American Fugitive is a top-down open world action game where the main character escapes prison to try and prove his innocence. He is accused of murdering his own father. The story is decent. I love the characters.
Driving in American Fugitive is one of my favorite things which works out since it's the majority of the gameplay. The camera cannot be controlled which can be awkward at first but once you get used to it everything is smooth. The camera work is something I'm very impressed by. Since it's not controllable, the default camera has to work really well and it does. The only spots that are a little rough with the camera are very high speed heavy sharp turns but that's also something you can get used to. Overall, I'm really impressed by the camera and controls while driving and while on foot.
There is a variety of fun driving mini-games. In one, you drive a tank and blast everything in sight. There are races including single lap and multi-lap but always only versus the track and not other racers. The most technical driving mini-game is where you have to drive over mines to set them off without exploding. They're all really fun and make me want more. Once you earn a Gold medal in them there's no reason to continue playing outside of just wanting to repeat it for fun.
Other side content includes jumps all over the world to do for fun and get a skill point reward. Oh yeah, I forgot there's a skill tree in American Fugitive as well. It's pretty cool. There's special paintings in certain homes that you can steal to sell for lots of money. These are little side pieces of content that are great. I didn't really bother with stealing paintings. I haven't found much need for hunting money and I'm kinda rich in the game without trying. There's also random money and stashes all over the place. I love it!
There's not a lot of combat but when there is, there's lots of action including both melee and gun combat. I suppose you could trigger action wherever you want if you wanna get into gun fights with the cops or go on a crime spree.
The world isn't huge, it's big enough for a twin-stick game and I'm really impressed with the amount of content and variation Fallen Tree Games made available in American Fugitive.
One thing that bugs me is that you always lose your car when you start a side mission. It just despawns. There's a lot of running as well as driving since you always have to find a car to steal. And almost every time you steal a car you have to escape a police chase. You get used to that as well and it's super easy once you do (depending on the car type). Very fun.
Running is a bit slow but it feels good for the size of the world. Stamina is decent since it recharges very quickly. There are upgrades to increase stamina duration. I saved that upgrade for last since I don't mind the running that much in this game world. My first upgrade priority is almost always Inventory size in any game.
The theft mechanic in American Fugitive is neat. The game goes into an overlay screen showing the frame of the house and each room you can move to. There's a timer for how long you have to search a building before the cops will show up (unless you get in stealthily with a lockpick). Each room allows you to "search" it and when you do, the timer goes down faster.
While I do like the home theft mechanic, it doesn't make me want to search every home in the game. I think that's just more a preference in that I don't really have interest in robbing random homes. But I do think it's designed very well. You can hold up shops with a weapon and tie witnesses up if you have the right tools in your inventory.
The music is really good. I wish it would play more often. It's one of those games where the music rarely plays. Lame! More music please. Visually, the game is gorgeous in both night and day. That and a bit of weather cycle is great! I love all the detail!
I would really love to see more games like American Fugitive and The Ascent with much bigger worlds. Scaled to the size of Horizon Zero Dawn for example and others of course. That said, I also wouldn't mind it being half that size.
American Fugitive is a truly impressive game. Thanks for reading. Game on.
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