Arctic Trucker Simulator Review

Arctic Trucker Simulator is a game. Just.

Like many simulator games I have deliberately avoided, it is a low pass attempt of a game. The game works in a most basic sense, doing exactly what it says it will do and nothing more; there are no extra mechanics to get your head round and the mechanics there are merely skin deep. It is a game in the simplest sense and nothing more. It’s hard to know what makes me more annoyed at this game. The fact that the game is a bland and unfulfilling experience. Or the fact that someone had to approve this game for it to be released and someone apparently endorses this experience.

Arctic Trucker Simulator has you delivering goods from your hub, central in the map, to various locations around the map. Each location will accept several different types of goods, so later gameplay with larger delivery trucks means you can take multiple different cargos to a single location. Continuing deliveries will allow you to unlock different trucks, more carriages to carry cargo, and minor upgrades for your lorry.

That’s it.

This is a horrendously barebones experience coupled with a lack of polish. The driving does not have any major physics, and driving over ice does not change how the driving works at all. The upgrade tree for the game is only 5 trucks with three basic upgrade trees for each. The only thing that is really worth a modicum of worry is fuel though the fact you can take an incredible amount of it means that worry is rare. I find it hard to consider this even a game at points. The whole experience feels so lacking and wholly lazy, a cheap scumbag attempt to take £6.99 from the pockets of victims rather than any care for the experience they wish to emulate.

The only positive about this game is the fact that everything, despite how unpolished it is, works. The buttons may look like they were stolen from a flash game and the depth may be skin deep but what little it does actually functions. Driving works, choosing cargo and delivery cargo works and upgrades work. But working does not simply equate a good experience on its own and Arctic Truck Simulator’s only positive attribute is the fact that it functions adequately.

It’s been somewhat difficult to discuss this game simply due to the lack of everything in it. Arctic Truck Simulator is of a quality we would not have approved of in flash games not five years ago. But thanks to the advent of Steam and other digital distribution platforms people can now charge for this. Arctic Truck Simulator earns a 2 simply because it works. But just because it works does not stop this from being a boring and utterly pointless experience. Don’t buy it.