Alaskan Road Truckers - Review
I am a massive fan of trucking games like American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2, I don’t know where my like for these games came from as I have never really been interested in trucks but I find driving along the road hauling freight in these games to be an extremely relaxing experience, just me, my truck and the radio driving from state to state along open roads, it is pure bliss. When I heard Road Studio S.A were developing a truck simulator game set in Alaska naturally it immediately piqued my interest, especially after watching hours of Ice Road Truckers, yes sometimes even I question my TV viewing choices but what can ya do?
Road Studios S.A were promising that I could experience life in the definitive trucker simulator and deliver cargo to make and grow my trucking business. According to the developers I could even get out of my truck to explore Alaska while maintaining my vehicle which sounded extremely appealing to me, I mean who doesn’t want to leave the warm and cosy cab of their truck and get outside and explore the freezing wilderness of Alaska, I was sold and ready to see if I had what it takes to become an Alaskan trucking legend!
When you first boot the game up you are greeted with the choice of picking one of the many available characters to represent you in game and then you are ready to pick up your first job which also acts as a mini tutorial of sorts. Here is where you are taught all about how to connect trailers to your truck and what all the shiny buttons in your truck cabin do as well as the importance of keeping your truck full of fuel. The game also has some survival elements so you will need to keep your food and drink meters topped up as you play the game which you can do by pulling into a service station and going and buying food, you will also need to keep a careful eye on your energy meter as well because just like the rest of us, truck drivers need sleep too. Being able to walk around outside your truck and visit service stations to buy food and drink and also being able to manually unhook and hook up trailers is one of the big selling points of Alaskan Road Truckers as not many other trucking games allow you the freedom to move outside the cab and interact with the actual world.
You also have your own headquarters that you will get to visit after your first delivery which serves as a central hub for your trucking business, as you go along and complete jobs and earn money and experience points you can also upgrade your headquarters which will in-turn give you more options in regard to customising and repairing your truck, you can also use the computer in your base as a handy place to pick up new jobs and plan out your routes along the map at your leisure. Alaskan Road Truckers follows the tried and true formula of most ‘sim’ games in that you will need to do jobs and grind in order to earn money and experience in order to upgrade your character, base and truck, it’s a formula I have always found provides a relaxing gameplay loop especially when watching YouTube videos on my second monitor, just be careful not to take your eyes off the road for too long or you will end up as part of the scenery.
Speaking of scenery, Alaskan Road Truckers is a bit of a mixed bag. The map is pretty damn big as it goes and some of the scenery you will encounter along the way such as the snow topped mountains and sweeping valleys can be absolutely breathtaking, unfortunately it does get a bit monotonous the more you play the game though as it can tend to all end up looking a bit the same after a while, this is not really a fault with the game though, it is just the way Alaska is. The trucks themselves though, especially the cabs, are a little bit disappointing and it seems that a lot more attention was invested into making the landscapes look great than the trucks themselves, as a result the truck cabs tend to look a bit sterile and less detailed than other parts of the game, which is a bit of an issue as inside the truck is where you will spend the majority of your time in the game.
The key part of any game that revolves around driving is the handling of its cars, or in this case trucks. Unfortunately, for Alaskan Road Truckers, this is where the game starts to fall apart. The truck handling is very loose and the handling difficulties are not helped by the constant stuttering the game suffers from when loading in new areas of the map, even when the graphical details are set to their lowest settings. In some ways driving feels the best when using a wheel, as you would expect, but if you don’t have a Logitech wheel then you might have trouble even setting your equipment up, the fact that the game requires you to install Logitech’s G-Hub software even if your wheel isn’t a Logitech one is a baffling decision in itself, if the game can’t support all types of wheels at release then it really feels like Alaskan Road Truckers should’ve spent some time in early access before jumping to a full release.
Driving with a gamepad feels absolutely terrible and nearly makes the game unplayable and you will find yourself swerving all over the road as you try to maintain control at higher speeds, using a keyboard and mouse is a much better experience than using a gamepad which is a shame as I would hazard a guess that most people don’t own a wheel and will be expecting to play this with a controller and are going to end up very disappointed. The game also does not penalise you for going over the speed limit or driving through red lights which is baffling for a game that is a driving simulator, I have always felt much more immersed in games where I have to pay careful attention to my speed and the road rules. It is such a shame that driving feels so loose and unnatural as controlling your truck is basically the core of the game and it really just feels more frustrating than fun, especially since most of the other parts of the game including finding jobs and upgrading your headquarters seem to be so well thought out and implemented.
Alaskan Road Truckers is a title that really should have gone into Early Access before being fully released as the lack of polish, especially where the driving is concerned, is something that really took away from my experience with the game. I was so excited to get out on the road and explore Alaska but the moment I got my truck out on to the road and experienced how shoddy the truck handled it really broke any immersion in the sim that I expected to have. Sadly the traffic AI is also absolutely horrible and cars will tend to drive well below the speed limit and also stop directly in front of you for no reason on a whim, it makes the game feel like a traffic avoidance simulator more than a truck sim game. There is enough of a game here to build on and hopefully future updates will fix the truck handling and add more things to experience in the game but in its current state and at its current price I just can’t recommend purchasing Alaskan Road Truckers especially when other titles like American Truck Simulator are around to offer a much more refined driving experience.
The Score
5.0
Review code provided by Green Man Gaming Publishing
The Pros
Scenery can be absolutely beautiful at times, just don’t take your eyes off the road for too long or you will end up in a ditch
The freedom of walking around and exploring and also hooking up trailers adds immersion and makes you feel like you are part of the world.
Upgrade path for both your character and headquarters is interesting and something to work toward.
The Cons
Horrible AI Traffic that drives incredibly slow and will stop in front of you on a whim. Traffic should add to the immersion not break you out of it.
Driving controls are very loose and it makes you feel like you are controlling an inebriated moose wearing ice skates rather than driving a truck
Constant micro stuttering when loading new areas becomes very annoying and doesn’t make driving any easier
