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Hello Ladies, Gentlemen and Everyone In Between. Today, we, and when I say "we", I mean "I",
am going to take a look at a game called "Euro Truck Simulator 2".
Euro Truck Simulator 2 is a game about driving a truck from point A to point B. This concludes
my review. Thank you for watching. Good night.
But seriously... there is so much more to this game, youíll be surprised.
If youíve ever played a game that considers itself a simulator, you know that all these
games have one thing in common - horrible ugly graphics. You can clearly see that the
developers of such games only focus on trying to get the physics and the looks of the simulated
vehicle right and thatís it. Which is ironic as one would think that a simulator should
truly simulate everything incl. the world in which the game takes place.
Euro Truck Simulator 2 is different. If youíd see some footage from this game without knowing
that this is supposed to be a simulator, you would think itís a regular AAA game from
a big studio with a ridiculous budget. The graphics in this game are really really good.
You will truly feel like driving in a real world. The landscape youíll see, featuring
a full day and night cycle, is absolutely beautiful. There are no two identical roads
and as you keep traveling across Europe, youíll start noticing unique landmarks. This is the
best looking simulator game Iíve ever seen.
Thereís only one weather effect - rain, but even thatís very well simulated. If you wonít
use your wipers you really wonít see a lot and if you do - it wonít get much better
especially if it rains at night.
No words can really express how beautiful this game looks like, youíll see for yourself
in the footage throughout the video. Look at the sunflower plains, the windmills, the
waterÖ look at this water - it was made by one guy from the Czech Republic sitting in
a basement and getting paid with 3 warm meals per day. There are games made by a team of
over a hundred people and a ridiculous budget that still canít make such great water.
Euro Truck Simulator 2 is the Crysis 3 among simulators so giving anything less than 10
out of 10 for the graphics would probably be illegal.
Just as the graphics, the sound in this game is also really really good. You can clearly
hear the differences between the engine sounds of different trucks.
If you use a gearbox with a retarder, you will hear the typical whining high pitch noise
when braking.
If you stick your head out of the window, youíll notice how much work the developers
have put into the sound effects and not just the engine noise. If youíre in a city, youíll
hear the typical ìhumî of a busy town. On the highway, youíll hear other carsí and
trucksí engines ...or the thunder on a rainy day. When you pull down to get some fuel,
youíll hear the forest and even birds tweeting without internet connection.
However, thereís one big problem here - for the best experience and of course to prevent
accidents, you should drive using the cabin view and the cabin is almost soundproof (except
for the sound of your own engine). This means that unless you actually stick your head out
or use outside cameras, youíll never really hear all these detailed sound effects because
there is no option to roll down the windows in your truck and let the ambient sound in.
As for the musicÖ well, technically there is no music outside of the gameís menuÖ
but there is something even better - a radio. And Iím not talking about a couple of licensed
tracks, this is an actual in-game internet radio. You can connect to whatever station
you like and listen to an actual live online radio.
Itís hard to rate the audio in this game as it really is good and the effects are there,
butÖ anything outside the cabin is almost inaccessible during normal gameplay so hoping
that an option to roll down the window will be added someday, Iíll give it a 9 out of
10 for the audio.
As for the probably most important part - the gameplay - this is what should put the developers
of every other simulator game to shame. This game is simply amazing and, to make it clear
- itís actually a game and thatís something that many other simulators are missing.
Now, just to be clear - if youíre looking for a fast-paced action shooter, this game
of course wonít be for you, but if you want to play something relaxing and just enjoy
the beauty of it - Euro Truck Simulator 2 is a must-have.
The game starts with the creation of a profile where you set your name, check and decide
what gender you are, find your actual real picture from the conveniently accessible NSA
database, choose your prefered truck, company logo and name your company. Now you can pick
the city you want to start in from many big central European cities and off you go to
your first job of delivering some random cargo within the chosen city.
After that, you can either take a credit at a bank to buy your first truck, or preferably
- complete quick jobs in which all you need to do is to deliver the already coupled cargo
using some other companyís truck. This way you can see how the different trucks look
and drive like to make an educated decision when buying your first truck.
When youíre ready to buy a truck, there are 6 official brands to choose from: Scania - fast
and nimble, Volvo - unbreakable and powerful, DAF - cheap andÖ wellÖ letís stay with
cheap, MAN - perfect for enjoying the view through the huge front window, Iveco - truck
of the year 2013Ö they didnít say if itís the best or the worst truck of the year, though
Ö and Renault - simple, elegant and designed by the same guy who invented a box.
There is also a seventh brand, but the manufacturer doesnít seem to be confident enough about
their product to allow the developers to mention it soÖ letís not mention it.
Once you have your own truck, you can take jobs from the freight market in which case
you must pick up the trailer yourself. You will also be able to free roam with your truck
in the open world of the game without taking a job and discover all roads and cities or
simply enjoy the view.
