Forklift Simulator Review (Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5 & PC)

It’s time to earn your forklift driving license — Forklift Simulator is on the prowl for an avid driver, and it wants you, the palette-stacking wheeler, to onboard the weighty task of completing its cargo-centric duties over a series of shifts behind the wheel. That’s right, even the act of maneuvering a forklift truck around a generic factory floor is a playable exercise now, which means, if you too share a weird obsession with odd jobs and relatively monotonous chore core work on a virtual scale, then chances are you’ll find something to write home about in Bandsoft’s latest simulation game.

As the title implies, Forklift Simulator isn’t a game that needs any kind of formal introduction, for it is, quite literally, a simulation game that sees you operating a forklift, and—if you can believe it—shifting various forms of cargo from one location to the next in exchange for cash and other lavish perks. There isn’t much more to it than that, and so, if you came here hoping to unearth some form of underlying themes or extravagant mechanics, then you’re out of luck. This isn’t much more than what it says it is: a run-of-the-mill extraction sim, one in which you carve away at a checklist and clipboard, and acquire a few nifty perks along the way. If that sounds like your idea of a good time, then be sure to read on as we unpack the details. Let’s get to work.

Behind the Wheel

Forklift Simulator is exactly what it says it is on the tin: a physics-based driving game in which players can voluntarily operate a forklift and whittle down a series of A-to-B tasks across a myriad of locations. Its premise is simple: take forklift A and use it to shovel through various manual loading techniques and jobs—challenges that require a steady hand, a good sense of direction, and a whole lot of patience, believe it or not. And that, really, is what the game is: a catalog of real-world scenarios that predominantly involve you taking to the wheel and working out how to transport freight, manage heavy loads, and gradually ascend through the ranks of the logistics department.

Forklift Simulator comes pre-loaded with the bog-standard Career Mode—the typical rags-to-riches tale that mostly focuses on the general steps one would usually take to climb the ladder and earn a pay packet or two. It starts out small—with an old forklift, a small amount of cargo, and a back room space to store it. Naturally, the Career Mode sees you working through several jobs, all of which require the same preliminary steps, such as loading, operating, and offloading freight in a professional and efficient manner. Granted, these steps aren’t necessarily tough to master, given the fact that the driving mechanics are, well, written in black and white. But that isn’t to say that it’s a smooth transition; on the contrary, the camera angles and floaty physics make a lot of these goals surprisingly difficult, which makes the overall experience somewhat challenging, to say the least.

Ascending the Ladder

Thankfully, you do earn a few spare bucks for your time and effort in Forklift Simulator. Like a lot of sandbox sims, each job that you complete in the Career nets you a set amount of cash—income with which you can choose to spend on new vehicles and other progressive items to help boost your overall productivity and skills. And yet, once you’ve managed to finalize the basics and part ways with the last job on the line, you’ll find that none of this really matters, as there are really only so many things that you can unlock before your pocket change soon becomes almost meaningless and redundant. There’s a Free Play mode, sure, but without any end-game content or items to unlock, there just isn’t much of an incentive to continue beyond what’s expected of you.

If you’re one for striving to complete just about every task on the board, then you should be able to mop up the Career Mode in seven or eight hours, give or take. But as I said, with little to zero bonus material or reasons to progress past the tipping point, it’s unlikely that you’ll want to stick around for the long haul. And that’s partly where the game loses its appeal: the fact that it falls short in terms of longevity. Sure enough, it’s a predictable game through and through. Not that this comes as much of a surprise, mind you, given the fact that the game quite literally spells it out for you right from the moment you embark on your logistics journey. Still, there isn’t much to be left to the imagination here — and that’s a shame, really.

With Freight Comes Fortune

Forklift Simulator is a relatively easy game to learn on the go; in fact, you can pick up all of the basics and earn a living out of it after just a few short rounds down at the factory floor. After that, it’s merely the case of doing the same thing thrice over for the sake of acquiring more to do, and then again, right up until you’ve little else to do other than work for the sake of working. Of course, once you’ve scraped the barrel clean and unlocked all there is to unlock, there isn’t much else to channel your energy into, thus making the latter portion of the journey seem rather pointless and unnecessary. But, if you’re the sort of gamer who enjoys reaping the benefits—no matter how petite they may be—then you might just find enough to keep you emotionally invested.

The graphics in Forklift Simulator aren’t half bad. Well, in terms of quality, they essentially sit on the same wavelength as the vast majority of other sandbox sims that you often find on the market. The gameplay mechanics, too, aren’t the worst I’ve ever seen, either. Saying that, there are several things that could do with a bit of work—the handling, pivoting, and transitioning, for example. To say that it’s a realistic forklift driving game wouldn’t be totally accurate, for it does frequently jitter and make certain maneuvers feel almost wooden and half-baked. What I mean to say here is that, although you can operate the forklift and have it tackle most obstacles, pivoting and handling is not as fluid as it should be. And that’s a shame, given the fact that, you know, the entire game is centered around the act of driving a forklift. Go figure.

Verdict

There is really only so much you can say about a game like Forklift Simulator, to be fair. On one hand, it serves its purpose as a digital emulation of a real-world trade, and it even makes what should be boring work seem surprisingly engaging and, dare I say, oddly rewarding. But, like a lot of simulation games that opt to capitalize on a single point of interest, there does indeed come a point where even the most convoluted scenarios dwindle into painstakingly meaningless territories. And that’s just it: Forklift Simulator loses its appeal not long after its initial batch of jobs, and it honestly doesn’t take all that long for it to succumb to a textbook nine-to-five pattern. It’s fun in short bursts, for sure, though naturally, it doesn’t provide enough of an incentive to keep your attention interlocked throughout the duration of the entire journey.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some good bones to pick at here, and it helps, too, that just about anyone can pick up the game and roll with it without having to onboard countless tutorials or safety checks. On that basis, it’s a bit of an easy peeler—you complete jobs, and you progress to the next, all in the hopes of earning a little extra cash for, well, other unimportant items that add little to no value to the experience. But that’s just it: the financial aspects are highly irrelevant and even rather cumbersome, and are in no way needed to make the game any more appealing. Simply put, Forklift Simulator is a drag, yet one that you could quite easily learn to enjoy when paired with a laid-back playlist and a lazy afternoon. To say that it’s a good game, however, just wouldn’t be entirely true.