Published , by Jan Ole Peek
Published , by Jan Ole Peek
For fans of truck simulators, Star Trucker is an entirely new experience. Raw Fury's single-player space trucking simulator places you in the seat of a half-spaceship, half-big rig contraption and asks you to make your claim to fame under the stars. The premise is intriguing, and the visuals and ease of entry mean that even novice truckers will quickly get the hang of things — until they first realize that there are far more dangers on the intergalactic highways than on Earth's busiest roadways. It will take patience and a keen eye for detail to survive, let alone thrive, in Star Trucker.
Upon first starting Star Trucker, you find yourself inside what appears to be a typical North American big rig. But instead of a passenger seat and standard instrumentation, you sit in the middle, surrounded by digital readouts and monitors, staring into space as you are stranded on a road in space. Star Trucker quickly walks you through basic game concepts, such as leaving your command chair to move around your cabin, donning a space suit, and getting outside to patch up a couple of hull fractures. Get used to this — you'll be doing it a lot.
In the early stages of Star Trucker, you'll meet a handful of other space truckers who send you out on missions and slowly help you unlock new skills and access to different sectors of the solar system. You'll learn how to purchase supplies for your truck, take on new jobs at job boards, and generally navigate each system without getting yourself killed. It turns out that surviving in a space truck is quite difficult. Even just navigating the 3-dimensional world can be a challenge, as your truck doesn't turn or stop on a dime. You'll spend the early hours just getting to grips with properly steering and avoiding the many forms of space debris. These range from tiny, bullet-like rocks to massive boulders, and, of course, other space traffic. You're not alone out there, as you'll quickly find out. There are security checks to ensure you're not smuggling contraband, weigh stations to prevent overloading your rig, and more.
As you progress, you'll unlock skills that allow you to take on more profitable jobs, such as just-in-time deliveries or long hauls with multiple trailers. You can also upgrade your truck, with both functional and cosmetic add-ons available. This system is quite deep and promises to provide goals to achieve for many hours. The biggest challenge will be maintaining patience and limiting frustrations along the way.
Once you get the hang of how everything works, you'll settle into a nice, relaxed groove of turning on the radio station and enjoying the beautiful visuals outside your cabin as you travel from system to system. The banter with other characters on the CB radio is entertaining, and the pace of mission progress feels satisfying. Just keep your expectations around variety realistic in Star Trucker. There's no multiplayer planned, so the interactions you have with NPCs are all there is. While there is other space traffic, unless they honk at you for cutting them off, that's about as much interaction as you'll get.
The maglock system that docks your truck to various shops and job boards and allows trailers to be hitched is a fun exercise in backing up. There's a real sense of accomplishment once you get used to the best way to approach a docking point, swing around, and line yourself up perfectly for a quick reverse-and-attach maneuver. There's only one radio station, but it plays a good mix of tunes that hit the desired level of retro Americana sci-fi vibes. The controls are intuitive but lack customization. While both mouse and controller support are native, since everything requires looking, pointing, and clicking, with no hotkeys to execute basic tasks like docking, I ended up sticking to mouse and keyboard, even though the controller feels more natural for navigating through space.
Throughout most of my time with Star Trucker, I wished for just a bit more. I would have loved to enter space stations and bars, customize the interior of my truck, have more radio stations, and see more NPC interactions. I really wanted to customize the controls and desperately wanted to strap things down in the cabin of my truck. And I really, really wanted to stop dealing with power management.
I was hopeful that the early financial struggles in Star Trucker would ease with the unlocking of more valuable jobs through skill points. Surely, all these power cells I was burning through would eventually turn out to be rechargeable. But even ten hours into the game, I found myself struggling more with maintaining my space rig than actually taking on jobs or exploring the galaxy.
Your truck requires an enormous amount of energy to keep its vital systems operating. Every component, from core systems to the mag connectors, gravity and oxygen generators, and suit charger, requires power cells. In a future where space travel is as common as driving, these power cells, inexplicably, cannot be recharged. Once empty, they are best traded for new ones. It seems that the galaxy's shop owners have caught on to the importance of these power cells, as their cost is extremely high compared to what you earn hauling freight.
Oh, and there's more than just power cells. There are circuit boards and air filters that are easily forgotten. The consequence of not keeping a sharp eye on your power supply is certain death. The number of times I've run out of air filters with none available for sale in nearby systems is far too high. To conserve power, I spend most of my trips with the gravity generator disabled, which means all my belongings float freely around the cabin. I also keep the suit charger offline to scavenge its components for more critical systems, which led to another painful death when I unexpectedly ran out of oxygen and my life-saving suit was also dry.
There's no actual death in Star Trucker. When you run out of oxygen or your truck's hull fails, you respawn at a repair shop with a hefty bill. If you were hauling cargo, that job is abandoned, leading to another expensive fine. In short, I spent more time worrying about not running out of power so I wouldn't break down and go broke than enjoying the beautifully crafted galaxy. This was on the recommended difficulty, and there's no way to change it once you've begun, unfortunately.
Star Trucker shows a lot of promise. Its ease of entry, limited learning curve, and beautiful environments promise many hours of enjoyment. However, this welcome simplicity is also one of its main drawbacks. There's so much more that could have been done to improve the user experience. The biggest problem, however, is the skewed economy. Resources essential for enjoying Star Trucker are too expensive and hard to come by, making it more of a power management simulator than a space truck simulator. Choosing an easier difficulty level may alleviate some of these issues, but it points to an overall imbalance in the game. Nevertheless, given its low price and easy approachability, Star Trucker can be a lot of fun for fans of space and truck simulations, but you may not want to visit this truck stop very often.
This review is based on the PC Steam release. The game key was provided by the publisher for review consideration. Star Trucker is available on September 3 for PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and Game Pass.