After playing for some time and finish the game several times, i think it is time to write a review. The game itself is a rogue-like done well. Lots of random encounters, side missions and events. Various MCVs(your main vehicle), escort/combat cars to start with - which are unlocked by achievements or tasks in the game; weapons and utilities. Combat system is a Real-time with tactical pause, which feels simple and intuitive. Also, it has a couple of movie references, which i found real fun and entertaining.
Now, some details about basic mechanics(i won`t write about story or specific cars, so expect no spoilers).
All objectives and events starts as a text mini-game with several options, which affects gameplay directly. For example, you`ve met a crowd of people.
You can choose to:
- engage them in combat;
- just pass by;
- persuade them to do what you need(in different situations), etc.
As i write above, combat is simple, but in a good way. Your MCV can`t move or attack, it only can use abilities(defensive/offensive/support). And if MCV is destroyed, you guessed it - game over. So you will depend on the escort cars to protect MCV most of the time. If you just shoot everything on sight, you will not succeed(unless you`ve got the best weapons and upgrades). Even then, you will need some tactics to achieve victory(blocking enemy shots with escort cars, using abilities depending on situation, etc.). As the game progresses enemies will be harder and better equipped, so you need to adapt your strategy. I don`t like to compare Convoy to FTL like many people do, because there`s nothing to compare, even if it "inspired by Mad Max and FTL". FTL have a lot MORE content and variety than Convoy and advanced mechanics if you ask me, but Convoy has its unique and beautiful charm. So if you enjoyed FTL or any other rogue-likes, you will enjoy Convoy. Thanks for attention and have a good day!
P.S. If you think that Convoy don`t have much content and you feel enthusiastic, you can create your own! Game has a ConvoyEditor(based on Unity) that can be used to create new units, scenarios and even voicelines!

Breaking this down by audience based on playing FTL. Either way I recommend this game.

If you have not played FTL:
This game is a vehicle based psudo-roguelike with active world map control and active grid based pausable combat in a Mad Max meets Sci-fi setting. Lay into raiders and pirates and borg with Autocannons, 100mm guns, pulse lasers, and ramming attacks using your escort vehicles while you Main Convoy Vehicle (MCV) trundles along in the middle of the screen. If your escorts blow up, they're gone, if your MCV blows up you lose. Your MCV has activated abilities you can buy or swap in from the default EMP cannon to mine launchers to Super Heavy rail guns. Outside of the main road, there can be obstructions which if collided with will destroy your escorts, so watch out for the skulls! Watch your fuel, because distance traveled outside of combat will deplete it and if you run out you'll be sitting ducks for raider attacks (which if you win will then give you fuel usually).

This game is HARD. My play time was to beat it on easy for the first time. There are random encounters both good and bad to be had out in the wastes, and sometimes they just don't come up your way. The radio beacons found on the map can be encounters, quests, or just a barrel of magic the gathering cards. Not even kidding on that last one. There are mini-bosses you can encounter if you get the right quests, and they are special MCV vs. MCV-ish-thing encounters. There is a final boss. It is not fair. You will lose the first time you encounter it. Accept that, do as well as you can and get as far as possible to see as much of it as you can before you lose. It's all about learning it's patterns and how to prepare for next time.

For those who have played FTL:
FTL with more perceived player agency. The world map is free movement, no time pressure beyond fuel consumption. The combat is more active as there is potentially more things to keep track of in terms of your own vehicle's positioning and weapons range. Unlocks are similarly random and specific. Difficulty is just as punishing while you learn the mechanics, and runs can get shut down early with bad RNG. No fleeing in combat means you don't have a way out if a situation gets hopeless so keep that in mind. The last boss is similar kinds of unfair, so be ready to learn it's patterns and die to it a few times. Main place it doesn't measure up for me to FTL is the music. It's not bad by any means, and it fades into the background nicely. I just hold FTL's OST in that high of regard. The game does have a space ship in it, but you don't get to fly it sadly.

Pick this game up if you want some of that FTL fun-ishing difficulty.

Very similar to FTL but without that game's sense of style and pacing. Combat is ok but fairly linear in progression. Endgame was way too hard. As a veteran roguelike player im familiar with punishing boss battles but that was just... broken.

Here comes another FTL comparison review. I just have to do it because reading the other ones is painful.

I keep reading these reviews where people say the combat is easy or that there is no depth to it and I just have to wonder how far they've managed to get.

