While scrolling through the upcoming release games, I saw “Roadside Research”. To my excitement, a copy landed in my inbox a few days later, and I couldn’t wait to try it. Developer “Cybernetic Walrus” and publisher “Oro Interactive” have released a 1-4 player gas station management simulation with an alien twist. Let’s jump in and see if the release hype lives up to the game.

You have been sent to Earth by your father, Gleerp, who doesn’t have much faith in your ability to complete the mission of studying human behaviour while running a petrol station. This isn’t just your normal petrol station, either. You have the ability to unlock alien technology to help you along with your mission of studying humans, with 26 unlocks in all. However, be aware that the more alien technology you use, the more attention it will draw from the authorities.

The technologies are all different; some trick humans into paying more for products, others analyse DNA from human rubbish, and there are many more. It’s all light-hearted fun, which is at the core of the title. Keeping the authorities away while gathering as much information as possible from humans is ultimately the mission, and yes, the authorities are men and women in black suits. If your suspicion level is raised, they will arrive and start looking around. 

Once you reach a higher level, you can use your alien beam gun to knock them out and steal their sunglasses, ensuring they don’t come back for some time. At the beginning, though, you have to keep your shop clean and hope they lose interest. While we are on cleaning, you also have a basic reputation meter, which is based on how clean your toilets, store, and petrol pump areas are. You want to keep your customers happy, so they keep coming back.

Running the petrol station, you start off by selling basic fuel, snacks, and as you progress, you unlock more expensive items like cold drinks, fresh bread, car oil, camping supplies, the list just goes on and on.

In all, you have 40 different unlocks for your petrol station, ranging from more products, shop expansion, bigger storage shelves, fridges, ATM’s, and car products. You also have some shop decorations that give the shop its own flair, from clock radios to banners and everything in between.

There is no snapping system currently when building, so it takes time to get all your displays in the right place, hopefully we will see one in the future. You have to ensure you manage your stock levels as well.

Your supplies arrive in an alien spaceship disguised as a human delivery van made of cardboard. The ordering system shows your current stock levels on the ordering screen, a great feature that many other titles don’t offer. The key to making money, in my view, is unlocking extra fuel pumps, as that’s where the money is!

The cream on top is the extra goods in your shop. Once again, make sure you order enough fuel to keep the pumps stocked. All customers arrive in a vehicle as well; they either park in the car park and walk into the shop or pull up for fuel, which is a great feature, as they don’t just appear. You can also adjust your prices; there is a market price, and you can increase it with various alien technologies as mentioned above.​

The game currently feels more multiplayer-focused; in single-player, you have a lot to do. Running between the registers can be time-consuming as you have to process the customer’s shopping, give change, and enter eftpos amounts. 

A quality-of-life feature would be to add tap-and-go EFTPOS payments. Then you are running outside to fill up customers’ fuel tanks, and you also have to keep everything clean to keep your rating up. The developers have mentioned that quality-of-life upgrades are coming, but there is currently no AI to assist you with any tasks.

The graphics are fantastic, what you would expect from a simulator with an alien theme. Lots of details in the shop, food models, and upgrades. For a game listed as a preview and work in progress, it is very well polished. There are a lot of various humans and cars that keep it interesting as well.

Same as the sounds, they haven’t been forgotten either. I love how if cars have been waiting too long at the petrol pump, they will beep their horn. You hear the cars arriving and departing, don’t stand in the way, either; you will get run over.  There are no sounds for humans as yet, but you do hear toilets flushing, cash registers, nature outside, and much more.

Overall, Roadside Research is a light-hearted, fun and expansive shop simulator. For a preview game, there’s already so much in it. There are plenty of hours of fun in this title, and with the active developers and more features announced on their Steam page, you won’t be disappointed. Just watch out for those men in black! Once again, another game that will stay on my hard drive, as I am excited about where it will end up.

Written by: Mike Bridge