Over the years, I have joked about playing Bus Simulator competitively. And when I say ‘joked’, I mean only half-joked. And when I say ‘competitively’, I mean just with some goofball friends. Anyway, it’s a game that fascinates me to its core.
The idea of spending a relaxing day going from bus stop to bus stop and picking people up and dropping them off just seems like an idea I could retire to soon. I know that real-life bus driving probably can’t be imitated in a game, but it sounds relaxing. Not sure why, but very sure I’m going to try it someday.
Well, this week, I ran into the next best thing which was Star Trucker from developer Monster & Monster. It takes the innocent and somewhat relaxing concept of Bus Simulator and takes that structure and turns it into driving a big rig in space. There is a lot more to do in a space rig in space when compared to driving a bus on a street, and you never know how complicated things can get until you add X, Y, and Z to the driving mix.
While Star Trucker is a creative behemoth that features some fun driving and a soothing number of easy goals to accomplish, it falls a bit short in the quality of life department with how demanding outside distractions can be from just simple delivery.
So, get that bead seat ready, drink some Red Bull, and let’s get trucking on this review.
*HONK HONK*
Ready to haul some goodness
The setup for Star Trucker is quite generic and quick, but all in a good way. You play as a space trucker who is trying to make a name for themselves. Your goal is to find work, haul large items with your space truck, and get paid. The more you do, the better you’re received, and the pickier you can get with your work.
The front end of Star Trucker is quite simple. You sit in a seat and go from stop to stop picking up contracts and hauls. You must deliver the goods to their destination promptly and deliver them in good shape. The latter of the bunch can be tricky at times because the game is sensitive to all sorts of bumps, scratches, and minor collisions with random objects. Okay, I may have hit two trucks in the middle of space and maybe damaged mine, but it was their fault.
Anyway, the ground-level purpose of the game is just delivering and doing it well. Nothing too complicated and just enough trickiness with getting used to the controls that it adds a layer of challenge. I think I spent a good chunk of time just finagling my truck’s direction and finding a comfort zone with looking out the window of the space truck when moving it to and from jobs. Trying to line up a truck and move it backward in an XYZ environment is complicated as hell, especially when you’re trying to connect it to a haul. It gets, even more, trickier when you’ve got a haul attached and are trying to move backward or forward with it. Fun, but tricky.
At least right out of the gate, this was my biggest hoop to jump through, as steering a big rig on an XYZ axis can be a lot trickier than you might think. That doesn’t mean the game is terrible or anything of that nature, rather it’s simply tricky. You would expect space to be vast and stretch everywhere, and if you’re treating such a design as your highway, then it is expected to be a lot more difficult than it seems. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to move a giant rig around and trying to be as gentle as possible with it. The process of moving and delivering had me hyper-focused on several aspects of the game, including connecting my rig to its haul, getting the controls and steps right to get through gates and highways, and simply minding my surroundings. While the process of moving around was challenging, there wasn’t much frustration raining down on me during the game.
To help move around, the controls can be as simple or as complicated as you like, as the truck has several ways and options you can fly through space. For example, you can control individual thrusters on the ship and toggle them as needed. Why you would do that depends on the situation you’re in that calls for it, but the fact that it can be done means you have plenty of ways to fly. While it might seem like a lot is going on, these options can be used at your discretion. All in all, the base level of this game is relaxing even if it gets complicated.
The second level of this game is the backend part, where you are rewarded for your hauling efforts. You earn XP and money (to improve your ship and stock up on things) along the way the former of which equals skill points. The skill points can be used to improve your talents as an up-and-coming trucker, as they relate to your steadiness and timeliness (and other attributes). For example, you can unlock the ability to haul fragile, hazardous, and even timely items. Most of the skills are just better challenges with better rewards, but they’re still neat to unlock and put your space trucking skills to the test. They’re certainly more buffs than actual skills.
Now, the tree itself is vast when you think about exactly how technical and motivating the devs wanted to be with the simple concept of space trucking. It’s probably more than a game like this deserves, but it certainly is a welcomed gameplay element that fits right into the scheme of Star Trucker. It’s a neat addition to an otherwise simple game and will motivate you to keep pushing and trucking.
QOL issues
While trucking, progressing, and improving through rewards/payments is positive when it comes to the gameplay structure of this game, as the front end compliments the backend well enough, not everything in the game is relaxing and well-structured.
