Deliver At All Costs (2025) — Review | GamePulse

Welcome to 1959… on steroids

Konami and indie upstart Far Out Games teamed up to launch Deliver At All Costs on May 22, 2025, bringing a chaotic, physics‑heavy twist to the action‑adventure genre. Set in three fictional U.S. west‑coast towns—St. Monique, Shellington Falls and New Reed—1950s kitsch and rock‑’n’‑roll aesthetics collide with outlandish vehicular mayhem.

You play Winston Green: former Atomic Energy Commission engineer turned rag‑tag courier with a fiery temper and a mysterious past. Charged with delivering anything from giant marlins to ticking bombs, Winston must do whatever it takes to “deliver at all costs” (yes, including decimating city blocks).

At face value: it’s a ridiculous, physics‑driven delivery game. Beneath? A three‑act thriller involving time travel, alien artifacts, betrayal and courtroom drama. Strap in.

Chaos—and a pickup truck

From the first moments behind Winston’s signature We Deliver pickup, the game sets the tone: destruction is encouraged. Pretty much every environment—beachside diners, office interiors, diners, entire building façades—is utterly destructible. Vehicles crash spectacularly and collapsible architecture ensures chaos on a cinematic scale.

One standout mission reviewed likened the gameplay to Crazy Taxi, except instead of evasive zipping it’s sabotage mid‑race: barge alongside a rival courier, use your crane to lift his package, fend off ramming drivers and deliver it intact. Moments like this shine brightly in an otherwise inconsistent lineup.

Every delivery is a mini‑scenario—transporting a live bomb, herding zombies, or snapping photos of UFO‑abducting cows. At its best, Deliver At All Costs gleefully embraces absurdity.

Narrative: ambitious, bewildering, exhausting

The story is… messy. It starts with the grim flashback of Winston’s father forcing him to shoot a fox (a motif that echoes via fox hallucinations), then travels through corporate double‑crossing at We Deliver, volcano eruptions, time travel to a dystopian future controlled by a rogue AEC, and a final act of smashing through headquarters with a teleported alien sphere in tow.

Critics called it a “half‑baked story” filled with “uninspired writing and lacklustre acting” that derails into sci‑fi nonsense by the third act. Reddit users lambasted the ludonarrative dissonance: gameplay is goofball zany, cutscenes shift to Marvel‑style seriousness, and pacing suffers from repetitive character interactions like walking between home and office every two missions.

One post summed up the story as:

“a severe case of ludonarrative dissonance … narrative methods … for absolutely no reason … stupid, incomprehensible and uninteresting” (Reddit).

In short: the narrative ambition is undeniably bold, but wildly inconsistent and often overwrought.

Gameplay: physics, variety—and frustration

Physics‑based havoc is the core appeal. Driving through buildings, smashing cars, ramps, crates and petrol stations all deliver satisfying carnage. Missions last around 5 minutes each and offer quirky objectives.

Some early challenges, like UFO photography or oversized marlin delivery, show creativity and fun.

But mission design is uneven. Many missions are too easy—no time limit, no real challenge—then you hit spike moments of unfair randomness or death‑retry frustration. And mission variety runs thin after the first cities, with no difficulty tiers, modifiers or clone missions to expand longevity.

Progression systems exist: you collect red crates for crafting materials to upgrade your truck with gadgets (airbags, wheel spikes, horn, winch). Sadly, materials are rare, mandatory mission variants lock gadget use to scripted points, and the fun upgrades show up too late—or not at all if you're stingy with resource farming.

Police chases exist via a GTA‑style wanted level, but you can duck in a dumpster and it’s over. It’s flashy in concept, trivial in execution.

Exploration is mostly shallow. Cities are semi‑open, but aside from a handful of side‑quests, collectible crates, minor races and view points, there’s little real reward. Physics may coax surprise chaos, but the open world underutilizes your destructive potential.

Style, soundtrack, voice–over

Aesthetic scores solid points. The 1950s setting is lovingly conveyed—polka‑dot dresses, original radio ads, UI design straight out of era advertising, and an evocative soundtrack of original compositions and retro jingles.

