Drive Buy, developed and published by Glitchers, is a self-described "cross-play car combat game with a delivery twist." Four players go head to head in one of three different game modes designed to encourage strategic thinking, split second plays, and rivalries.
To aid in this mission, power-ups are scattered around the two available maps that players can use to sabotage, slow down, or completely destroy other cars. When a car is destroyed, a kill-cam shows the driver was and encourages the player to get revenge, leading to a fairly effective rivalry system. Drive Buy has a lot of style and good ideas, but it still has a long way to go before it can deliver a satisfying and engaging experience.
The core of Drive Buy's three game modes is to make the most money, known in-game as credits. Pay Day has players utilize various power-ups to knock credits away from other players and collect as much as they can until the timer runs out. Delivery Battle works the same way but with the added objective to pick up packages from the center of the map and deliver them to randomly picked NPCs. While these modes get a bit stale after the first couple minutes, the third mode, Piggy Bank, offers a more engaging experience. One player holds on to a pig until they either reach a thousand credits or the timer runs out. To get the pig, other competitors just have to touch the carrier, not slam into them or blow them up, which makes offensive strategies and escapes feel tense and satisfying.
Drive Buy feels simultaneously good and frustrating to control. Each car feels responsive when steering, and especially drifting, and features a boost mechanic that quickly becomes the required way to drive - but not for the right reasons. The boost only takes five seconds to recharge and usually lasts for a good bit of time before running out, but it's occasionally cut short. The difference in speed between boosting and driving makes the recharge period feel like an agonizing crawl, instantly killing the momentum that was just beginning to pick up. One consistent issue, at least with the Switch Joy-Cons, was whenever the left thumb needed to be adjusted and slightly fell off the joystick the car would come to a dead stop even though the acceleration is operated by the right trigger. This may be less of an issue on PC but it made getting smashed or blown up due to having to move a thumb feel incredibly frustrating.
In order to play, or even get to the start screen, players must register an account with Drive Bu, which seems to promise a fair bit of content but feels empty right now. Only two maps are available and they're more or less the same, with one being slightly bigger due to the addition of a couple bridges. There is a shop and customization feature present, allowing players to pick one of six characters who have their own car, but there isn't any variation other than appearance. Each car has the same speed, durability, and handling, which makes the sports cars feel the same as the delivery vans. There are pleasant additions like custom games and private rooms that help add a bit of variety and camaraderie, but the core of the game remains a bit hollow and unsatisfying.
Drive Buy stands out as a something different for a studio best known for entries in other genres. The game is based solely on the premise that multiplayer fun can trump other issues, but sadly Drive Buy misses the mark at this point in time. The game will receive post-launch support with a focus on adding new content through a season style progression system, however, so there's still some hope. Drive Buy currently has sparse moments of engaging and satisfying gameplay, but there is a lot of potential here and its future will be worth keeping an eye on even if its present is fairly unappealing.
Drive Buy will release on March 31st, 2021 for PC and Nintendo Switch. Screen Rant was provided with a Nintendo Switch download code for the purpose of this review.