We’ve been following the release of Music Drive: Chase the Beat for a few weeks, and now bring you our review of the game out today on Steam. It’s also available on Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, priced at $9.99. The game is a retro-inspired driving action game from QUByte Interactive and Salve Games that seems to take inspiration from classic driving titles such as GTA and The Getaway. It does, however, have lots of its own ideas, especially around presenting the soundtrack.
Music Drive: Chase the Beat is all about getting your friends’ stolen mix tapes back and experiencing life in a Brazilian favela. The precious resource of music is in the hands of your enemies, and it’s down to you and your partner to get all the tapes back. You do this by chasing down vans holding the stolen goods, wiping them out, and collecting the dropped tapes. Sounds simple, but during missions, other gang members keep trying to take you down in drive-by shootings. Your only line of defence is an auto-controlled shooter in your vehicle in the guise of your partner.
For every successful raid, you gather bundles of tapes that need to be delivered back to your friends. As you attempt to get the tapes back on the streets, you’re bombarded by other gang shooters and need to survive until the end of the level. Get to the end and you’re rewarded with cash for the completed deliveries. You then use this cash to upgrade your vehicles and weapons. These upgrades give you the extra grunt needed to get further into the game and to the harder levels in Music Drive: Chase the Beat. The gameplay loop is interesting, and you’ll make plenty of mistakes as you learn what the best approach is to each situation.
The main game can be completed in about an hour or so, but there is plenty to do after you’ve seen all the levels. There are lots of vehicles and weapons to buy and upgrade, each one having its benefits. For our playthrough, we upgraded the yellow car and rifle to the max, and we felt powerful driving around levels and taking out other gang members. That said, considering you don’t control the firing, just driving the car may start to become repetitive if the gameplay loop in Music Drive: Chase the Beat doesn’t grab you strongly from the outset. Although a short game, what is here works well and scratches a retro itch.
One of the standout features of Music Drive: Chase the Beat is the overall presentation. The brilliant retro graphics make the whole game feel like an early PlayStation 1 game. This is seen in the bold polygonal shapes and lack of textures, with a limited use of color. It all looks great and has a real retro feel that shines through in the game’s short, snappy levels. Also, the way the cars are controlled adds to the feeling that this game belongs in the mid-90s. They tend to swing a little and have that ever-so-slight floaty feel that all racing games had back then.
Then there is the excellent music that is at the heart of Music Drive: Chase the Beat. The soundtrack has been composed by Brazilian musician NP Vocal, who does an excellent job of putting together a high-quality score for this video game. It was great to experience some new music that we’d not heard before and to learn a bit about music from Brazil. It’s also brilliant how you unlock new tracks and can listen to them on the cassette deck after retrieving them from the missions. The developers and artists’ desire to showcase Brazilian favela life has worked well and the vibe matches the graphics and general gameplay.
Although Music Drive: Chase the Beat has been marketed as an action driving game, it actually feels more like an arthouse interactive music experience. After we completed the main game levels, we just listened to some of the tracks on the tapes and tried to imagine what life must be like in the favelas of Brazil before tackling a few more missions. This kind of gaming experience won’t be for everyone, but anyone who likes artistic themes and quirky gameplay loops may find something to play for a long time here. One downside to the artistic nature of the game is the menus, which feel a bit clunky at times and break the immersion for a second.
Overall, Music Drive: Chase the Beat accomplishes its mission to provide a slice of life in the outskirts of Brazil. The music is high-quality and adds a great mix of vibes from a known artist. The graphics are also spot on 90s gaming, as is the general feel of controlling the cars. This game is unique in the way it combines action with art, then adds a nostalgia wrapping that will please lots of retro fans. This is a fun game, but how long you’ll play and the overall value will come down to whether the gameplay loop grabs you or if you become a big fan of the music.