While driving the space rig, you must also focus on oxygen levels, electricity, and even maintaining gravity within the truck. That doesn’t consider the organizing and eventual large number of repairs you will have to make when your truck bumps into something. All of this takes time, especially the latter, and all of it happens way too frequently. For example, the first few minutes of getting used to the space truck environment had me suiting up, climbing outside, and patching up some damaged areas of my truck. While the process of patching doesn’t take too long, certainly not as long as the journey to the repair, the ease of bumping into objects in the game had it repeated multiple times quite often. The holes that need patching can happen
When I wasn’t repairing my ship, I had to worry about the energy it took to maintain oxygen and gravity. The oxygen is frightening, as you can run out of it quickly, and the moment it stops in the ship you have about 10-15 seconds to replace the battery that runs the tank. If you don’t, you will pass out, someone will find you, heal you, and you will be financially penalized for being a doofus who doesn’t watch their oxygen levels.
The financial fallout for that lack of oxygen is significant, especially at the beginning, as the game will explain that you were extended credit to survive the oxygen deprivation chamber you unwittingly developed in your truck and that you have to pay that money back or risk the consequences. It’s certainly a hefty price to pay at the beginning but it does introduce you to the first QOL issue of the game.
The last of the QOL issues can be incredibly annoying, as the energy to maintain false gravity within the truck is a high attention price, and losing gravity means that you will have a constant flow of items floating around your truck and mostly towards your window to obstruct your view. I can’t tell you how many times my gravity control system went ga-ga on my truck, but it happened way more at the beginning than me delivering goods. Eventually, this became a norm that I could handle, but it shouldn’t happen so many times that it becomes a norm.
I don’t mind these little worries with most games, but all three issues were in constant demand when trying to haul containers from point A to point B. I can’t tell you how many times I had to stop what I was doing, climb out of my chair, recharge energy, repair my ship, or replace the energy canister in my oxygen control system. It was quite often.
I think that the devs should go back and look at these gameplay elements and ease up a bit on how often they occur. There should also be an option to turn them off completely and play the game as just someone who is hauling goods. I’m sure there would be math needed to account for the easier gameplay but it would be a sacrifice I would be happy to make if it meant just concentrating on hauling. The hauling part is fun as hell and once attention is taken away from that for an unnecessarily large amount of time, it’s tough to enjoy the game.
As someone who knows nothing about the complexity of programming, I realize that my suggestions are easier said than done. Still, if the devs could change some of these issues or offer a secondary option for the game, then they would satisfy everyone playing it. There is so much more positive to this game than negative, but the QOL issues certainly weigh the title down a bit.
Graphics
I knew going into this review that Star Trucker was certainly going to be a visual delight for the senses, but I didn’t know I was getting such a gorgeously put-together game. The game makes you feel like you’re in space and represents the vastness of it quite well. With planets and stars lighting up the backgrounds and asteroids and well-constructed buildings occupying the mid and foreground, there is a lot of pretty to be had with the game.
One gorgeous example of how visuals affect the game and how massive they can seem in scope is when you’re floating over a big blue planet with clouds while acquiring a haul. The planet minimizes the space truck and its environment and mimics what it would feel like to be in space near a habitable big blue cloudy earth-like entity. It’s something to behold. I wish they had this game in virtual reality as I’m sure I would have just completely fallen in love with it. Or gotten sick. Or acquired a new phobia. On second thought, probably not a good idea.
Now, to help push these graphics that feature a proper amount of lighting, raytracing, and all the delicates you would expect a space environment and a space truck’s outside to look like after spending years traveling, the hardware demand isn’t too bad. I was running a 4070 with 32GB of RAM and a high-end CPU, and it struggled with 240hz with those specs. When I pulled it down to a reasonable 60hz with all the bells and whistles still intact, then it flew like you wouldn’t believe. Anyway, it’s a gorgeous game that doesn’t disappoint with its visuals.
On that note, let’s wrap this review up.
Conclusion
Star Trucker from developer Monster & Monster and publisher Raw Fury is a solid game and a fun concept. It does enough to keep you in a space truck’s cockpit with its skills tree, challenging hauls, and push to keep exploring space and its vastness. It certainly has some fixable shortcomings but has more positive than negative.
