Parcel Corps Review

Have you ever wanted to be an Uber Eats rider or maybe wanted to be able to pop a sweet wheelie while delivering doughnuts? Well, that is exactly what you can do in
Billy Goat Entertainment Ltd’s latest game, Parcel Corps. The question is if this is a ride you want to take or if you should order out instead.

Playing Parcel Corps feels like a blast from the past, mainly from my days playing games like Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio. The plot is that you are a delivery driver, and you will join one of the three different delivery crews. The crews each have three rider options for you to pick from, although they don’t change much other than the back you will be staring at. It’s nice to have a choice, but it really doesn’t do much and doesn’t mean there’s any reason to restart the game to see if anything changes. 

The gameplay is essentially based on making deliveries, building relationships with vendors, and pulling off tricks for your online viewers. The first is done by cycling around the city and finding the QR codes outside businesses you can scan. Once you’ve scanned them, you’ll need to perform a delivery to have them sign up to your app. The deliveries are simple (just ride from one point to the next) but there is some variation in how far or how many deliveries you will need to make. Each successful delivery raises your rank with the business and unlocks more tasks in the future. 

Honestly, as a gameplay loop, it’s fine, but the actual missions get tedious fast; thankfully, moving around is pretty fun. One thing to note: Parcel Corps is designed to be played with a controller, while it kind of works with a controller or isn’t quite as instinctive. You can pedal and jump, grind and wall ride and it all flows together to make it a dream to move around the map (all of which are full of places to jump and grind). How skilful a rider you are is conveyed by the Twitch-like comments in the upper right corner of the screen. They’ll mock you for falling off your bike and praise you for drifting and jumping, but it’s little more than a visual indicator. 

The issue that I have with Parcel Corps is that there just isn’t much here to keep my attention gameplay-wise. The world itself helps a bit thanks to the bright colours and the absurdity of the characters (one gym owner wears a bullhead and speaks with a very familiar Austrian accent, for instance), but it doesn’t change what you’re doing. The gameplay loop is constant, and there’s no real variety to the tricks at first. Honestly, Parcel Corps needed something more to keep me invested.

Graphically, Parcel Corps looks a lot like Sunset Overdrive, with a kind of comic design to the characters. It’s all absurd and weird, as I stated, and the music is alright, but there were no real bangers that stuck out to me. I will give a shout-out to the voice actors, the narrator especially, who made me chuckle slightly. However, the comedy is constant and usually falls pretty flat, all things considered.

Overall, Parcel Corps is fun for an hour but starts to drag if you play it for longer. It’s a game designed for short bursts of activity, much like riding an actual bike. So that much is fitting, I suppose. If you’ve been looking to kill a few hours, then you could do worse.