Whether rain or shine, train wreck, car accident, or falling from an 80 foot building, rest assured – the Totally Reliable Delivery service will get your stuff to you. It may not be on time. It may not even be in one piece. But they will definitely get to you. Eventually.
Totally Reliable Delivery is a physics-based platformer slash adventure game in the vein of games like Human Fall Flat. Your workers will cartwheel, ragdoll, hang on for their dear lives, and even completely defy the laws of physics: but make no mistake: the items will be delivered. Totally Reliable Delivery is developed by tinyBuild and it’s available on both iOS and Android platforms.
For those who would rather play their insane physics games on their PC, you can purchase the full version of the game Steam as well. Do note that your mobile device or emulator needs to have 3gb of RAM or more to run Totally Reliable Delivery.
While the game is very easy to pick up and play, newer players may want a preview of what they can expect from this game. If you’d like that, you’re in the right place!
Master Movement
As with other wonky physics games, movement in Totally Reliable Delivery is a challenge in itself. Where other games simply let you tap buttons or drag to move your character, Totally Reliable Delivery pits you in pitched battle with your own body, and getting used to movement is very important if you want to go for challenges and get those medals.
Controlling Your Arms
Your workers have two fleshy appendages attached to their upper bodies. Did you know that said appendages, known as “arms”, can be used to hold items and manipulate objects? Amazing, isn’t it?
Kidding aside, expect arm control to be easy to learn and hard to master. As is common in these wonky physics titles, controlling the arms of your workers is a task that’s easier said than done, with hands sticking on objects you didn’t mean to, flipping into weird angles or even serving as immovable anchors when attached to heavy objects!
To master the game’s wonky hand movement, you’ll need to understand the game’s different modes. On the right side of the screen is a diagram of a person, as well as two hands. Tapping on the hands will either open or close them, which will snap onto whatever the nearest interactable object is, whether that’s an item to be carried or a switch to be pulled.
The diagram of the upper body is used to raise your arms. This can be used in conjunction with the grab function to raise items up to shoulder level or even over your head. This is useful in a lot of ways, either for conventionally moving items, such as loading cargo onto a vehicle, or maybe hanging on for dear life from somewhere else. Feel free to experiment!
Note that it’s a common mistake to forget to let go of whatever you’re holding. If you find yourself inexplicably tethered to an object, be sure to open your hands again to release your hold on that item!
Finally, the buttons are oriented to the back of your character. That means that if you’re facing the camera, the arms will be reversed (left button controls right hand, etctera).
Manipulating Objects
Now that your very human fingers have closed around an object, you may find that you’re further able to manipulate said objects.
The most common manipulable objects are levers. To operate a lever, you’ll first need to grab it with one of your hands. Once it’s grabbed, you’ll notice a lever interface appear on your screen. Just tap that and hold in the direction you want to pull the lever – up or down, or sideways – the choice is yours!
Levers are extremely common in the world of Totally Reliable Delivery. They not only serve to spawn in items and begin delivery quests, but every vehicle in the world operates on a single-lever design. If you’re using an emulator like me, that means you can just grab the lever with your left hand and continue using the same controls to drive.
Jumping, Diving, and Ragdolling
Surprise, surprise human: you have two legs too! These legs aren’t just for getting around, but can also be used to propel you into the air, also known as jumping. The jump button is located above your upper arms panel.
Note that you don’t actually need to have both feet on the ground to jump – all the jump button really does is provide you with a burst of upward momentum. This means that you’re free to jump and flop like a fish even if you’re on the ground, even if that will accomplish nothing.
You also have the option to dive. This will cause your character to lunge forward, and can be used in tandem with jumping for a burst of speed and momentum. This will also cause you to ragdoll helplessly, and is both hilarious and very useful. Note that you don’t have to be jumping to dive – you can dive at any time by tapping the green button beside your left hand button.
One thing to note when using these ways to get around is getting stunned. If you attempt to jump too many times within a certain time frame, or too quickly when your movement is otherwise constrained (such as being stuck between two items or carrying too much weight), or even just propel yourself too fast and ram your head, you may end up getting stunned. This will cause the screen to blur and for stars to pop up on your character’s head. More importantly, getting stunned will cause you to release whatever you’re holding, so do try not to flail around needlessly.