Voice acting is serviceable. Some characters sparkle—Norman the coworker, boss Donovan’s suspicious glare—but others veer into campy or grating territory. Mostly the voice work shifts in tone between zany and ersatz‐serious without smoothing the tone transitions.

Graphically, the destructibility looks impressive. But reviews noted odd camera framing in cutscenes—focus on a pen during dialogue, shaky shifts—that reveal budget limits.

Game length, price and reception

With around 10 hours of main content, Deliver At All Costs is compact—yet plenty dense, especially with filler bits like walking between offices or decoding lore newspapers in sewers.

At the $29.99 (USD) or £24.99 price point, critics felt it offered reasonable value for the thrills it does deliver. On Metacritic, critics average 69 and users 7.0—mixed or average overall. OpenCritic reports ~75 average with a 67% recommendation rate.

Some outlets like CGMagazine awarded it 8.5/10, praising “wildly chaotic” gameplay. Loot Level Chill called it a “joyous throwback.” But others—most notoriously The Guardian—called it “a criminal waste,” lamenting the squandered potential of the destructible playground.

The GamePulse verdict

If readers are looking for pure over‑the‑top mayhem and absurd physics‑based delivery action in a throwback aesthetic, Deliver At All Costs delivers that in spades. When it’s firing on all cylinders, it riffs on Crazy Taxi, Wacky Races and comic‑book sci‑fi as missions erupt under your steel wheels.

Highlights:

• Unrestrained environmental destruction. Drive‑through diners, collapsing façades, cities reacting to your mayhem.
• Variety of zany deliveries (bombs, fish, UFO photos) with unexpected mechanics.
• Nostalgic 1950s presentation: soundtrack, UI, voice acting and pop‑culture vibe.
• Compact, punchy playtime—around 10 hours—and budget‑priced.

But:

• Story drags, misfires and spirals into convolution: from fox hallucinations to alien spheres to courtroom protests.
• Mission pacing uneven: some fun, some boring, some frustrating.
• Upgrades and gadgets often under‑used or locked to scripted parts.
• Open world lacks depth beyond occasional side‑quests; camera quirks in cutscenes break immersion.

You could consider it a high‑octane indie gem strapped to a messy narrative chassis—nearly great when chaos reigns, often annoying when the cutscenes kick in.

Pro tips for brave couriers

• Demo first: The Steam Next Fest demo reportedly nails the chaotic core; ideal to see if you vibe with the physics fun before investing.
• Crate‑hunt early: Prioritize finding red chests for crafting materials—you might unlock your favorite gadget before the story forces it theatrically.
• Savvy driving: Embrace wannabe speed runs in missions—skip slow walking, smash systems and just focus on momentum—but watch for random respawn quirks.
• Side‑content optional: Lore newspapers in sewers are elaborate, but text‑heavy and skippable—and the walking bits between home and office can feel padded.

Final scoreboard

Summing it up

Deliver At All Costs is a chaotic curiosity: part comedic destruction sim, part overstuffed sci‑fi thrill‑ride, and part tedious narrative detour. When it works, it's like playing a vintage cartoon carnage marathon—gleeful, unruly, entertaining. When it doesn't, you're slogging through dialogue or walking two steps forward to unlock the next insane mission.

At $30 or less, fans of physics‑based sandbox antics and retro aesthetics will find plenty to enjoy. But if you crave tight writing, deep world‑building or flawless pacing, buckle up for a bumpy ride—this indie delivers in spirit, but sometimes crashes in execution.

So if you're in the mood to tear down buildings in a marlin‑delivery truck while bopping to jazzy ’50s tunes—Deliver At All Costs may just deliver what you (probably didn't know you) wanted. Just don’t expect coherence when the narrative tries to teleport you to tomorrow.

Final recommendation: For playful chaos and genre‑bending disarray—yes. For grounded storytelling and mission polish—approach with caution.