An absolute hidden gem! 16 hours in 3.5 days is always a sign I'm hooked. Dev seems amazing with great communication and fast hotfixes + still regular updates despite the small community. The Slaverian Trucker is imo a crucial and fantastic addition to the family of indie survival driving sims. Ended up here because I found The Long Drive great fun; but lost interest due to the lack of goals, variety, reward for progression etc. Equally I loved My Summer Car in theory, but found it a little too realistic even for me, leading to slow pace and lots of frustration. This game however strikes the perfect balance. Its realistic (relatively speaking) but without being too complicated, map is massive and varied, handling/feel of vehicle weight is solid, fuel economy is spot on, radio tracks are sweeet, inventory system is slick and saves tonnes of time, atmosphere and interaction with your vehicles is brilliant and thirst/hunger/fatigue etc. are excellently balanced imo (dont bug you every 5 minutes, but need tending often enough to keep you immersed). Game absolutely aces reward for progression, every delivery feels like you've taken another step up the ladder towards a better life in Slaveria. Its other very strong suit is immersion...... You dont need to be a mechanic to play (Unlike MSC) however you really bond with and appreciate your truck once you've tended to its wheel position, oil and coolant levels, meticulously stacked cargo in the bed, supplies to keep the driver (you) going packed on your passenger seat..... then once you've dropped off your cargo piece by piece in the delivery bay of the pub/dockyard/grocery store etc. and got paid, its off to the pub. Sit down at a table, drink some beer, smoke cigarettes and just relax. All these things feel so immersive as its literally manually controlled, hit a key to remove the cap from your beer bottle, lift it to your mouth and tip in.... your even holding a key to manually pull on the cigarette. I'm rambling, but the point is its satisfying as hell. Dont get me wrong, its not perfect, but no one could reasonably expect it to be (Also its £9!? My bargain of the year so far) -I'd currently advise completely avoiding drug dealing/smuggling gameplay features. Cops at present are essentially sparsely placed gods - they have basically X-ray vision and telekinesis...... patrol car spawns in front of you, and you pass each other going opposite ways at 80kph? In that split second, they saw through your truck and into your backpack, saw your 'illicit substances' , took them off you and fined you 350,000 ish.... all without either of you so much as slowing down. -Hunting is a great idea and perfect feature for the game, but right now its pretty 'financially gated' . To buy a firearms license, hunting license , an actual rifle (not an air one) and some ammo; you're looking at about 2.45 million dollars. As avoiding police consistently is currently impossible, its only really viable to go the legal route for hunting; however animal corpses sell for 2-60k (the ones worth more than 25k being hard to find and dangerous to hunt) Therefore making a profit on your nearly 2.5 mil investment is going to take quite some time.... -A few minor bugs and jank, but honestly for me its been FAR less than other similar titles, honestly very impressive. No crashes in my time so far and haven't permanently lost any items I needed. Items dropped through bottom of the map will reappear above your head and drop back to you/the ground ( Thank you dev for that, much appreciated!) The main contention point for most people (reason for some negative reviews in the past) will be understanding that the game doesn't hold your hand; the really core mechanics are well explained in pause menu tutorials (including imbedded gifs) and the game guides you to your first source of work and a rudimentary map. Thats about it though. Finding and completing missions, locating places that sell the right vehicle parts you need, optimising routes, finding the side mechanics like hunting, gambling , finding less 'legal' work etc. etc. all require exploration and experimentation. The wiki is very WIP but does have some critical basic info and maps of towns/cities if you want an extra hand. Thats the main review cos I'm rambling like a nutter. See below for TL:DR , tips and suggestions. What I'd like to see: Working odometer! All that driving we do, but no in-game feature recording how far we've travelled in total/ per vehicle. Fishing! Map is an island, and has at least 1 lake, we can cook; but as far as I can see there's no fishing rod/mechanic yet Rebalance of the Police/Law please ;) More advantages for property ownership- maybe ability to grow fruit and veg? Dynamic weather - icy/wet slick roads or scorching heatwaves that overheat worn/inadequate radiators would be cool! Quick basic tips for new players -Game doesnt autosave, remember to manually save regularly (you have to exit your vehicle to save) -All grocery stores and pubs are closed all weekend. Other places to get food and water are few and far between. Every Friday, make sure you check your supplies, top up on enough food and bottled water to survive 2 days. (you also cant deliver goods to those 2 types of buyer during weekends) -Fuel is very expensive but lasts a pretty long time, don't immediately brim your tank when low on funds, half a tank will get you a LONG way -Rent out your starter house (noticeboard at end of front yard fence) if you're spending a decent amount of time on the other half of the map -Avoid illegal activities until you understand them and the police system VERY well / Or until the systems get rebalanced with an update. Punishments for being caught are VERY high for new players, while potential profit is nothing special VS legal work TL:DR Game is very satisfying and immersive, runs surprisingly stable, lots of content. It is challenging and requires exploration and experimentation, some patience is needed to enjoy. If you liked My summer car and/or The long drive, you'll adore this game. Dev is awesome.
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