If youíve earned enough money, you can either upgrade your garage or buy new garages in
other cities. If you have more trucks, a quick visit to a job center will allow you to hire
drivers who will work for you and bring money to your company. Aside from the money, both
you and the drivers will earn experience. If you level up, you can allocate one point
into one category which will increase your income or allow you to deliver dangerous materials
or enable long-distance delivery. The more you level up, the more money and experience
youíll get for your next jobs, but also youíll unlock some modifications for your truck.
For a full simulation experience, as every real European trucker, youíll have a speed
limiter in your truck set to 90 km/h. You also canít drive too long without sleep otherwise
your eyes will start closing and at some point youíll get fined for lack of sleep and eventually
- fall asleep and cause an accident. To prevent it you have to drive to a parking lot and
go to sleep, but this will also move the time forward and since the cargo must be delivered
on time, you have to plan your sleep carefully. Based on how you drive or what weight you
pull, your fuel will run out sooner or later so youíll have to fill your tank at a gas
station.
If all this sounds too complex or annoying and you donít want to worry about that - all
these simulation elements are optional and you can turn them off in the settings.
Some simulation aspects of the game cannot be turned off so, for example, if you cause
a crash, youíll get fined, your truck will get damaged (though only internally, thereís
no visible damage on the outside) and youíll have to repair it. Youíll also pay for breaking
the speed limit if there are any speeding cameras around, pay for driving through a
red light, and in some countries, youíll have to pay a toll for using the road.
The roads are never empty and when it comes to other drivers, even here the game perfectly
simulates the stupidity of car drivers which are often suicidal, confused
or simply plain stupid. The A.I. does require some work, but as Iím reviewing the game,
the developers already announced an upcoming release of a big A.I. improvement patch so
this may not be an issue anymore by the time you watch this video. Sometimes the drivers
are very friendly, let you drive out at a junction or, if youíre driving with your
high beam on, they will joyfully flash at you thanking you for the great service of
lighting up the road.
Although you get the best experience playing this game with a steering wheel, you can also
play it with your keyboard, mouse, joystick, gamepad or anything with buttons. So despite
being a simulator, the game is very accessible and you really donít need any expensive equipment
or a truckerís licence to play itÖ although a license would help and youíll notice it
when you try to reverse your trailer for the first time.
So as Iíve said, this game should put all developers of other simulators to shame because
aside from being a great simulator, itís also a great game and thatís something others
have failed to do for many many years.
Itís a well deserved 10 out of 10 for the gameplay.
Now, before I proceed with the final score, there are a couple things that certainly have
to be mentioned.
First - thereís a huge and very active modding community for Euro Truck Simulator 2 and the
developers deeply care about modders by doing what they can to keep existing mods compatible
with new updates. This means that even if at some point youíll get bored with this
gameÖ after 300 hours, you can get tons of mods for it - from mods that add new oversized
and overweight trailers, weather mods if you want to drive in winter, up to new cities
in Scandinavia, south France, Italy, Spain and even North Africa.
Second - all Iíve said about having no option to roll down the truckís window, about the
A.I. being stupid or even the fact that winter maps and Scandinavia or North Africa are only
available as mods may not be true by the time youíre watching this video. Thatís because
the developers have absolutely not abandoned the game. Quite the contrary - theyíre working
on improving it all the time, releasing patches with new content, improvements, and lately
- their first expansion DLC called ìGoing Eastî expanding the map to Poland, Slovakia
and Hungary. And this is really high quality content, not just copy/pasted roads, the landscape
in these new maps is absolutely stunning. SCS Software has great ambitions to go even
further. Right now you can already go to www.worldoftrucks.com, link your game to create a profile and upload
a custom driver avatar, custom licence plates that will appear on your truck in the game,
or upload your best screenshots from the game. In the future, they plan to put more information
and statistics on this page and make it the first step towards cooperative elements like
companies ran together by multiple players, and maybe even something many Euro Truck fans
look forward to - a multiplayer experience.
I canít remember when was the last time that Iíve seen such ambitious company full of
so talented people. Even though SCS Software is rapidly growing, itís hard to believe
that this game as it is now was basically made by 15Ö probably heavily underpaid people.
The quality they aim for and the way they want to distribute downloadable content that
has been truly worked on after release and not chopped out off the game at launch to
increase profit is something you donít see that often nowadays and something that deserves
high recognition. For this alone, they and the fantastic game theyíve created (which
you can get for only 19,99 Euro on Steam) deserves at 10 out of 10.
Euro Truck Simulator 2 is a breath of fresh air to the simulator genre and a benchmark
that other simulation game developers should measure themselves against. Even though it
may not be perfect at the time of this review, I am confident that it will in the future
and if the developers continue to provide such great content, one day we may look at
this game as a milestone in the gaming industry and the first high-quality simulator that
evolved into an amazing series of realistic driving simulators.
This was my journalistic review of Euro Truck Simulator 2. If you have any comments,
good for you.