Sim Gaming

I really didn't know what to expect from Euro Truck Simulator 2 as I'd never played a truck sim before and it’s a fairly niche sim to say the least. At first it seemed like an odd idea; why would you want to simulate the work of a haulage firm? But the game is much more that driving from A to B, delivering goods.

 

You start off by doing a small local run of goods to a warehouse, where you get the chance to deliver right to their door, attempting to back up your load or choosing to do this automatically. It's best to try and go for the manual approach as this will teach you skills that you'll need further on in the game. I did find it quite difficult at first to work out which direction to turn in order to safely back the truck and trailer in to the space, but with enough patience it should be possible and the game does a good job of guiding you through the basics.

 

Patience is something you'll need for this game, as I found out within the next couple of missions. Taking on another job between Plymouth and Bristol, I soon found that the game requires you to drive for a pretty long time. While a 2 hour journey in a real truck equates to much less time in this game, you'll still need to concentrate on the roads and motorways. There are a nice selection of radio stations to keep you occupied and, of course, you'll need to keep your eyes on the road as well.

 

The cities are (unsurprisingly) busy with traffic doing what traffic does, so you'll need to think carefully about turning at T-junctions and roundabouts. I admit to pushing across lanes once or twice and I'm sure I created at least one pile-up from my driving, though some of that might be down to the erratic AI. I'm still pretty impressed by the scope of the game, though, and that so much detail has been added to populate these routes.

 

You can use a keyboard and mouse, joypad or steering wheel to control the truck. I realise that keyboard and mouse are probably the default among serious Sim enthusiasts, but I preferred the joypad option for this particular game. A steering wheel would have been more helpful and probably more realistic, but I didn't have one to hand at the time.

 

Graphically, the game is a mixed bag, but to map out this much road and populate it with scenery while keeping up a good frame rate (which it does), it's not surprising. Up close, buildings are fairly basically rendered, but do their job and there are plenty of trees, fields and other roadside scenery to make this feel as realistic as possible. Plymouth certainly looked a little like parts of the actual city, but I can't speak for the other places I visited, especially those in other countries. Places are quite basic to avoid re-creating the whole city, so there's no point doing any sightseeing. I've yet to look at any of the mods out there which are said to more accurately map out specific places, but it sounds like perhaps being something for the more hardcore truck driver!

 

Overall, though, it’s an impressive attempt to encompass both the simulation of 

truck driving and of running a haulage company at the same time.