Getting Unstuck
Getting totally stuck isn’t really common, but games like this always have a safety net, just in case. If you ever find yourself in a place or situation where you can’t move at all and have no means to free yourself (or if you just can’t be bothered to try – no judgment), you can tap the pause button on the upper right and respawn at either the closest respawn point or the company HQ. Coincidentally, this provides a great way to get back to the main island if you’ve gotten yourself lost.
Making Your Deliveries
As a worker for the Totally Reliable Delivery Service, your main task is to move things from point A to point B. With the game’s physics unpredictably working both for and against you, you’ll need to really step up your game if you want to keep customers happy and paying.
Starting Deliveries
Deliveries are signified by red metal boxes with a lever, with a “New Delivery” sign on top of them. Once you pull the lever, the stage will be cleared, the necessary items will be spawned in, and the delivery is on!
If you want to reset a delivery, you can also pull on the lever again to reset everything.
Grades
While all delivery quests are just about moving an item to another place, scoring is based on one of two factors: package health or delivery time.
Package health deliveries deal with fragile cargo. Anytime the cargo is roughed up, it takes damage. While minor bumps and scratches will usually not harm the package in any way, tossing the cargo out of a fast-moving vehicle or ramming it into the ground while falling from the sky will, and foam will fly out of package whenever it takes a hit. For fragile item deliveries, your final score will be based on the remaining health percentage of the package. There’s no time factor here, so feel free to go slowly and surely.
When it comes to fragile cargo, I like to firmly seat it at the very back of the vehicle’s storage. Remember: the vehicle isn’t sticky, and the package will be jostled around and even fly off your vehicle if you go too fast!
Time-based deliveries, on the other hand, almost necessitate recklessness. Time is your enemy when it comes to these challenges, and it doesn’t matter if the package is shot out of a cannon or sent flying into orbit: the only important thing is that it gets to its destination within the allotted time. The less time you take to deliver the package, the higher your score.
You can keep track of the deliveries you’ve done via the deliveries menu, which can be accessed via the pause button on the upper right. This menu will not only show you how many gold, silver, and bronze trophies you’ve earned, but also the names of the challenges that you have and have not completed.
Even better, you can tap on a challenge in this menu to add a waypoint marker on its start position. This reduces time spent rolling around and looking for new deliveries, and gets you straight to where the action is. Unless you like splashing about and looking for things to do – I do.
Unlocking Vehicles
Getting good grades on your deliveries isn’t just for show. By getting enough trophies, you can unlock new vehicles at the company garage.
Do note that getting a gold trophy counts does count as both a silver and a bronze trophy. Think of it as needing to get X bronze trophies, while at least Y of them have to be silver, and Z of them have to be gold.
“Using” Your Money
Completing your deliveries in a timely manner awards you with currency. So what does currency do? Absolutely nothing.
I’ve searched high and low, and found no way to spend your money. I believe that it instead serves as a way to track your score…which is kind of redundant as there are already trophies for that. And yes, I’ve tried buying stuff at the cosmetics store. You need to shell out real money for those by buying DLCs.
Dealing with Ads
Ads are both boon and bane in Totally Reliable Delivery. On one hand, you can watch an ad every two minutes to claim a reward, which is usually some money for cosmetics or even powerful buffs that can help you get the edge you need for particularly difficult deliveries. On the other, ads are so intrusive in this game – they will randomly play even when you’re in the middle of doing something. Granted, this is a (largely) single player game, but the constant barrage of ads is very jarring, especially if you’re trying to clear a difficult level or just exploring.
So what can we do about the ads? Two things, really: either turn off your device’s internet so that the game can’t fetch ads, or buy the game. In all fairness, Totally Reliable Delivery does give quite a lot of content for a single player game, and what you download for free on the internet is more of a sampling rather than the full game. Do note that if you’re planning to play the game with friends, you will need to purchase the full version (or was it one of the DLCs?) of Totally Reliable Delivery.
Go with The Flow
Totally Reliable Delivery doesn’t stress you out with leaderboards, PVP, or any of those. It’s really more of a sandbox game with a timed (and fully optional) game mode. Ultimately, play it however you see fit: the important thing is to have fun.
That ends my guide for Totally Reliable Delivery, and I hope I was able to touch all the important points to help you get used to the weird controls and ridiculous physics. If you have anything to add, let me know in the comment area!