along with your prolonged household.Road to Guangdong is not cavalier about its tales’ cultural context, on the very least. This might be noticed in how Sunny addresses her family by their correct phrases of kinship, in addition to by means of Guu Ma’s gruff pragmatism and awkwardness with verbal affections, that are very quintessentially Chinese. A major a part of this is because of developer Just Add Oil Games’ narrative designer and cultural guide Yen Ooi, who clearly has a hand in shaping the story. However, every part else about Road to Guangdong rapidly falters, for there may be little real heat to be discovered within the interactions along with your family. Visits to each family are simply messy knots of familial problems that Sunny has to untangle, and all these are unravelled with such muted enthusiasm that all of it comes off as extremely drab.Like a visible novel, conversations happen by selecting from a listing of dialogue choices, peppered by insights you possibly can choose up on to increase in your conversations. Ultimately, these decisions quantity to little or no, with none marked affect on how the sport ultimately performs out. Odder nonetheless is the distinct lack of music throughout these narrative segments, apart from the jarringly artificial UI sound results that ring whenever you scroll by means of your responses, which solely echo the sheer vacancy of the household dynamics. Towards the top, I used to be merely clicking by means of the dialogue simply to rapidly conclude the narrative chapters. I actually could not wait to get again on the highway.That’s to not say the driving is any extra compelling than these visits–it solely serves as a slight reprieve from the tedium of familial exchanges. The household automobile is a dilapidated heap of junk that is barely held collectively by schmaltz and nostalgia, so it might’t go too quick in case the automobile offers approach. Meanwhile, you additionally have to be careful on your petrol and oil meter earlier than they get too low, and cycle out automobile elements that may be conveniently picked up in scrapyards alongside your journey or bought at gasoline stations. It bears a outstanding resemblance to Jalopy–both share the identical publisher–but the repairs are nothing greater than busywork to pad the sport with, as scrap elements might be present in sheer extra.And whereas the drive itself might be hypnotic and soothing at instances, the cathartic pleasure of cruising down asphalt is absent. The roads in Road to Guangdong are principally straight and mind-numbingly linear, with the one pit stops you make the scrapyards and gasoline stations you will see each few kilometers. What makes this even duller, and even unnecessarily grating, are the uninspiring pastel-hued scenery–a joyless rendition of the bustling province of Guangdong–as effectively because the insipid spin on Guangdong music and digital tunes on the radio. I discovered myself turning down the grasp quantity and taking part in exterior music over it to remove a few of the humdrum.Guu Ma, too, makes for an immensely stale highway journey companion. Rather than replicate the circulation and cadences of actual conversations, small speak together with her feels completely scripted and stilted. Far from conversing with a beloved relative, this dialogue is extra akin to interacting with a digital assistant on your rickety automobile, as she regurgitates reminders in regards to the state of your sedan at particular intervals. Is your automobile guzzling an excessive amount of petrol? Guu Ma will intermittently drop hints about pulling it over for a fast refuel. The needle in your temperature gauge swaying too ceaselessly into the crimson? Guu Ma tells you the fan belt most likely wants servicing. Or maybe the automobile is buzzing too loudly? Like clockwork, she offers a perfunctory response on how this can be because of a defective automobile engine or worn-out tire. While actually a veritable fountain of vehicular information, Guu Ma is unfortunately not a lot else. She additionally dishes out banal anecdotes in regards to the household, however they add no shades of intimacy to your relationship together with her and your family.Road to Guangdong appears to carry a lot promise at first, regardless of its simple premise. There could be a tender allure to seek out within the simplicity of its conceit–the mixture of the storytelling energy of visible novels and the unhurried tempo of driving sims. After all, anecdotal tales might be powerfully memorable of their brevity, and the concept of lengthy drives alongside asphalts roads can have a nice, leisurely attract. On paper, Road to Guangdong appears to have the mellow, slice-of-life method down pat, despite the fact that you will quickly understand its execution is something however.And as a Chinese participant, I had are available anticipating extra from a studio known as Just Add Oil Games–a identify that is a cheeky reference and a literal translation of the Chinese phrase “jia you,” an expression of encouragement and help. But its forged of Road to Guangdong is little greater than an ensemble of lifeless, cardboard cutouts of a Chinese household, regardless of the most effective efforts of its author Ooi (who’s coincidentally the one member of Chinese descent on her staff). In the top, Road to Guangdong would not fairly stay as much as its modest ambitions as an intimate driving expertise, because it shapes as much as be a meandering highway journey that merely cannot finish quickly sufficient.