Developer Monster & Monster’s Star Trucker stuck on my mind ever since it was unveiled a while ago, and having had a chance to play its demo during the last Steam Fest, I was counting the minutes until I could get to play the full version. And having now spent a bit of time delivering cargo all over the vastness of space, I can safely say that it’s this year’s job simulator for me, much like Alaskan Road Trucker was for 2023.
The concept behind this one is simple: you are a fledgling truck driver, the catch is that you are not just any kind of driver, but a spaaaace trucker. And with it, come extra layers of complexity outside of the usual complications, all resulting in an extremely busy but at the same time rewarding and even relaxing time.
Star Trucker’s deceptively straightforward premise quickly evolves into more than a mere drive-to-point-A-and-back-to-B type of affair, with now having to deal with maintaining all of your druck’s system on which you trust your very life to, like keeping tabs on oxygen and leaks, knowing how to juggle power when out in the middle of nowhere, and the like. Struck with how much there is to fiddle around in this game, when I stopped to think about it, I was already hooked.
The presentation is another one of its highlights. Albeit simple in terms of geometry, the graphics pop thanks to some clever texture work and a surprisingly ample lighting model, which in tandem help convey the dirtiness of the job and the places you go to. They help set the mood and provide an ambiance that I felt at home playing, after having loved Pacific Drive, released earlier this year, another game that took a similar approach, providing a fantastic sense of immersion all throughout its runtime.
Coupled with its graphics is its sound design, borrowing heavily from what you’d expect to hear about a game of this type on the open road, now out on the stars. It’s funny and refreshing, a little silly, admittedly, but works as you speed along listening to country music and chatting with other truckers on the CB radio. The voice acting also helps as you’re constantly in contact with Red Eddie and other friends and foes picking up jobs and helping one another out driving, making you feel like you’re part of the game’s world, something that Pacific Drive also did very well.
And yeah, I keep touching on that other game because both deal with you learning how to deal with the unpredictability of their respective universes and constantly evolving and protecting your means of transportation. In Star Trucker, that means spending your hard-earned dough while doing just that, wearing your flight suit outside in the vacuum in order to patch holes, and charting courses to your destinations.
All of that while being able to freely add markers on the map in the process, knowing where it’s worth stopping and avoiding potential dangers or the attention of the law. The leeway to screw yourself over in this is also pretty similar to Ironwood Studios’ game, and I appreciate both for that as it gives me reason to constantly challenge myself in unique and organic ways whenever I feel like it.
While not necessarily the most out there game in terms of ideas or gameplay, what is here helps give Star Trucker plenty of legs, especially to someone like me who is naturally inclined to enjoy the mundane nature of hauling cargo, with the added hooks of having to do it in space. The setting is cool in its relative routine structure of playing a worker sometime in the future where it’s just another job like any other, which is exactly the type of sci-fi that most appeals to me. Whatever contract is out there, I’ll be sure to pop by and do my best, ten-4, breaker breaker.
