The gods are dead. Reality is bleeding. Gigantic corpses litter the island of Nastrondey. It might be the end of the world, or it might be the opportunity to change it. As research scientists turn into singing coils of flesh, and soldiers are flattened out into a primordial soup of their component chemicals, shadowy organisations try to take control of the island’s strange anomalies, while their psychic spies desperately try to make contact with them.
In the midst of it all, you are a Pathfinder — an expendable courier employed by the Fenrir Directive’s 13th Strategic Logistics Company; a “sacrificial artery” tasked with ferrying men, materiel, and artefacts between Nastrondey’s outpost research stations — the beating hearts of the Fenrir Directive’s research into the game’s slow-motion apocalypse.
Prospice: Anomalous Logistics is the upcoming horror-logistics game from Code Walkers — developers of the criminally underrated Luftrausers-like, Jet Lancer. Part Easy Delivery Co., part Spintires, with lashings of “analogue horror”, it’s a surprisingly cosy affair—in spite of its monsters, weird gore, and cosmic horror theming.
Opening with the crunchy, radiation-damaged fisheye lens of the game’s on-foot sections looking up at the massive rotting body of what the game’s lore calls a “god”, Prospice sets its tone immediately; this tone is then solidified when you turn around to discover a giant hand—severed from said dead god — strapped down in the bed of your truck. Though ostensibly a horror game, Prospice is aiming at weird before scary — the horror elements are there more for texture than scares—occasionally, it even seems to almost edge over into black comedy.
After a brief bit of exploration, climbing inside the ribcage of the rotting deity and talking to the hazmat-clad NPCs, you hop in your truck and begin the game’s first mission: driving the huge, jiggling god-hand across the wilderness to Outpost 02 — the research outpost and logistics centre which serves as the game’s main hub.
From Easy Delivery Co. to Euro Truck Simulator — there’s something deeply comfy about quiet courier games set in bizarre, post-apocalyptic worlds, and Prospice is no different. While there’s certainly the ever-present threat of hostile creatures lurking just out of sight, the game revels in a relaxing, almost hypnotic liminality.
The core gameplay loop of switching between high and low gears to crest hills and conserve fuel in your sluggish little truck is immensely satisfying, and having to figure out routes around wet mud or up the least steep parts of steep inclines is a strangely meditative experience. Nastrondey provides just enough constant, low-level resistance that the player is forced to be present and attentive at all times — moment-to-moment problem solving makes the forests, beaches, and plains feel tangible and alive. Prospice is not afraid of friction, and this friction is what makes the game work.
Once you arrive at your destination, the hand is removed from your truck, and you’re given a meagre reward and a couple new tasks to choose from. This is the pattern for the game going forward—from A to B, then back to A for a payout. It’s a structure that risks descending into tedium, and Code Walkers seem to have anticipated this. In my three hours with the game’s playtest, I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of missions on offer—beyond standard logistics missions, you’ll find yourself collecting artefacts from ruins, photographing and cataloguing anomalies, investigating a crashed helicopter, and setting up map relay towers for the game’s highly engaging and endlessly frustrating (in a good way) map system. No two missions were ever identical, and even standard logistics missions generally end up taking you past (or through) something interesting.
The little lore dumps and “mission complete!” commentaries also help flesh things out, as do the codex entries, giving the world a real sense of place. With its internet-age malaise of dead gods, shadowy organisations, and expendable 9-5 workers interacting with the impossible—not to mention the crunchy found-footage aesthetics—the game already feels ripe for a Wendigoon deep dive.
While Prospice: Anomalous Logistics doesn’t yet have a release date, the Playtest is still open and highly recommended to anyone looking to scratch their sci-fi-horror trucking itch. There are currently nine missions available, which is more than enough to get a feel for the game —and so few that it’ll leave you desperate for more!
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