Because if you just order your vehicles to fire at random cars without giving it a second thought, you get shredded rather quite quickly about midgame, no matter how powerful weapons you might have.

So yes - let me start off with - the meat of the game, the combat. Let's imagine FTL-like is a genre, then this definitely fits in that genre. However, to make an FPS analogy, this is to more of a Battlefield to FTL's Team Fortress. The two games are undeniably similar in their mechanics, but the way you play them is completely different.

Let's take a step back now - what makes an FTL-like game here? Take a strategy/tactics game where you have control of a large variety of game mechanics at once, with the ability to pause at any time without penalties to reasonably micromanage everything. You do that in FTL, you do that in Convoy. What you do is different in both games.

FTL "overwhelms" you with it's combat mechanics. You are in charge of aiming and firing each weapon, distributing power between all the ship's systems, commanding the ship's whole crew et cetera et cetera. Point is - there is a lot of mechanics to keep a track of. If you had no pause you'd be drowning.

Convoy is different. The mechanics are actually deceptively simple and, compared to FTL, much less varied, and this becomes apparent very early on. This is where the "but you only click at cars and watch" sentiment comes from. Convoy is complex in different ways, and this only becomes important later on.

In Convoy, each battle has you manage your MCV's abilities (weapons and shields) with a long cooldown time. This aspect of the game seems very insignificant at first as your starting MCV only has a stun weapon which, while useful as all hell, doesn't seem that important for newcomers since you can just blast your opponents to bits. Important note: In Convoy, Easy difficulty is actually medium rather than hard as in FTL, which I think is a pretty good idea. Anyway, MCV can't move at all, further emulating FTL behavior. The other vehicles under your control are where the differences really start to kick in. You can order them to move around an imaginary game grid and target their weapons at specific enemies, which is a pretty damn major thing. The whole game is built around the movement aspect and it has a lot of depth to it.

Whereas in FTL you want to disable enemy weapons ASAP and then keep pounding them into the ground, in Convoy you can only do so with a stun weapon which you can only target one vehicle at a time with, so you have to strategize which one might be the most troublesome. And even then the stun only lasts so long, so you better focus your vehicles' fire on the sucker and try and take him out before he goes back online. But you can't because your MCV is blocking your vehicles' line of fire, so you have to rotate around it, but you can't because the slimy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥s put up guards on each end of the MCV that you have to deal with first. And if you think you can just assign one of your vehicles to each one of them, let me tell you, you can't, you'll get heavily damaged or lose a vehicle. You want to always attack each enemy vehicle with multiple of your own, much like when boarding in FTL.

Except unlike FTL there is minelayer way in front and out of your technicals' reach (vehicles can't fire over the whole screen) merrily crapping out stun mines, there are some bloody random wrecks lying around on the road some of which you have freshly created, and you're fighting in a town so there are buildings you can crash into. All of above you have to dodge with each of your vehicles, good luck if you roll over a stun mine just before a bridge pillar, though. Oh, and the vehicles also block each other's line of sight, enemy or foe, thus you always want to build a car wall in front of your target in such a way that each of them can fire freely. Failure to do so results in potentional friendly fire, however most vehicles do not attempt to fire when there is something in the way, resulting in them pretty much being useless at that point in time. Keep in mind friendly fire can still happen with weapons like rockets or cannons. And once you manage to make a nice formation, you have to break it shortly after due to an upcoming bridge, and mobilizing 4 vehicles at once is a fresh artform - and there was actually a way to sneak one of your heavy haulers up to the side of an enemy vehicle and ram it off the road just before the bridge, but you only realize moments too late. It's a constant rush and there are always ways to improve your tactics.

As for upgrades, each vehicle has up to 4 item slots and can be upgraded in various ways. Make no mistake, only MCV weapons/utilities have FTL-long charging sequences, and there is no generator or anything like it. You don't need to upgrade your vehicle to use a super heavy plasma cannon. In fact, super heavy plasma cannon doesn't charge slower than a medium plasma cannon, either. It's a straight upgrade. Why would you not buy a super heavy plasma cannon right from the start, then? You can't. In FTL, an earlygame top tier weapon is a naive build and gets you killed, but here it would be gamebreaking, if it was possible. It seems in this game, top tier weapons do the same thing in lategame as crap tier peashooters in earlygame, just with bigger numbers being displayed. How does this even work? It seems it serves mostly to slow you down and try to grind events. I might be getting it wrong, though.

