If there was an award for grossest sounds per minute, I'm positive that the Roadside Research demo would take it. It's like any other shop/restaurant/venue simulator on the surface: buy goods, sell goods, make customers happy, make a profit.
Except every step I take causes an unsettling squelching noise to ricochet through my ears, and every now and then I appear to shit green goo. That's because I'm actually an alien running a gas station in an attempt to blend in with humans while simultaneously figuring out on the sly what makes 'em tick.
Why aliens would descend on Earth and decide that filling up tanks and selling overpriced snacks would be the best course of action is beyond me but hey, it makes for an awfully compelling gameplay loop.
Roadside Research starts me off with one gas tank, one shelf, and a handful of cash to get things chugging along. There are four different fuel types to keep in good supply, and an ever-increasing number of chips, drinks, and random utilitarian doo-dads I can eventually unlock through an upgrade tree to sell onto customers for a tidy profit.
I played alone (though you can play with up to three friends, which feels preferable with all the plates I ended up spinning) which meant I was regularly dashing between the cashier desk and the fuel pump to make money, all while random bits of trash and dirt began to stink up the whole gaff. The trash comes in handy, though—it's the kickstart to researching humans, and so I scurry around in between customers collecting cans and wadded-up tissues to throw in my alien scanner and gain research points.
Maintaining a low profile is paramount though, and getting up to too many suspicious activities makes my human customers suspicious. They don't seem too fazed by my incessant litter-picking—it's part of the job, after all—but after collecting a good chunk of research points I nab myself a camera. I'm tasked with taking pictures of humans with certain features, like someone with blue hair or somebody wearing a white shirt.
I make the mistake of chasing a man as he enters the bathroom, my alien eye peering through the lens ready to shoot. He turns around and spots me, and is immediately suspicious. This might be tougher than I thought.
Do too many un-humanlike things, and agents will rock up to determine if you're really a human or actually a slimy otherworldly creature with a doodled-on piece of paper strapped to your face. Breathe like a human, serve like a human, and the agents eventually leave. Cock things up though, and it's game over.
Balancing human research with running a tight ship at the gas station keeps things constantly moving each day, with two separate upgrade trees to focus on that meant I was rarely ever standing still waiting for something to happen. I did manage to find a little bit of time to throw up some decorations around my humble rest stop though, things to really make me fit in among the humans—discount signs, a boombox, an American flag to show off my patriotism, all the regular stuff.
It really is good fun, and my two hours spent in the demo went by dizzyingly fast. I'm already getting ready to convince my pals to pick it up and give Roadside Research a whirl with me. Even if that's only partly because I'm desperate for extra helping hands to be on goop duty when I accidentally defecate all over a customer's shoes. It's tough doing it all by yourself.
