Sitting behind the wheel of a MAN truck, I find myself humming along to country music as I begin my drive to Cologne with a trailer of medical equipment in tow. Looking outside my cabin windows, I take in the sights of the city that I was about to leave behind as I embarked on my journey.
Welcome to Euro Truck Simulator 2.
On paper, the game sounds relatively boring. You start out as a truck driver for hire at first, earn enough money to buy your own truck. Spend money on upgrades for your truck and garage. Earn more money or take out a bank loan to expand your trucking business and hire drivers to work for you. Use the skill points that you earn from levelling up to gain the ability to transport dangerous goods or high value cargo and undertake long distance jobs.
I decided to buy the game after checking out some reviews to see what it was all about and despite my initial scepticism, I was glad to have picked it up. There’s a certain tranquillity to the game and I found myself firing it up when I want to clear my head or think about stuff by “going for a drive”.
As a game that doesn’t demand your full attention, I’m able to play it in the background while having long conversations with friends on the phone or Discord. Well, except making sure that I obey the rules of the road and not crash into other vehicles as just like in real-life, you’ll get fined if you commit a traffic offence.
Being a simulator, you can configure the game to be more realistic or arcade-like such as having realistic fuel consumption or air brakes simulation. The use of a steering wheel is also an option.
Another good thing about the game is that it has relatively low requirements, which means that it can be played on a computer that runs like a potato. If you’re looking to make your game prettier, there are mods such as Frkn64’s Realistic Graphics Mod available on the Steam Workshop, which I’m using for the images in this post. Want to increase the overall immersion of the game? There are mods for that too.
In terms of content, as mentioned earlier, there are country-specific DLCs that you can purchase to expand the map. After playing the game for a bit, I decided to buy the country-specific DLCs to expand my trucking experience, going to countries such as France, Sweden and Italy and I’ve found them to be worth it as they add more variety to the game like new region specific companies or cargo types.
Three cargo DLCs are also available to further increase the overall cargo variety, and they are the High Power Cargo Pack, Heavy Cargo Pack and Special Transport. As of the time of writing, the latest country-specific DLC is Road to the Black Sea, consisting of Romania, Bulgaria and the Trakya region of Turkey.
Overall, if you are looking for a game to relax and unwind or take your mind off from a stressful day, I would highly recommend Euro Truck Simulator 2. There’s no combat, no competition to be found here; it’s just you, your truck and the road ahead.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a delivery of fresh produce that needs to go to France and I’d best not keep my client waiting. It’s going to be a long drive.
Writing With Biscuits 