Dave Critiques - Glitchhikers: Driving alone at night

Transcript

I wonder if all hitchhiking is this existential.

Glitchhikers evokes a dreamlike state. If you have ever driven down highways in the middle of the night, generally alone, the familiarity will be quite evocative. What feels like veering is no more than changing lanes, and changing lines along with relegating your speed are two of the minimal choices offered to the player on this night time journey.

You may also look out your left or right window for short periods of time, either to explore the surrounding landscape (which is pretty much the same until you reach the city) or to look at the hitchhikers you pick up at timed intervals. Interestingly enough, you can never watch them entering and exiting your vehicle, and that coupled with the surreal conversations (and of course their appearance) lends credence to the possibility that they may not even be there, at least not in a physical sense.

Your avatar blinks in slow eyelash bats throughout your expedition. One gets the impression that these signal a passage of time, despite what the radio might suggest. Sure the music does not skip, and the NPR-esque announcer keeps you centered while you travel (even though his words seem oddly and personally specific), but when you are driving these mammoth stretches of asphalt, one hour often morphs into another with no real sense of the passage of time.

Now the hitchhikers themselves cannot be immediately dismissed as figments of imagination. Their conversation is one of purpose; not only for you, but for them as well. By picking them up, you are helping each other to move forward in spiritual discovery. Your purpose for being on these roads is constantly brought into question, and as you are asked this question multiple times, there most likely is not a right answer, just the one the player feels comfortable with.

In the end, you can choose whether your night time excursion has resulted in what you were looking for or not. It makes little difference, as the game ends either way. Glitchhikers sets a tone from its first moments, and anyone who has taken a night drive to be alone with their thoughts will be intimately familiar with the sleepy, hazy, only-radio-for-company picture that is painted.

In the end, it’s not really about the hitchhikers at all.