In terms of (quite literally) the roads that music was made on, it is often debated where the greatest roads in the world are in Europe or the US. Which is better? The old, long, tight, and twisty roads of the European hills and countryside, or the youthful US roads that are winding through scenery that changes with every state.

The scenery changes often via highways, freeways, and all other ways that have killed heartland small-town America. I’ve loved traveling the US for decades now, simply because of that magnificent criss-cross of picturesque panoramas. Nothing quite beats those moments when you are knitting your way through the rocky formations of Arizona or the plains of Missouri, and you have the heart of American music to accompany you with every mile.

Still at quite an early stage of development, American Truck Simulator is a successor to SCS’ initial success in the trucking world of video games, 18 Wheels of Steel. As the foundation of the American Truck Sim‘ lineage, all the western states see their major cities return from several years ago, with a deeper exploration into each state. The games have gone from 3 cities in 2007’s American Long Haul to 21 in California today (for example) making the entire experience of just one state alone so much deeper. Presently as I write, the game totals 136 cities across 11 states.

If I went back and told my younger self 15 years ago that I’d be actually driving it with a wheel and pedals, well, I’d probably turn my nose up as I was presumably traveling about anyway. Of course, after giving Euro Truck Simulator 2 a review the other week, I had to satisfy another itch by driving across a portion of America too. That and Stabby Jane now has a hitman after her for sending so much military hardware to the far east of Poland. She is living the true American dream: Killing hitchhikers by the hundreds, making lots of money, and getting herself into enough debt to cripple someone for several lifetimes (god bless God-President Regan).

There is something siren-like about the highways stretching from coast to coast. It is a feeling that is never replicated anywhere else with such a deep yearning to just be out there. In Europe, I have a place I need to be or want to go. However, unlike the stories of Europe being rooted in specific places, every inch of those roads from sea to sea have a story to tell. American Truck Simulator does its best, even in its adolescence of development, to capture that wonder and hungry calling. It is a calling that every one of those roads cultivates in musicians, travelers, truckers, families, and many more.

I won’t say American Truck Simulator is something you should jump straight to as we speak. As I said, there are only 11 states of the 48 in the continental US available. Not that it isn’t enough to scratch that itch you have either. The “problem,” as I guess you could call it, is that I want to actually go out and experience that idealistic eclectic Americana, be with the people of those roads I’m traveling on, and experience something more than frustration at AI. I want to eat the food of those short-order cooks in diners as old as the tarmac itself and stop at those bits of odd American history to discover the stories behind Gemini Giant. I want to do what those songs of those roads tell you, feel alive.

It’s not much of a problem to have now, is it? It is nothing more than actually wanting to do it, but for real. That happens to be a feeling I don’t think I’ve ever had while playing Euro Truck Simulator 2. The feeling I got when I was out in the Scania, hauling many tons of metal, food, packaging, fuel, and so much more was simply that I could do it. Despite decades of driving like a lunatic and causing millions of insurance claims for drivers across the many gaming worlds, I would chill my jets and drive as if I had a license. Almost as if I had decades of experience with that truck.

The truth is the actual problems, ones I am sure many others will feel, are a disconnection in some areas. Front-facing sprites for select trees, some texture work even on ultra graphical presets look jaggy, and in a direct comparison between ETS 2 and ATS would be a slight lack in truck customization. Of course, it isn’t finished (far from it) and quite frankly I think we’re a couple of years away from that point anyway. No matter what I say now, by 2026 the entire game could change as ETS 2 has over its decade since releasing. My point is that while sharing similarities from SCS’ last game, American Truck Simulator is distinct in its own right.

It is distinct because the roads themselves are ribboning through canyons, valleys, prairies, plains, forests, and even cities, all telling a story of their own. The story of human struggle with the western expansion and great depression, the story of Rock ‘n Roll, and the tale of simple Americana. As much as many other roads have music associated with them or about them, Route 66 itself has an entire soundtrack accompanying you with every mile. Trucking across it is remarkable, even without the ability to hear the stories of tired waitresses and veterans of that tarmac highway.

Of course, there is a difference between the games beyond the simple setting. The trucks themselves have noses longer than the complete and unabridged omnibus of George R R Martin’s very successful fantasy series. Also, when you turn right at a red light everyone (no matter how you look) will ask how you are and tell you to “have a nice day!” Ok, only two of those are to do with the game, but can we stop telling each other to have a nice day? I feel like I’m preemptively letting you down. The wheel-base change is of course the tricky mistress when making the transition.

Back when I reviewed Bus Simulator 21, it was mentioned to me that I adapted well to the fact the turning axle sits behind the driver and thus throws several people off initially. It is a similar story to trading in the Scania for a Peterbilt 389 and eventually a Freightliner Cascadia: the turning axle is now six feet ahead instead of one behind. That makes the turning circle wider, it makes the ability to take basic turns more difficult initially, and when reversing into a spot, it takes a moment to work out what is happening at the beginning. Once again, it is not a tremendous problem, just something of a difference between the two releases.

