Looking at the bundle, I thought “what the hell” and got it. Though I feel I got my revenge with SCS.
You can set how much you feel each developer of that game should get, and I was able to give this game… 1 penny. And even this, I felt was being generous.
So the game. Is it better than the failure that was the 18 Wheels of Steel series? Yes and No. It’s actually pretty hard to compare the entire series with this one game, or its previous game.
Let’s just go with what I like and don’t like about it;
What I like;
-SCS provides free updates to the game. This is a first that I’ve seen. Maybe they’ve changed. … Maybe I should drop my grudge. They seem to actually care for the community now, unlike in the past. And they aren’t backpedaling anymore.
-Is in Europe(including the UK), instead of the US. A pretty nice change of scenery. In Europe, you drive on the right side of the road(and use left lanes as the fast lane). But in the UK part of Europe, you drive on the left.
-Really, really nice shadows and lighting. Sometimes I swear if you look at a truck from the right angle, it almost looks like the picture was taken IRL. They used a really good engine when they made this game.
-There’s map mods that can expand into other countries, and an official DLC(Going East!). Something that couldn’t be done in the 18WoS series (the USA is small compared to Europe).
-European Trucks use licensed names(another first), like Volvo, MAN, and Scania.
-Traffic are somewhat smarter. They obey speed limits(yeah, they’re pretty fast). Some of them give you the right of way(only when you’re on their way) while others can be jerks.
-Sometimes when you are involved in an accident, it’s seen as an accident, and not damage to your truck/trailer, giving you a higher chance to deliver your cargo with no problem.
-Massive increase in AI traffic density. At some intersections, you can be sitting for 5 RL minutes for traffic to get out of your way.
-For hauling cargo, you don’t have to sift through trailers you don’t want to deliver(ADR, fragile, high paying, etc…), this is defined by your Skills trees. You can select if you want to haul high priced(but also overweight) cargo or whatever, going by how much you put in each tree.
-There’s a lot of truck customization. For example, I can have a paintjob of a dragon sitting on a cliff. That’s a win right there.
-No competition. There’s no rival truck companies; no ‘how much share of the economy’ you have. Just you and the open road. This also can be boring overtime.
-People don’t bitch at you(and you don’t get fined) for using your High Beams at night. Sometimes I have to, when I can barely see the road infront of me.
-It’s freakin’ easy to get money in the game. Just haul a bunch of high priced, long distance jobs and you’ll have 500,000+ euro in no time. I feared I was going to need to cheat or use a trailer, thinking I was going to see humongous expenditures after getting my own truck. Not with this game.
-Having to sleep is optional, not forced. You can tick off the fatigue simulator and you’ll never get tired. Love that.
What I dislike;
-Has those ugly barriers used in a lot of driving games, that you’re not allowed to go through, yet AI traffic can. Just seems unrealistic and could be easily avoided in certain situations.
-No police is good, but having them replaced with super-sensitive, always watching traffic cameras continuously pointed at you, waiting for you to fuck up is bad. 😛 Sometimes, it feels like there’s an invisible cop following me, giving me tickets for running into people, going through red lights, and not using headlights at night/in rain.
-Traffic will not respond to the player signalling to turn left or right. They’re too stupid to slow down(or at least get out of their way) when seeing a massive truck trying to merge left. Constantly, I had a car zoom past me when I’m about to merge to pass slow traffic on the right.
-AI Traffic spacing between themselves…. why do they leave a three car gap between eachother? Why? There’s no need, and it’s even more stupid when waiting for a break to safely merge into traffic of an intersection(especially with an oversized load).
-AI traffic density seems to fluctuate, and unfortunately not by time of day. Sometimes, you can have rush hour traffic at night, and feel like you own the road in the day with no traffic on it.
-The GPS can’t be configured to select the fastest or most direct route. And also no option to set anywhere you click on the map as where you want the GPS to direct you to.
So, playing it. It’s actually pretty fun. But due to playing for just under a week nonstop, it’s also getting boring. Let’s say it’s a game that has very little to challenge the player. Instead of forcing challenges like most games do, it lets you ‘suck on a bottle’ with “Easy Mode” on the side of it, allowing you to choose if you wish to be challenged. In other words, it’s tailored to casual people, yet, if you set the right features, it can be challenging.
I both like and dislike this. It’s like a fight with my emotions with one side saying “I want the game to be harder!” and the other saying “SHUT UP!! I like it easy and simple!”.
How is it easy?
1. Able to acquire money quite easily by doing a lot of long haul, high paying jobs.
2. No competition = No real point in hiring workers and being “the best” company in Europe. But if you want to do it for the sake of realism, don’t let me stop you. Don’t understand why there’s no “Simulate having rival companies” feature.
3. The game allows you to take your earnings from quick jobs. It should limit the amount of money to encourage you to want to start your own business. Because the whole business aspect of the game is where it shines.
4. Why is there a bank feature, when it’s too easy to make money and maintain your bank account? The only reason it’s there, is for people that are too lazy to simply haul from Point A to Point B for 2-3+ RL hours. Another reason from what I heard, people use this to help grow their business (which is pointless anyway).
In conclusion, the game feels like an “unfinished” Alpha(having features called “Simulate this happening as if it happened IRL”), allowing the player to challenge themselves instead of the game doing it for them. Again, I like and dislike this.
But the real point here and someone actually said this which woke me up, this is a Simulator. How you play isn’t going to be the way everyone else is. Even some YouTubers, don’t use all the realistic features. But not for them, it’s for their viewers, to not bore them, which is always nice.