Prior to moving back to New York City last spring, I hadn’t ridden a bike in Manhattan much since I was in my 20s, when I had less health insurance than I have today but was also (incorrectly) less worried about getting hurt. These days, I have become the safety-conscious middle-aged man with a bad knee and insurance premiums who shakes his fist at all the other cyclists busting through red lights and riding the wrong way. But I'm enjoying recent indie game Parcel Corps for letting me remember how it (incorrectly) felt to feel invincible.
Parcel Corps came out in early October. You play as a bike messenger, choosing a faction and then making deliveries across a busy, brightly-colored city. Speeding along under time pressure, you can grind rails, wall-ride, slide under obstacles, and perform other tricks. I’ve only played the game’s earliest hours, which see you darting back and forth across areas forming relationships with businesses and then delivering their packages, but there are multiple areas and also appear to be different kinds of missions, such as ones that require you to perform certain tricks.
Player reviews for the game are mixed, with some folks taking umbrage with whether Parcel Corps lives up to the legacy of games like Crazy Taxi or Jet Set Radio from which they feel it draws inspiration. I’ll be honest that I haven’t played those games, and also that I haven’t played the game long enough to offer any kind of definitive assessment of its overall quality. If you’re curious about it, there’s a Steam demo I’d encourage you to check out to see if it’s your speed.
What I have really liked about Parcel Corps, though, is the bright, friendly vibes of its city, and how it encourages you to feel good about riding around like a maniac. That imperative to break the law and violate common sense was what made being a bike messenger the cool kids’ job when I was young, and Parcel Corps captures that ethos with the bonus that, from what I’ve seen, you can’t get injured or injure anyone else. This turns the city into a playground for stupid decisions. Hurtle through a park where pedestrians are walking? Ride the wrong way down the busiest roads? Look at your cell phone while doing all of it? Go for it. The sun is always shining, people are always in a good mood–I’m charmed by the game’s goofy humor–and even though I tend to get stressed out by games with time limits, the chill vibe makes the game feel relaxed even when it’s chaotic.
I’ve biked into Manhattan a couple times in the last few weeks, and I’ve been shocked by how different it feels than my own Brooklyn streets, as well as how much it seems to have changed since I was younger. There’s more bike infrastructure now, which I appreciate, but there are also more different kinds of vehicles on the roads. I don’t want to be anti e-bikes, but I have to admit they stress me out: roaring up behind me in the bike lane, speeding the wrong way down narrow bridges, and racing down sidewalks. When combined with vehicles like mopeds that seem to use any lane they feel like, and with the mind-bendingly bad choices inexperienced cyclists sometimes make on Citi Bikes in my presence, I find a lot of city riding utterly harrowing. Just this week I witnessed the ugly aftermath of a collision between two e-bikes; a few months ago I watched someone on a motorized scooter nearly take out multiple pedestrians by zooming through a firmly red light in a busy tourist area; and the other night I watched a guy with several children on his bike act like he was the only vehicle on the road while cars and bikes with the right of way screeched and skidded to accommodate his choices.
Look: I used to be that guy who rode like this too. (I still remember a fireman crassly yelling “Nice move, asshole!” as I darted at high speed in front of their truck; I yelled back “It was!” and yes, it was, but jesus christ it was a fire truck, I could have waited.) And I understand the way delivery apps like the kind Parcel Corps sends up incentivize dangerous riding. As furious as I get watching regular riders make dangerous, terrifying choices for no apparent reason, I think the bulk of the solution will always be making the city safer for cyclists and pedestrians. (*Cough* real congestion pricing.) But I also know, or at least remember, the particular kind of joy that can come from making the streets your own, from using the available landscape to prioritize your own momentum. It’s fun to ride like an asshole, even if it, well, makes you an asshole.
So I like seeing Parcel Corps as a place to let those tendencies and desires loose, a kind of video game power fantasy where you can ride how you want with no consequences. I may have gone from being a cool bike punk to the kind of old man who’s probably a few years removed from wearing a neon safety vest everywhere (no shade: visibility is important!), but I have needs too, dammit. In Parcel Corps, I can bust down highways and slide under trucks and ride on sidewalks like the whole world exists just for me and my bike. And, oh yeah, I guess make deliveries too.