I’m not begrudging either, they are very similar games but also have a very different “feel” to them. I’m a big proponent of how a game feels and this is why I can’t stand turn-based games half of the time. I can’t gauge just how something is without some reasonable feedback, which turn-based games often forego. That said (on the surface) there shouldn’t be much of a difference as they are both driving games from the same people with the same objective, yet there is something different between them. There is a different feeling to driving in Europe in a game, given nearly everything open-world is set in New York or Los Angeles.

I guess the basic difference is that while neither ETS 2 nor ATS fully emulate the absolute feeling of each continent’s roads, Europe is about drifting comfortably along as history surrounds you, while the US roads aren’t really going anywhere. With US roads, you just want to go out for a drive. The difference in the trucks themselves also has a feeling about them: One is a workhorse with several hundred horsepowers and the other is a great big lumbering oaf of a machine made for comfort and long-haul travel. 

Of course, the other comparison would be what you use to fill in the silence. Podcasts and audiobooks do well across Europe, while a repeat playlist of Willie Nelson, Steppenwolf, Chuck Berry, Sheryl Crow, Ram Jam, Los Lobos, ZZ Top, TOTO, Deep Purple, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and basically, anything that works for a road trip. I’ll have none of this “Power of Love” nonsense in my road trip playlist, it doesn’t belong there. You have Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, a bit of Queen, Heart, Foghat, Grand Funk Railroad, and basically anything from K Rose and DST. Nothing Pop and nothing that brings you down. I don’t just make the rules, I enforce them too.

Neglecting my attempts to highlight how much I either love SCS’ games or traveling across the US in general, I was always going to be biased towards American Truck Simulator. All the wheel and pedals have done to both ETS and this is induce a bit more arthritis into my joints and remind me why I shouldn’t be allowed to drive. Rolling my way through to the Mojave Desert with a trailer full of potatoes is a reminder of why we fall in love with landscapes and more particular to this review, the games that let us escape into those other lives we don’t live.

That is what a good simulator is. Be it farming, sport, economic trade, hospital, city, airport, or even truck simulation, it is about giving you a taste of something you don’t get day-to-day. Unsurprisingly, I am not one of the raging psychopaths behind the wheel of a multi-ton vehicle, but ATS does offer killing two hitchhikers with one already bloody stone. As I said last time, I’d like a little more to the business side of the simulation, something possibly a little more difficult and optional. Nonetheless, I still love it.

At least I do until I’m swearing at traffic for slowing down too much, pulling out in front of me, not going ahead when I stop to let them go, and every other offense I’d have them dragged up on. Yet, I noticed something that isn’t much of a problem with ETS 2. When pulling heavy loads and deciding to navigate through San Francisco instead of staying on the highway, there is no way to know if you’ll be able to traverse the hills. I noticed this when taking a log loader from Newport, Oregon to Los Angeles via Eureka (I like that Carter fella) and San Francisco, particularly when asked to pull over to a weigh station and the exit was up a hill.

I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to climb a hill while hauling 48 tons on a double articulated trailer, but it is not an easy job. Of course, the in-game map is as useful as ever, being a bunch of off-white and yellow lines on a black background. I’m not asking for a fully topographical survey for every mile, but it would be helpful to know which roads are best to avoid when pulling more than 100,000lbs up a hill both ways in the snow. Is it too much to ask for a little more information without relying on mods? Even if it is as simple as a symbol on the defined route laid out by the satnav.

I could nit-pick until someone came along and called me a semi-shaved guerilla in human clothes, but it wouldn’t do much to dissuade anyone. That’s good, because I don’t want to put anyone off from giving American Truck Simulator a chance. Much like its European equivalent, it is fantastic. Maybe I am just in a niche, the only person to love traveling those roads, someone who cherishes games like this and has a fondness for the history of things like the stories of Route 66. Sadly, through all of that love, I’ve spoiled myself on what I said I was going to do. Leave American Truck Simulator alone until you can go from coast to coast.

The experience of traveling California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico, and a few others isn’t lost on me, as I’ve tried to make clear. Nonetheless, I feel I am missing something. I’m missing trying to get out of Texas (and Montana) as quickly as I got in it, trying not to spend time in Florida on account of wanting to retain a few IQ points, and maybe if I got the chance, figure out how not to get shot for saying those things about Florida and Texas. Being serious for a minute, I just love the place and genuinely treasure every minute of being there. Sure American Truck Simulator isn’t that exactly, but with the details SCS put in, it is the next best thing.

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American Truck Simulator

$19.99 - $136+

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Big rigs.
• Building on the foundation of 18 Wheels of Steel.

Cons

• Like a cookie out of the oven, I wish I waited until it was done.
• Lacking some overdone truck customization, like ETS 2.