Parcel Corps Review (PC): An Imperfect but Fun Blast From the Past

If you merged Death Stranding's delivery service idea with Tony Hawk's grind features and Borderlands' satire... you still wouldn't get Parcel Corps, but the result would be similar. You can tackle it alone or online with friends on PC, Xbox Series S|X, and PlayStation 5 for $35.

The delivery game will have you choose between three factions to carry out various assignments thrust onto you by annoyingly over-talkative NPCs (non-player characters). You get a package, pedal your heart away while performing some tricks, and get paid after everything's done.

With the money earned, you can upgrade your bike or get better individual parts, that sort of thing. Nothing new under the sun. Your missions sometimes vary from the classic "Go From Point A to Point B" type. Some will have you perform various tricks against a time limit, which can be challenging. I found the game's overall difficulty all right.

Imperfect

Parcel Corps is a lighthearted experience that seems made for a younger audience. The cel-shaded-like graphics are easy on the eyes, especially if you're rocking an OLED screen. The game's vibe is peaceful and funky, but it tries too much to show you how witty it is instead of letting you enjoy the gameplay.

After the 30-minute tutorial, which I found antiquated, with overbearing instructions, you meet NPCs that overshare everything. There's an Arnold Schwarzenegger-inspired character, which is long-expired in 2024 because his popularity isn't as omnipresent as it once was.

Another quest-giver is the most annoying stereotypical Italian pizza-making chef you will probably ever encounter. His face is literally covered in melted pizza, and the list doesn't stop there.

I found the Skip button like a breath of fresh air. The dialogue doesn't feel like fan service but more like self-service. However, maybe the aim was to make fun of stereotypical characters from the '80s and '90s. In that case, mission accomplished.

After getting over these nuisances, I finally started enjoying the gameplay, which was the best part of Parcel Corps. I found no bugs to annoy me, and the mechanics worked as intended. However, a few things bothered me.

Firstly, I couldn't control the camera with the right thumbstick from my controller. Maybe there's a setting to unlock the fixed camera position, but it was nowhere to be found. Also, the jump and action buttons were "inversed," so to speak.

Almost every platforming game has the jump mechanic mapped to the A (Xbox) or X (PS) buttons, and the action button to X (Xbox) or Square (PS). Pressing A to jump is like hitting the Space Bar on the PC. It's hardcoded in our brains.

But on a controller, Parcel Corps has it reversed. It took me over 40 minutes to get used to things, and I still couldn't get the timing right, so I often lost my momentum. I even tried switching the buttons in the settings, but it didn't work.

What I liked most about the game was the well-crafted, thoughtful environment, designed not to harm you, like a child-protected house. While cars can ram you off your bike, it's often your fault. People get out of your path, GTA-style, and mostly nothing gets between you and your objective. This way of freeing up your route was carefully planned and showed the Billy Goat Entertainment devs loved their creation.

Lacking in Performance

To run the game properly at minimum settings, you need at least 16 GB of RAM, a Ryzen 3 3100 processor or equivalent, and an AMD Radeon RX 560 or Nvidia GTX 1050 graphics card. For the time being, the recommended specs are being kept hidden, but based on my experience with Parcel Corps, I could weigh in.

My PC has 32 GB RAM, an Intel i9-13900K CPU, and an Nvidia RTX 4080, and I play everything on a 4K 144Hz Gigabyte M28U monitor. As a quick side note, if you're looking for a great 4K IPS monitor, look no further than this model because it's the best I've ever used—aside from OLED screens, of course, but that's another story.

During the gruesome tutorial area, my rig couldn't handle more than 48 fps on average at 4K. I tried finding the graphical settings in-game for the life of me but came up short, so I assumed everything was turned to Ultra.

Still, with a $4,000 PC from 2022, 48 frames per second in a parcel delivery game isn't ideal. I had much better results recently in God of War Ragnarok, not to mention The Crew Motorfest.

However, things improved in the post-tutorial area of the game. While it maintained at least 60 fps (V-sync off), it barely got past 62 or 64 frames. The devs have a bit of work to do with the optimization.

Conclusion

You can try out the demo version on Steam to see if the funky delivery video game suits your playstyle needs. Although it made a bad first impression on me with the grueling tutorial and incessant NPCs, it can be a fun distraction for a while, after you finally get to the core of the gameplay.

If you're really in the mood for a tried-and-true sports game, you can find Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 for $45 on Steam. I'd recommend trying this one out first, where you know you can't fail. On Steam, it's sitting very pretty, with an overall player review score of 90%, which is monumental for a game—especially these days.

Ubisoft's Riders Republic is a bit more extreme, but it's awesome when you get into the thick of it. It's available on the Ubisoft+ monthly subscription service on Xbox and PC, along with a ton of other Ubi games. If you're rocking a PlayStation, you'll find it in the PS Plus Game Catalogue.

Rating 55/100