In Forklift Load, the humans have all gone, but the AI machines remain behind, carrying out their duties. Will one curious forklift find out what happened?
There’s certainly some clever uses of the machine to explore this empty world, using your forks to move hazards and obstacles out of the way. You have to do this with care, as load weights and distribution can cause you to wobble and tip, so it’s a thoughtful example of the dangers and challenges of driving a forklift. If you really want to explore the world, you also have to guide the forklift through some difficult obstacle courses and up some rickety ramps, making for some stressful climbs if you want to see every place the game has to offer.
I’m not sure what I expected of a forklift game, but certainly not a somber look at the world after humanity is gone. Watching machines running through our empty streets, driving through grassy hills, and scaling up tall buildings, creates this scope of emptiness that felt haunting throughout the game. It quietly asks us to think on the world we’ll leave behind, and what will still be running even as the last of our race dies off. It caught me off-guard with its emotional power.
Forklift Load is great if you want to dabble in some forklift work in your off time. It’s even better as an examination of where we are headed as a race, one day, and as a means of thinking on what will succeed us when that time comes.
Forklift Load is available now on Steam.
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