In FTL, you are being chased by the rebel army, which serves to set fire to your butthair. What sets that figurative fire here, if anything? Well, there are three unique factions on the map, each controlling a slice of it. These slices grow bigger with time. And the colored hexagons get more intense coloration. Very intense coloration = more random engagements. If you fail to collect all parts and return them to your ship in time, you stand no chance. And there's no upgrading on the go, either, not even equipping weapons you have found - you can only do so at camps, where you also buy stuff, repair and refuel. Finding top tier guns isn't going to be any help unless you manage to find a camp before you get destroyed. At the same time, there is no worry of spending scrap before jumping to store, since you literally can't.

When it comes to events, FTL is a joke next to Convoy. The first thing that comes to mind is Fallout 3 vs New Vegas writing. Mechanically, in both games, the events provide fictional scenarios resolved by RNG, with some morals thrown in (being a mean person usually pays off in both). The writing though - in FTL, you randomly deliver parts for traders. In Convoy, you provide taxi service for hitchhikers who range from hippies looking to travel the wastes to dragon slayers looking to, well, kill a dragon (and kill a dragon you will), and you can shoot almost everyone you meet in the face.

So in short, how does Convoy compare to FTL? FTL is about forgetting to turn your oxygen back on, Convoy is about driving your cars into hoodoos. FTL is, I would say, more complex, but Convoy is more elegant, it puts everything into the movement which is much more intuitive and yet every bit as tactical, if not more. In terms of content, there is more to FTL, definitely, but to me it just feels that what Convoy offers is better, even if there's less of it. It's very much subjective which you would prefer, which is already quite monumental considering FTL is like, the ultimate game.

I realize this is more of an analysis/comparison than a review, but it might be very helpful for coming FTL players which I believe you are if you're still reading this. So you're welcome.

I was one of the Kickstarter backers, I was very excited for another FTL experience. Unfortunately this is far shallower, and far less mentally rewarding.

FTL had encapsulated skill, strategic choices, resource management, risk-assessment, fluid combat, prioritizing, transparency, compelling yet simple narrative, wealth of content, and no small degree of occasional panic. It's a fantastic game, and one that this game obviously aspires to be like. Convoy doesn't live up to the legacy, sadly.

Skill does play a part in this game, but mostly it reflects itself in finding the most efficient way to shove someone in to a cliff. Which is good fun, the first fifty or so times.

Sadly, your choices can feel arbitrary or downright random, the same actions doing different things across the same play-through, interacting with the exact same NPC's in special events. After running into "plague guy" 3 times in the same play-through, it got extremely silly (Hilariously enough, this one has no random variance at all to it, even though it seems very risky. Silly, arbitrary.)

Resources are actually pretty annoying to manage, being unable to repair armor and health independently, I often end up at half armor capacity because I can't afford to drop another 30ish per vehicle to get armor topped off after a few run-ins with some cannons or plasma guns. You have NO indication at all of your fuel economy, and the lack of a world map makes long term planning very, very annoying due to inefficiency of the way point map system.

Risk assessment is impossible: once you're in combat, you're stuck in, you can't leave even if you're stuck in a scenario where you can't hurt each other. For example, had a mine-laying enemy just drive at the front of my MCV which had no weapons, and kept dropping mines that did zero damage to my 100% resistant MCV. It wouldn't close the gap to finish the fight with its laser, so I had to quit out. From a game design standpoint, this is indicative of a huge balance problem.

Combat is...messy, In some ways good, most bad. The explosive chaos is fun to watch, but sometimes the hitboxes escape the cars, or enemy vehicles both occupy the same hex (just decide to phase through solid matter, because that's fair), or the game loses track of who's where and everyone starts flying around like there's a huge tornado whipping through the battlefield. Having no control over your main ship is a huge waste of potential as well, but I'll save that for another day. The weapons fire slowly compared to hp totals, so combat can drag on, especially at low-levels. There's little strategic element to it, most combat being merely a dps race with some positioning shenanigans and ramming cheese. Fights are more often than not just gear checks, so you'll either stomp or get demolished.

Likewise, your priority is always the same: kill the enemy with the least shields and biggest guns first, and road hazards aren't a risk at all: I love those skulls, they win me so many fights I would rather they showed an angelic choir instead. There's no true variance, because armor shredding weapons almost always do a heap of damage, and a machine at %1 hp fights just as well as one at %100 hp. In this regard it's a massive and disappointing departure from FTL.

