Parcel Corps is an indie action-adventure platformer, where you take on the life as a freelance bicycle messenger!

The premise is choose to play from three bicycle courier corporations, who are vying to become the biggest, most profitable business in town! Pick a side then lock handlebars forming two-wheeled rivalries in pursuit of market share, influence, and a modest income.

The game boasts multiplayer, 9 characters to from 3 couriers to choose from within 8 zones. Catch air from rooftop ramps, slide under articulated vehicles, defy gravity by riding along walls, and create your own lines through a bustling, vibrant city.

Accessibility

With regards to accessibility, there is no options available. Subtitle on and off option is only thing available. So should you have hearing, motor or visual issues, this may not be the game for you.

Gameplay

The game is a blend of Postman Pat meets Mat Hoffman (the Tony Hawk of the bmx world) with you choosing from one of the 3 up-coming bike couriers corporations to start with. The games basic gameplay loop is grab a package from a business, deliver said package to the customer in the shortest possible timeframe, whilst doing tricks, and then get paid. Simple enough you may think, but nothing is ever that easy!!

Once paid, you do have the option to purchase upgrades for your bike, varying from wheels, frames, seats and baggage compartments with a variety of colour options. This was a missed chance to really make it engaging with the ability to add performance improvements, like abilities to ride faster or take tight corners tighter, or even provide you new tricks to pull of.

To start missions, you have to traverse the 8 different zones looking for businesses to sign up for your couriers app. These will be spread about the areas, with QR codes on boards outside for you to scan with your phone, and then start a trial mission in order to prove your worth before they actually sign up. If you complete said trial, you get a new business who will assign you delivery missions to complete. Each one of these improves your level rating with them, giving you better paid jobs with each level gained. Level 3 is the best, and provides the juiciest of missions.

Once you have enough business in your app, you can do Delivery Rush events, which gives your corporation Rep points, with the level 3 Rep being the best, and then and only then, allowing you to open up a new zone. Delivery Rush events push you to deliver as many business packages as possible in a short period of time, with each successful delivery gaining you some extra seconds. The more delivery’s, the better the rep points at the end. Should you fail or not do well, no fear as you can purchase another chance, but simply delivering more packages from businesses.

Missions aren’t always just point A to B within a time limit, there is the odd time trails, and various tricks challenges to keep things interesting. Some require you to do tricks to shake a package up before you deliver it, others don’t want the slightest of movement due to it fragile nature, and some want you to destroy drones, which each provide their own unique challenges.

The biggest issue with deliveries, isn’t often the time limit itself, its getting there through more and more complicated zones which often have more barriers to overcome, and that get ramped up as time moves forward. You soon clash with a CEO whose sole mission is to melt the ice caps, and, with the police in his pocket, things start getting restrictive.

These can range from police, blocked sidewalks, heavier traffic, which means it takes just one crash to get a success or failure, of a delivery. The early zones are often easier to navigate round with out too much effort, but the later ones, needs you to know the levels intimately to use the landscape to your advantage. Wall riding, rooftop ramps, barrier grinding, all are needed to ensure that you can speed up and get to your destination asap.

Tricks provide you a power boost, which once a meter is filled will allow a speed surge for a short period of time, thus helping you make deliveries easier. Its this combination of traversal shortcuts and tricks that will help you on your way to become the best courier delivery corporation to date.

Controls for this game are a little tricky, and one aspect is inversed that took me more time than id like to get to grips with. To accelerate you press X, and to jump is A, which for me is just wrong. X has always been my jump button in any platforms and this was a real pain at the start, and because it doesn’t allow you to rebind buttons, this did put me off at the beginning. The triggers are used to slow down and drift which I found easier.

You also get a phone to open up at any point as you play, and this is used for everything from locating delivery jobs, play a snake game, purchase new bike items and even control the games settings. Again the control system here is a bit awkward as to click on something its not a button press, but a press of the analog stick, which whilst riding can really put you off when in the middle of doing tricks or speeding through traffic.

This is a fun game and there is a huge amount of fun to be had if you can tolerate the not so brilliant tutorial and focus on enjoying the day to day business of parcel delivery.

Graphics

The visuals of the game are of a bright colourful cel-shaded design that screams its influence of Bomb Rush CyberFunk. I actually love this style and its something that just works, and combine this with the wacky clientele designs, this game oozes a craziness that matches Crazy Taxi.

Besides the cel-shaded aesthetics, the game also flips between in-game cutscenes and live action video in the form of a news broadcast, which I found excellent in its unique way to tell a story.

Arenas are equally varied from coastal towns, docks, construction zones, car parks, shopping malls and oil rigs that each provide their own unique challenges in traversing. Enemy types are also diverse from standard cops to riot police who will try anything in a bid to slow you down, and fail in your deliveries. You can also move to and fro from each arena at will, which is super in you really want to max out rep with all customers in that area. There was the odd clash detection issue I had with some background fauna, but overall the traversal was smooth and enjoyable.

Animation and character designs can truly wacky and are hilarious pokes at real-world companies and their mascots, which only show the developers clearly want you to not take their world seriously at all. Bike upgrades are only visual aesthetics, however for me, it never actually worked and what ever I purchased never appeared so I wasn’t able to change anything meaningful. Hopefully this can be patched sooner rather than later, so that you can make the bike your own.

I enjoyed every moment of this game, but there was some texture pop-ins and some slight frame drops, to full on dropping through the scenery in the first zone, that really do need a patch to ensure the smoothest of rides.

Sound

The game is fully voiced and provides some superb comical caricatures that oozes the very best of dry British humour, which you may or may not love. The voice actors do a superb job at conveying the comical avatars with the narrator being the best of the bunch in conveying information and humour, which for me are one of the highlights within the game.

The general music does provides high-quality soundtracks which are a blend of beat vs techno vs scratch, to chill to as you make your way around the arenas. General in game sounds are also well done and do enhance the overall experience as you Plow your way through crowds mixing it up with tricks. Bike sounds, likes skids, drifts and jumps are meaty enough to convey weight which also help to the enjoyment of the game.

My recommendation here would be a good quality headset to enjoy the upbeat gameplay sounds and music to its fullest.

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Parcel Corps is a "on sale’’.

The game is fun without a doubt, but there is more repetition than id like and some pretty big bugs to resolve for the price on offer. What is there, outside of these quirks, is a fun title that just needs a bit more polish to really shine.

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £29.99 or approx. $35 and depending on skill and patience would give you well over 15+ hours worth of gameplay. Combine this with general multiplayer fun, different skins to purchase and a vast array of jobs, you can easily add another 5+ to the mix.

For bmx fans, this is going to be a superb game to just chill out and enjoy, for those who are crazy taxi fans, this alternative, is equally something they will want. Whilst it does suffer with some pretty big bugs, this can soon be put to rest with some updates and rise to a ‘’great purchase’’ recommendation.

Parcel Corps Review On Xbox