It was only a few weeks ago I was saying very nice things about Slow Roads, a driving game where the emphasis is on the joy of simply driving, not speed or noise. Now I get to say some very nice things about Over The Hill as well.
Luke Plunkett
A new release from the same team behind the excellent Art of Rally (which is somehow six years old now), Over The Hill has a similar stripped-back presentation and meditative intro, only this time instead of sliding around dirt corners you're ever-so-carefully bouncing over sand dunes and precarious cliff faces.
It's set during the 'golden age' of off-roading, and while it's a peaceful driving game solo, there's also a multiplayer mode where you and your friends can putter around in a little convoy that plays like you'd imagine Big Walk Kart would. There are no big goals or storylines to follow though; the only thing driving every session of Over The Hill is pointing your 4WD at a point on the map, usually an unexplored one, and saying "I'm gonna go check that out".
I don't want to make it sound too peaceful, though, because as you can see in the trailer below, while there's loads of scenic cruising and animal photography, this isn't some cozy driving game; there are challenges here, some of them (quite literally) steep, and as you can also see in the trailer below, one wrong move can send you rolling all the way down a mountain.
Over The Hill rules. Its open-world design is begging you to explore every corner of it, albeit very slowly at times, and like I'd expect from the Art of Rally team--a game with a buttery-smooth touch--your control over vehicles here is superb, with a level of precision and visual feedback that definitely puts any success or failure squarely in the hands of the driver, and not some other bullshit like a camera angle or twitchy steering.
It's out on PC now, but there are console ports coming in 2027.