The game also suffers from a transparency issue: No obvious hotkeys for MCV abilities, instead 1234 selects cars. The MCV abilities are labeled as 1234, so this feels stupid, and the cars aren't marked on the overview, so you're pretty much just reaching into a hat for on-the-fly selection. Some of the weapon descriptions are downright wrong, stating improper values or characteristics (heavy plasma comes to mind). You have no indication of weapon cool-downs on your vehicle, which makes deeper strategy impossible. Line of sight is a bit iffy as well, sometimes with a vehicle being able to squeeze shots around corners, sometimes not. No world map makes planning fuel more of a crap-shoot than it already is (with consumption rates being hidden). With dialogue being almost completely random, I've stopped doing more than skim because my choices feel insignificant. Not being able to view vehicle stats outside of camp is stupid, stupid game design.

This game's narrative is run-of-the-mill, but the some of the writing feels like it was done by a few seventeen year-olds off of 4ch. Crammed with references and little actual content, it feels a bit like playing Fallout 2, only without the base narrative to support it. References should be used like sprinkles: Fallout 2 was over-sprinkled, sure, but the cupcake under it was great. This feels like making a cupcake entirely out of sprinkles. The references are cute the first time through, annoying after that.

Convoy also has an issue with amount of content: you can expect to see every encounter and permutation of that encounter over just a few hours or so. With a lot of it being luck based, you generally just construct yourself an optimal choices flowchart and just don't even both with reading any of the boxes after a point.

FTL invokes an immediate sense of panic: fire in oxygen supply, hull breach in weapons room, boarders trashing our engines, sickbay is offline and our shields are getting hammered with laser blasts and asteroids: what do you do?! Convoy invokes an annoying sense of dread: my vehicles are mostly unharmed, my MCV has 60% health, not much armor and I'm 100km from a camp after a single run in with a boss. My first thought: I'm dead. I can't mitigate all the damage going to my main unit, and two run ins with well-shielded raiders can very easily shred all the hp off it when they completely ignore the vehicles hammering on them to kill my main unit. The AI is spiteful and it's supposed to be difficult, but that makes no sense from a realistic perspective: when attacking a convoy, why attack the unarmed vehicle and ignore the lighter ones bristling with guns? When you attack a convoy are you throwing your life away to make the other guy "lose the game?" You're generally trying to rob it, not suicide bomb like you're trying to make the Emperor proud. It feels inelegant mostly because the MCV has the least ability to defray damage to it.

Also, bugs galore. Plague guy broken, found an infinite encounter loop with a repeating dialogue tree, previously mention vehicle bugs, getting robbed by Andy's goons puts you into negative 90k parts (instant loss with no way back), journal entries broken for duped quests, raider boss starting on a bridge with his reinforcement immediately tossing themselves off the cliff, EMP mines stunning instead of eating shields, ghost enemy vehicles following you around (!), 100% mine resist sometimes not working, stranded convoy asking for 30 fuel but the game wants 50... This was just in a few hours! This game is NOT ready for release from a bugfix standpoint.

And just one word about insta-loss scenarios: It's hot! Your vehicle explodes! They're patching these out, but it begs the question: Who in their right mind thought this would ever be a good idea to put in the game?

So, all in all, this game is below average: buggy, unresponsive, insubstantial, and not very replayable. It's not a Roguelike at all, but a psedoRPG with some random encounter elements to it.

It has one saving grace: the boss is FUN! This is the only part that had me panicked and kept me on my toes. It really reminded me of FTL because he doesn't try to cheese you, and instead tries to pick you apart as you do the same to him. He feels FTL, and it makes the rest of the game feel all the shallower. (It's not fun when he chases you across savegames. Oh look, a bug.)

Some might feel my frequent comparisons are unwarranted, but the makers were trying to make a comparably fun experience, and I feel it is warranted to draw comparisons. Or even required.

This game has a lot of heart, and still has potential to be good, but as it stands right now it gets a red thumb from me.

