Does Not Commute [Free] is a game that has looked appealing and intriguing since the day I got to see it in motion. Mediocre posted a teaser video of it, then they demoed the game to us at GDChttp://toucharcade.com/2015/03/06/gdc-2015-does-not-commute/, and it was one of my favorites there. The concept was super-fun to play with, and somehow, Does Not Commute got even better from there. The tweaked some of the things from the original GDC version, and made this an absolute must-have.
The gist of the game is that you're driving an unstoppable car from point A to point B. The problem is that you're then driving another car that drives in the same time frame as the first car, and you must avoid crashing into that vehicle. This keeps going and going until you have a whole chaotic traffic pattern going on, and you're compensating for your crazy driving to get out of your own way from ten cars ago. Oh, and each car has its own weight, speed, and handling, so you have to adjust to that as well.
If you do crash, you just go slower, but you also have a time limit to deal with. You can rewind to when you started, with a one-second time penalty. To also help out, you can use one of three boosts: armor, speed, or traction. Each gives you a benefit, but also comes with its own drawback. For example, the speed boost makes your car have much worse traction. But sometimes, these boosts can help you get your car there in one piece...or in less time.
The game does use the same free-to-play system that Mediocre's previous game Smash Hit [Free] uses. You can theoretically beat the entire game without paying, but you have to pay $1.99 to unlock checkpoints. So, the game winds up giving you a fair system: you can play as long as you want without paying, but if you want the game to give you a hand, you gotta pay up. Though, practicing from the beginning and from earlier levels is something you'll need to do so you can advance, as the key to the game is preserving time.
The practice mode can kind of drive you to madness if you're a perfectionist, but I'm glad it's there. It's helped me be a better player. And that's the thing: this is the kind of game that I want to play again and again, to practice until I'm fantastic at it. I want to re-do early levels to be better later on. Does Not Commute demands it, as you need enough leftover time to make it from one drive to another, but it's rather rewarding to do so. This game makes it feel good to do well at it.
