Soedesco is a Dutch developer based in the Hoogvliet borough of Rotterdam in 2002. These are the guys that have brought the truck driving realness of the open road into your living rooms.

How many people can say “I wonder what it’s like being a truck driver?” Let me tell you, it is a glorious, rewarding adventure. Simulators are a little underappreciated and my boss decided to hand me this little gem, I had no idea what to think. I will admit I’m not one for simulations, rather opting for a more fantasy approach, so I sucked it up and gave it a crack. How did you think I went? Let’s dive in and find out, shall we.

The game starts out with a career mode right off the bat. With the choice of four avatars to choose from two male, two female, all with their own looks. Going with a flannel wearing, shaved head beatnik, the complete opposite of myself, I had my nameless driver locked in.

I was soon off to start my glorious career as a truck driver, as this simulator loaded me in the polished looking truck cab. My mission now was to complete deliveries for my uncle, the owner of the company. Turning that engine on, you are thankfully thrown into a lesson about lining up loads, road rules, hooking and unhooking trailers, which I satisfyingly nailed every time.

Once the tutorial is over you are finally let loose on the unsuspecting, open world. Being a fairly decent sized map, getting to work straight away is simple; find a job and do it for a client, building the foundation of working friendships and relationships. All this is done through text conversations on screen though, which at times, killed my submersion, I even started giving each person their own personalities and accents.

While at first the game was fun, it did start dwindling fast as it became monotonous with most missions being the run of a mill, straight forward paths of picking up a trailer and taking it somewhere else. It does occasionally try to spice it up with time limits, wrong addresses or even the wrong loads.

The garage area is where you can customize your truck with all that hard-earned cash you’ve been making. While I never made enough to buy a new truck, I did tidy up the one I started with going from Big Bird to the green machine, with a bigger, more powerful motor. With a decent selection of twelve trucks to choose from and a decent size of customizable options to make to each truck, you definitely stand out from the others.

Like a real trucker, you’re not a robot or driving a machine with endless gas, so scattered across the map are gas stations and stamina refill stations (sleep areas). Keep an eye on both of these bars, if you try to be the Energizer bunny like me and have the bar deplete on a mission it will automatically fail and you’ll need to start all over again.

It was sad to see that despite picking a character, there was no animations for sleeping or pumping the gas. There was even no view of the driver in the cab, as if straight out of The Simpsons EP where Homer discovers a robot is driving his truck. I also came across street signs that are made of what I’m guessing is wolverine’s Adamantium, hit one of those with your rig will instantly stop dead. It really ruined that simulator feeling, when immersion is the key driving force behind why people play these games.

I was also frustrated by the fact being open world, it still caged the exploration of the map. I often found an invisible barrier on either side of the road stopping me from going down countless dirt tracks. The roads are spacious on the freeway and as you weave through the mountains and towns they get small and twistier, making you really keep an eye on your speed like a real driver. You can also damage your truck or get stung by speed cameras, adding to the danger levels. I racked up over a grand in tickets in my first few deliveries costing more than what the job paid!

The controls are quite simple, utilizing the D-pad for the indicators, cruise control and to start the engine. Steering is left analogue stick, while the right stick controls your camera. You can use the triggers to accelerate and brake, though you can’t really fast and furious it around corners with the handbrake. You can roll it though as I found out, depending if you have an Auto or Manual truck using A & B while gears.

The visuals I liked a lot, especially my big bird looking truck when the sun hits the metallic paint, making it shine. Mountains look superb too, I often found myself slowing down, taking in the view of the streams and sun shining in the distance towns. Buildings looked good for what you are given, since you couldn’t get out and explore or interact with anything. The music was enjoyable enough and never got repetitive at all the whole time I played. I did find it charming when other cars would honk at me while cutting me off, interrupting my chilled-out tunes.

Overall, if you’re a fan of simulations you’re really going to dig this. I enjoyed my time with it and will play it here and there to pass the time. It’s certainly converted me to appreciate simulators and Sodesco has really put the work in to this one. Once I got into the groove of things, and while it had a few minor issues such as breaks in submersion here and there, it was still an enjoyable time, mother-trucking good time.

Written by: Anarchy Risen