Review: Star Trucker

I’ve been driving space trucks since I was a teenager and I discovered Elite 2: The Border AND Frontier: First Encounters. Later it was Freelancer. Somewhere along the way I lost my love for hauling cargo through the empty unknown. That is, until Trucker Star.

Often the shipping part of any space game is optional. Usually there is piracy, combat, maybe mining. There are many ways to earn a dollar in the infinite space of the universe. Trucker Staron the other hand, it’s all about driving a truck through the stars. It’s more than just pushing the pedal; all the extra features are in service of your delivery.

Trucker Star you start by breaking down on the side of the, er, road. One of the first things you do is put on a spacesuit and eject from the cab to patch up the holes in your truck. Above all, the biggest challenge you’ll face in the frigid expanses of the universe is maintaining your vehicle.

One thing that Trucker Star it is not, it is not Euro Truck 2 Truck Simulator. While it can be relaxing, there’s no room for meditation here, as controlling the vehicle isn’t as plain as putting the cruise control on and keeping it between the lines (though there is cruise control if you want it). It leans toward a balance between realism and fun, meaning the physics take into account the zero-gravity environment. You’ll need to make sure there’s air in the cabin and that the interior isn’t overwhelmed by the outside temperature.

Most of the truck’s functions are tied to the battery or UCC. You need to replace the batteries when they run out and the UCC when they burn out. Then there are the air filters that need to be replaced regularly. You also need to make sure the fuel tank is full and the hull is not leaky. This can be stressful and I mention this at the beginning because I want you to know what Trucker Star because it may not be what you expect.

The money you make hauling cargo will likely go straight to your truck. Batteries are high-priced, and air filters are ridiculous. You won’t be able to just take on perilous tasks, show off your mad skills, amass wealth, and fill your cabins with supplies. It’s almost inevitable that you’ll always be fighting to maintain gravity. At least on the recommended difficulty level.

This will be a sticking point for many, and probably a balance issue to some extent. While I prefer the game to put pressure on the runtime, it can be annoying. Air filters will become the bane of your existence, as they cost about as much as a medium-complexity, long-range drive. If you can get them.

Prices for all items fluctuate to allow you to sell additional items and make money on the side. This includes batteries and air filters. Sometimes, you’ll limp into the market and find that air filters are priced 25% higher and out of your budget. If you can find them at all, because sometimes they’re simply out of stock. In my experience, they’re out of stock when you need them most.

There were times when I had to don and doff my spacesuit to make the most of the remaining oxygen generation capacity in my life support system. Other times I had to choose between swapping out my gravity core or oxygen. As I said, I prefer when a game never loses its effectiveness in keeping me under pressure, but it was starting to get frustrating.

Another advantage of his stingy handling of goods is the way it forces you to familiarize yourself with the functions of your truck. For example, you can turn off the lights in the cab to save energy. You can reduce the heat in systems with reasonable temperatures to further reduce consumption. If stinginess were not a necessity, I probably would never have fiddled with the knobs on the dashboard.

On the other hand, besides keeping the truck in good working order, there are cosmetic upgrades and options you can buy. However, the cosmetics are so high-priced that I have never bought one. And I can’t imagine why. They cost over $10,000. And none are better than the others, so the price range is a real conundrum. I have never bought cosmetics. Painting a truck is cheaper and has a more observable effect, so why would I spend good money on an air filter to dress up the hood?

The upgrades don’t seem to make a huge measurable difference either. The fuel gauge predicts how many hp (or miles, if you’re into that sort of thing) you’re getting out of your tank, but I found I could get 93 km on a full tank, and with the fuel efficiency upgrade I could get… 93 km. I don’t know if that’s an right measurement – ​​it’s stiff to estimate how far you’ve traveled in space – but you’d think I’d be able to tell the difference.

There’s a main questline to play through, which is a nice touch. There’s a selection of truck drivers who all want your assist and will give you upgrades as you progress. There’s actually quite a bit of variety in the missions. In one, you have to rip a reactor out of a space colony before it goes critical. In another, you have to collect abandoned cargo. The story isn’t anything I’d consider exceptional, but it’s more than you’d expect from a space cargo game.

The only problem I have with the story missions is that while they are necessary for progression, they do not provide any monetary reward. You have to take a break from trying to collect funds for the air filter to actually take part in the main quest, because they will not pay you. Eventually, you are given items that are necessary to progress further in the game, but they seem like milestones, not rewards. It makes the normal story missions seem thankless. What the hell are these other truck drivers, can’t they even return the air filter?

I’d also like to point out that all transportation is done through diminutive nodes. You can swim to a jump gate, then jump to the next node, along with a fancy little hyperdrive process. Some areas have suggested highways that you can drive on for safety reasons. You can go “off-road” if you want, but there are often fields of debris. You can avoid diminutive pieces of space junk by driving carefully, but it will probably snail-paced you down. Clever, it’s kind of like real off-road driving.

I know it all sounds negative, but I actually really enjoyed it Trucker Star. Although I have come across some bugs and maybe the balance is not right entirely where it should be, I think the team at Monster and Monster did a good job of taking a massive, detailed concept and fitting it into a game without much bloat.

Despite this – or maybe because of it – there are things I’d like to see in the game. For example, while the philosophy of the game seems to be to play as a person, not just a truck, your person has no needs. You don’t have to sleep, although there is a bed in the cabin, and that would be really useful for killing time on deliveries that had to be made within a certain time frame. I’d also like to wander around space stations and enjoy a delicious space burger at a space restaurant, but I understand that space food is a much bigger investment of time than it seems.

I would also like the repairs to involve more than just replacing batteries and air filters. Fixing fuel leaks or replacing space brakes. I have a feeling something like that could have been in the design document but didn’t have time to implement, but that’s just speculation.

This is what it looks like, I thought Trucker Star It was good. No ideal time, and I don’t think it’s going to be everyone’s cup of Space Joe, but I think it does what it’s supposed to do. The creators had a vision they wanted to achieve, and I think they hit close enough to call it a success. As long as you know what you’re getting into, it’s a worthwhile experience. It can be a bit of a grind at times, but with the right filters, it’s a breath of fresh air.