A Road Not Worth Taking

On the surface, American Truck Simulator doesn't look very compelling. Being a truck driver isn't exactly a glamorous job in the real world, so it's baffling to see such a large community grow around a game like this. The main thing that drew me in was the possibility of learning more about trucks, brands, trailers, etc., and the appeal of being able to "travel the country" without leaving the comfort of my apartment. For the most part, American Truck Simulator delivers on that, but there are a myriad of issues that damage the experience.

Driving the truck is fairly simple once you get the hang of shifting gears, and figuring out which buttons do what. The developers went out of their way to include as many control configurations as possible, which means you can play the game with just about any peripheral or controller and have a tremendous amount of freedom to rebind keys and buttons to your exact preferences. I played the game on a Steam Controller, and I was impressed by how fluid the controls ended up feeling after being initially overwhelmed by just how many different commands & inputs are needed to recreate the experience of driving a truck.

Certain aspects of truck driving are far more frustating than others, and it can take a long time to adjust to making extremely wide turns at intersections, or simply accounting for the size and length of your truck as you navigate across the states. Parking can be a monstrous challenge, and it gets even more complicated (and headache-inducing) when you start to take on missions that assign you with multiple trailers and fragile goods. The learning curve is steep, but the game does allow you to skip parking altogether if you don't feel confident in your abilties.

Outside the simulation, there's a meta-game where you can upgrade skills and accumulate cash by taking on challenges with varying degrees of difficulty. Longer drives with heavy or fragile loads will net you the most money, but also increase the possibility of getting into an accident or arriving to your desination late; which can cost tons of XP and cash. There were many times where I ended up getting into accidents that I felt like I couldn't prevent; due to being rear-ended by incompetent AI, or being hit by a suicidial driver while I was making a turn at an intersection. Being unable to prevent accidents adds a random element to the game that's entirely unwelcome; especially when it's making so many attempts at realism.

And that's only just the beginning of this game's problems. There are 9 different views you can cycle through to help increase your scope of vision to park accurately and to avoid other vehicles, but only the cockpit view has a dynamic camera. The remaining 8 views are fixed camera angles which prevent you from turning left or right to view your surroundings. They're extremely impractical to use outside of parking situations, and I have no idea why the devs didn't unlock camera movement to allow for taking maximum precaution in every potentially dangerous situation.

Naturally, the player gravitates towards missions with the highest cash reward, which means that most of time you'll be going on long road trips that can take up to an hour (or more) in real time. The biggest problem with this is the fact that you'll be spending most of that time on the highway, which is arguably the most boring part of the entire game. This is a very divisive aspect in the community, because I've seen lots of threads stating the importance of having the experience of "doing nothing" because it's accurate to what truck driving is really like. It's boring, and that's the truth! There's really no way around it, and it can be alleviated somewhat by playing your own music in the background, which makes taking in the scenery a lot more tolerable.

The problem is, the scenery leaves a lot to be desired. If you're playing the base game with no mods installed, it's noticeably lacking. Lots of un-detailed textures pop out of the environment, and they can really be an eyesore, even on the highest settings. The game might look okay in screenshots, but once you see it in motion, you'll know that something is off. There are some mods out there to help improve the graphics, but there's only so much you can do to polish a turd. What the game really needs is an extreme graphical overhaul on a brand new engine before it can even begin to tease players with the possibility of enjoying a long session of staring at different landscapes for hours on end.

The game's menus are not very visually appealing, either. It looks like something that was released in 2004, with just how basic all the buttons and menus look. There was no effort to add any style here, and maybe that's okay for people who wanted a decent simulation and nothing more, but I feel like the standards were much higher for aesthetics even in 2016 when this game was released. It just feels lazy.

I really wanted to like American Truck Simulator. It manages to (mostly) capture the experience of driving a truck, and I feel like that's worth something. It has a ton of mod support, community events, and other ingredients that should in theory make for a really great game, but it just feels "cheap" in its overall presentation. And most importantly, it's just not fun. The brief moments that I did feel like I was enjoying myself were overshadowed by the maddening lengths of time between them. The virtual money I recieved for completing each mission just made me sad when I thought about the amount of real money I could earn by applying for truck-driving positions in my local area.

