7.8

Review: Trucks And Logistics

Truck and Logistics Simulator offers a positive experience, even though the concept may not sound very interesting at first. Although fans of the genre might want more options, the balanced approach attracts a wider audience. This title appears to offer a compelling experience, with a relatively low learning curve.

To be clear: Each of the 20+ vehicles requires some exercise to drive them professionally. They all feel unique on the road. However, the operation is largely intuïtive, with useful memories popping up. Even if you damage your vehicle, you can still drive it, albeit with a little more effort.

Sometimes you have to operate vehicles before you üat all, like driving a forklift in a warehouse or using a large wheel loader to fill your dump truck with boulders. Each vehicle offers both an indoor and an outdoor view. For heavy vehicles I found the external camera view more pleasant and less disturbing. Moreover, this view allows you to appreciate the interior details, which you can customize as you wish.

There is also much freedom. Your helpful GPS will show you the best route for your deliveries, but if you decide to change course, you can. The worst thing that can happen is that you have to fill up sooner. There are no time limits, and I am very grateful for that! Exploring the open world is a lot of fun.

Besides the fact that the game doesn't overwhelm you with complexity, it also respects your time. You don't have to invest hours before you can unlock a new vehicle. This is an important point, as some lesser simulation games make you grind a lot for minimal reward. The balance in this is good.

One way to unlock new vehicles is to take longer orders with higher rewards. But again: You have the freedom to choose what you want. There are plenty of small chores available if you want to start slowly. These usually last only a few minutes and often consist of city trips. As soon as you have enough vehicles, the chances of repetition becoming a problem are low. You can alternate to keep the variation in it: from a fast truck that can take flexible routes to a huge truck that you have to struggle with to get a driveway onto the highway.

Enough money to make at least één of each vehicle, is a strong motivation to keep playing the game for a longer time. You can even buy a Monster Truck even though I can't pay it at this time of writing for a more arcade-style experience within this simulation. Some of the best hybrid moments arise when you get off the road with your vehicles. Is it a mistake that I can drive underwater? Or does it matter as long as I enjoy it? The bugs I encountered have no negative influence on the gameplay. Some, such as occasionally strangely responding AI vehicles, may not even be errors, but are intended to simulate realistic traffic and bad drivers.

That said, there is not very much traffic. Although parking spaces are full of cars, actual road traffic is quite limited which is not unusual in an open-world game like this. I think it's funny that this town seems to respect the pandemic and stays home for the most part. The city itself is impressive, with a decent size and many details. I accept the compromise to play this game in handheld mode on Switch.

With regard to traffic: It's unusually polite. I never really hear a horn unless I press it myself. I wouldn't mind if there were more realistic AI options. From smaller details like not indicating direction to more serious things like collisions with other vehicles I would like to have the choice to see more reactions. By the way, there are police cars.’S present, but they don't haunt me when I run through red light or go too fast. It's nice to drive as I like, but an update with the option to trigger consequences would be a nice addition. Sometimes I would like the challenge of a more realistic approach.

Speaking of updates: There's already one on the way that you can start your own transport company and hire drivers. This will be a good addition for when you've earned enough to buy every vehicle. Cross platform multiplayer with coöPersive missions are already available. I would also like to see an update with driving in the snow, or the option to choose music numbers for when I have enough of the engine's sound, squeaking brakes or raindrops. There's a lot of potential.

One of the greatest missed opportunities concerns loaded cargo. If it is placed or fell over, it is automatically corrected by the game. I would like to have the opportunity to repair this manually. Again, the current approach is relaxed, but now that I am comfortable with the control, I would like to have the choice to try this myself.

It's a niche genre on consoles, but as someone who's fascinated by the fact that Switch gets titles that used to be exclusively for PC, I'm glad to see that simulation games increasingly find their way to the platform. Truck and Logistics Simulator is not a perfect game, but it offers an accessible and satisfying experience for both new players and fans of the genre. If you like managing logistics and driving a wide range of vehicles, then this title is definitely worth a try.