Alaskan Road Truckers Review (Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 & PC)

I’m on the clock, and time is of the utmost importance in the eyes of those who yearn to get their hands on the next shipment of precious cargo. But there’s an issue: the road ahead of me isn’t the safest, and every inch of my moral compass is telling me that I should avoid it at all costs, if only to prevent the goods that I hold so dearly against my chest from cascading down into an abyss of smoke and sleet. With that, I have but two options: divert my course and steer towards an alternate route—a road that could very well mean the dissatisfaction of my client—or risk it all and head directly through the unknown, if only to fortify my reputation as a fledgling trucker. It’s all or nothing, and this is merely my first day on the job in Alaskan Road Truckers.

Suffice it to say, since getting behind the wheel to go toe-to-toe with the Alaskan wilderness, I’ve become a little more weary of my surroundings. Scratch that, I’ve come to learn that, regardless of the cargo I’m hauling or the size of the wheel trims, everything that isn’t dry asphalt is dangerous, and that, if I make a habit out of choosing all of the wrong routes or tools, then I’m about as good as dead. Well, that might be a bit of a push, to be fair — but the sense of urgency is alive and kicking, and if Alaskan Road Truckers has taught me anything, it’s that, aficionado or not, every route has a risk, and every aspiring driver is capable of suffering from the same consequences.

Yes, Alaskan Road Truckers has just launched on consoles. Care to hear a bit more about it? Then let’s get started.

Where Asphalt Meets Ice

If you’ve ever so much as graced the tarmac in one of these sorts of simulation games before, then I come bearing good news: Alaskan Road Truckers isn’t massively different from its counterparts. Well, I say that, when really, it does offer a little extra wriggle room by way of implementing various in-game mechanics—controlling the wipers, lights, winch cables, and so on and so forth. Having said that, at the core of its world is a layer that looks weirdly similar to that of SnowRunner—yet another driving simulation game that, like Alaskan Road Truckers, sees you onboarding cargo and traipsing through seemingly deserted areas out in the sticks for cash and several other lavish gadgets and gizmos. And that, really, is what the game aims to encapsulate: a life-like journey that brings forth the power to transport its players to the root of a particular occupation.

As far as the game’s general narrative goes, it really is as basic as it sounds. Naturally, there is whole lot of cargo to transport, and a wide-open world that’s absolutely bursting with opportunities for you to develop your career as a fledgling trucker, whether it’s by onboarding risky jobs that span countless miles, or by building a repertoire of fashionable compartments that have the power to make your role a little less, shall we say, life-threatening. Either way, the goal of the game is as simple as they come, in the case that, in order to progress deeper into the campaign, you must essentially travel for thousands of miles through ice, snow, and, on the rarest of occasions, blizzards. No cause for alarm there, then.

Into the Blizzard and Beyond

When it comes to physically driving your truck, the mechanics aren’t overly complicated. Well, they can be a little tricky to grasp, though it mostly boils down to the amount of experience that you have with driving games, in general, I suppose. Full disclosure, though — you aren’t responsible for merely tugging on a steering wheel, but rather, each and every switch and compartment in the vehicle itself. For example, if it rains, then you have to manually activate the wiper blades, and if it gets dark out, then you have to trigger the headlights, and the list goes on, naturally. But as it turns out, you can hardwire all of these functions into a hot bar of sorts, which means, while you cannot simply ignore them, you can adjust your commands to make your job more accessible and less burdensome.

Campaign-wise, Alaskan Road Truckers offers an open-world rags-to-riches sort of ordeal: it starts you out with a basic tutorial and a relatively light shipment to haul, and then goes on to eject you into the Alaskan wilderness, after which your only job is to acquire more advanced contracts, and essentially build your reputation as a trucker. Aside from that, though, the gameplay loop is about as predictable as it gets; it’s merely the case of completing one job, and then moving on to the next, only with slightly different cargo, and an array of routes to choose from. But, you know, that’s fine. After all, it wasn’t as if I was expecting anything more than that when I first put myself behind the wheel.

The Longest Road

I’m not going to say that Alaskan Road Truckers looks great, because it’s certainly missing the fluidity and textures of an all-around good-looking game. Yet, for a simulation game, and one that pours a lot of its heart and soul into crafting believable settings, it does manage to conjure a certain sense of believability that makes it surprisingly easy to marvel at. Of course, it could still do with a major overhaul in its design area, particularly when it comes to character models and some of the finer details that make up the spots that aren’t already stapled to the dashboard, but I’m not about to dock points for that, as it just wouldn’t seem fair, given its position as an independent game. Still, it feels like something that’s worth mentioning.

The ambiance and soundtrack in Alaskan Road Truckers are, I don’t know, okay-ish — and that’s putting it lightly, to be fair. As this is, and rightfully so, a game that centers its entire universe around soulless driving and open-ended exploration over countless miles, it comes as no major surprise that, at least on an audible level, there isn’t a huge amount to shovel through. However, like a lot of games that stem from a similar ilk, this isn’t too much of an issue; in fact, there’s rarely anything preventing you from just adding your own music to the table and resorting to a pair of headphones to see you through the lion’s share of the campaign. Guilty as charged.

Verdict

Alaskan Road Truckers slots into a niche category that, if somewhat unusual for outsiders, may come across as a little bare-bones or, dare I say, boring. However, if you’re one for the long haul, and don’t mind spending hours—and I mean hours—behind the wheel for the sake of obtaining bite-sized rewards that hold little to no weight or beneficial effects, then there’s a strong chance that you’ll absolutely adore just about everything that makes up Alaskan Road Truckers. Again, it isn’t the most remarkable game in the world, nor is it capable of holding a candle to the likes of SnowRunner, for that matter — but it definitely serves its purpose as an immersive driving experience. And that’s saying something.

Let it be said that Alaskan Road Truckers isn’t a short game, nor is it something that you’ll be able to sweep beneath the ice in a single sitting or two. In fact, it requires a tremendous amount of patience and dumb luck to complete—two traits that, quite frankly, I often struggled to manifest during my time aboard the vessel. But that might’ve just been me, for I, like countless other newcomers in the world of driving-centric simulation games, often lacked the mental capacity to see the natural beauty in the longevity of the occupation. Needless to say that this probably won’t be an issue for others, and so, feel free to take a lot of these words with a slight pinch of salt.

The point I’m trying to make here is this: if you adore driving—so much, that you’d be willing to embark on journey across endless distances, then you’d be right in thinking that Alaskan Road Truckers would be more than enough to scratch that itch. And to be fair, it is. Well, presumably.