[i][h1]A Road Not Worth Taking[/h1][/i] On the surface, American Truck Simulator doesn't look very compelling. Being a truck driver isn't exactly a glamorous job in the real world, so it's baffling to see such a large community grow around a game like this. The main thing that drew me in was the possibility of learning more about trucks, brands, trailers, etc., and the appeal of being able to "travel the country" without leaving the comfort of my apartment. For the most part, American Truck Simulator delivers on that, but there are a myriad of issues that damage the experience. Driving the truck is fairly simple once you get the hang of shifting gears, and figuring out which buttons do what. The developers went out of their way to include as many control configurations as possible, which means you can play the game with just about any peripheral or controller and have a tremendous amount of freedom to rebind keys and buttons to your exact preferences. I played the game on a Steam Controller, and I was impressed by how fluid the controls ended up feeling after being initially overwhelmed by just how many different commands & inputs are needed to recreate the experience of driving a truck. Certain aspects of truck driving are far more frustating than others, and it can take a long time to adjust to making extremely wide turns at intersections, or simply accounting for the size and length of your truck as you navigate across the states. Parking can be a monstrous challenge, and it gets even more complicated (and headache-inducing) when you start to take on missions that assign you with multiple trailers and fragile goods. The learning curve is steep, but the game does allow you to skip parking altogether if you don't feel confident in your abilties. Outside the simulation, there's a meta-game where you can upgrade skills and accumulate cash by taking on challenges with varying degrees of difficulty. Longer drives with heavy or fragile loads will net you the most money, but also increase the possibility of getting into an accident or arriving to your desination late; which can cost tons of XP and cash. There were many times where I ended up getting into accidents that I felt like I couldn't prevent; due to being rear-ended by incompetent AI, or being hit by a suicidial driver while I was making a turn at an intersection. Being unable to prevent accidents adds a random element to the game that's entirely unwelcome; especially when it's making so many attempts at realism. And that's only just the beginning of this game's problems. There are 9 different views you can cycle through to help increase your scope of vision to park accurately and to avoid other vehicles, but only the cockpit view has a dynamic camera. The remaining 8 views are fixed camera angles which prevent you from turning left or right to view your surroundings. They're extremely impractical to use outside of parking situations, and I have no idea why the devs didn't unlock camera movement to allow for taking maximum precaution in every potentially dangerous situation. Naturally, the player gravitates towards missions with the highest cash reward, which means that most of time you'll be going on long road trips that can take up to an hour (or more) in real time. The biggest problem with this is the fact that you'll be spending most of that time on the highway, which is arguably the most boring part of the entire game. This is a very divisive aspect in the community, because I've seen lots of threads stating the importance of having the experience of "doing nothing" because it's accurate to what truck driving is really like. It's boring, and that's the truth! There's really no way around it, and it can be alleviated somewhat by playing your own music in the background, which makes taking in the scenery a lot more tolerable. The problem is, the scenery leaves a lot to be desired. If you're playing the base game with no mods installed, it's noticeably lacking. Lots of un-detailed textures pop out of the environment, and they can really be an eyesore, even on the highest settings. The game might look okay in screenshots, but once you see it in motion, you'll know that something is off. There are some mods out there to help improve the graphics, but there's only so much you can do to polish a turd. What the game really needs is an extreme graphical overhaul on a brand new engine before it can even begin to tease players with the possibility of enjoying a long session of staring at different landscapes for hours on end. The game's menus are not very visually appealing, either. It looks like something that was released in 2004, with just how basic all the buttons and menus look. There was no effort to add any style here, and maybe that's okay for people who wanted a decent simulation and nothing more, but I feel like the standards were much higher for aesthetics even in 2016 when this game was released. It just feels lazy. I really wanted to like American Truck Simulator. It manages to (mostly) capture the experience of driving a truck, and I feel like that's worth something. It has a ton of mod support, community events, and other ingredients that should in theory make for a really great game, but it just feels "cheap" in its overall presentation. And most importantly, it's just not fun. The brief moments that I did feel like I was enjoying myself were overshadowed by the maddening lengths of time between them. The virtual money I recieved for completing each mission just made me sad when I thought about the amount of real money I could earn by applying for truck-driving positions in my local area. [h1]Rating: 5/10[/h1]