-Start game
-Play on hard #Yolo
-Get annihilated
-Play on normal
-Get annihilated
-Play on easy
-Get annihilated
-Decide to flee from everyone
-Gotta go fast
-Too slow
-Get annihilated
-Get angry
-Yolo across map to all main objectives
-Out of fuel
-Mechanic asks me if he can make bio-fuel out of the crew
-No ♥♥♥♥ing way mechanic
-Wait
-Sees dust cloud
-Army of Raiders with artillery incoming
-Oh. Still had fuel left. Let's engage them
-Get annihilated
-69th try
-Found car wreck. Got 230 bolts
-Sees casino
-Wins car, 130 bolts left
-Doing well
-Some guys ask me to transport their cargo
-Kill everyone
-Steal cargo
-Cargo contains giant mega battle robot of death
-Get annihilated
-Quits game

10/10 would get annihilated again.

Convoy is an unforgiving tactical rogue-like set in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world. Your spacecraft encountered 'issues' on your long voyage through space and you have been forced to land on Omek Prime, a desolate and apocalyptic world where chaos rules as three factions battle for control of what little is left of the planet's civilization. You job in Convoy is to seek the four main components required to repair your spacecraft so that you may continue on your voyage and to find these parts you must travel all across Omek Prime. Convoy is inspired by FTL: Faster Than Light and Mad Max and it really shows whether it's through a similar art style to FTL or more explosions than you could possibly hope for like Mad Max.

+Awesome pixel graphics which are reminiscent of FTL
+Fun strategic combat which includes the ability to pause during the fight to plan your moves
+Despite the random encounters starting the same way in every playthrough they always play a different way and selecting the same options in two different playthroughs will more than likely have different outcomes
+Continuing with random encounters there's a good balance between positive and negative outcomes
+Brutally unforgiving, you're going to die a lot but all that means is more satisfaction when you get it right
+It takes a while to get the hang of things but once you start being able to defeat enemies relatively easily it's an absolute blast
+You can ram your enemies during combat which if used at the right times could instantly spell the end of your foe or at the very least cause serious damage to your foe though you do also take some damage
+The map screen provides information on what faction controls the area you are in and it also gives you some idea of what terrain you're travelling over which is useful as more mountainous terrain increases fuel consumption
+A wide variety of weapons and other parts to find and/or buy throughout your playthrough as well as other vehicles for your convoy which can either be bought at camps or acquired by completing certain side missions
+Quite a few different vehicles to unlock through doing things such as beating a boss with certain weapons
+Three different factions each with their own types of vehicles to fight all of which are well designed
+Great writing
+The vehicles in your convoy can be upgraded in a number of ways such as increasing their health, increasing their range or giving them damage protection against mines
+Environmental dangers which can easily destroy your convoy if you aren't paying attention but can also be used to your advantage if you ram enemies into them
+Lots of explosions
+Good soundtrack and great sound effects

+/-Personally I've encountered no bugs but some people have experienced some minor graphical bugs

-The map is quite small and it doesn't take long for you to reach the boundaries which is quite disappointing
-Fuel consumption feels a bit too high which is rather annoying since you're almost as good as dead when you run out of fuel unless you have a powerful convoy
-Very little variety of enemies early on in the game
-Very little variety in the way of environments where combat takes place

Verdict:
9

A fantastic, brutal, strategic rogue-like with awesome pixel graphics, fun strategic combat, and interesting game world and a great soundtrack. If you're a fan of FTL or just strategic rogue-likes in general then this is a must buy.

***This review was written using a key provided by the Developer for review purposes***

El K.

As a KS backer with alpha access, I've seen Convoy grow from its crude alpha stages to its release version. And it has improved a lot.

The battles are fun. Upgrading vehicles and planning the composition of your convoy is entertaining. The text-based events give the world a little backstory, but are short enough reads that they won't distract players who enjoy the exploration and combat aspects of the game. The soundtrack is good, and the final boss battle is a blast! The devs really put quite a bit of effort to that one.

The random events can be a bit cruel sometimes for the unprepared, but you can learn to avoid some of them, a thing you either like or don't, but still, Convoy is a game that I'm happy to have backed and can recommend it.

I'll give the release version a score of 8.8/10.

This is a lot like FTL. You experience most of the same rogue-like antics, and it's really challenging. If you like FTl or just like Mad Max or even post-apocalyptic games, you will love this.

This game is a MUST HAVE for all FTL fans!

It's basically FTL 2 with some great gameplay changes, like open world and more dynamic combat. The best part is that after over 200h of FTL, Convoy feels really fresh and I want to play it more and more ^^

11/10 would die again :3