Over the last few years, I’ve been exploring the world of truck driving games, especially those on consoles. There’s been a few to enjoy, but of note was one simply called Truck Driver. This is a game that promised a trucking experience based locally. Let’s say within a county. However, the feel of the game was just the same as any other truck driving game.
Small towns and cities made up almost exclusively of warehouses with a few roads to connect them. While it had a story, it did not feel natural in that you as a driver instantly become the most important person to any of these contacts you make. While you did earn money for completing jobs, the best paid were always those through the last contact you encountered, making all others redundant if you wanted to be earning fast money.
With this new concept of mine, I’m going for a truck driving game that truly feels like you’re a driver cultivating connections and helping the local community. And that starts with the world in which you drive. Taking the county of Merseyside in the UK, and attaching the small areas of Lancashire and Cheshire that surround it, this recreation of that county will have everything a truck driver needs to help their local community.
Of course, to start with, you need to learn how to drive a truck, which is where the training centre has its use. Here, the tutorial will begin. You will have seen the news talking of a shortage of truck drivers to help transport between counties. Wanting to be of help to your community, you apply to be a truck driver. That’s when you find yourself at the training centre, which will run you through the basics of driving around the world.
Completing the driving tutorial, you’ll ask at the centre for recommendations on a truck and where to start. Skip to you at a nearby garage, already in a truck and with a GPS route to a warehouse. Once at it, this is where the jobs tutorial will begin. Signing your first contract with this warehouse, you’ll complete three jobs for them which will then end the contract. Jobs can be one of two things. Either you take a trailer with you to a destination, or pick a trailer up and take it back to the warehouse you have the contract with. Trailers need to be delivered into the open loading bay of a warehouse, so you best be good at reversing that truck. Of course, a freely controlable third-person camera along with first-person cockpit camera helps with that.
On that third job, you’ll have found your first contact. That contact will ask you to drop by once you’re finished with your current contract (which you will be) as they could use another driver to help them. They will give you a quick job to perform. Head out to get the materials and bring them back. With that job complete, it will have taught you about the respect system for contacts, just as the jobs tutorial as a whole teaches about the types of contracts you can accept and the risk-reward system.
That risk-reward system sees a time for a job to be completed by set. The bonus for it starts at x2 of the set price, with that bonus starting to fall after half the allotted time has passed. When the time arrives at what was set, the bonus has now gone, with the multiplier resting at x1. There’s a buffer period where you won’t be charged for being late that lasts an in-game hour after the set time. Once that hour’s passed, then you will start losing out on money as the multiplier drops to x0.5.
You also need to be aware of the rules of the road and not be a maniac behind the wheel, as any fines you incur will cause a drop to that multiplier depending on the severity of that fine. All this is also tied to the respect system for the contacts that you find around the world. The drop will start at the same time, with the multiplier being lost at the same time, too.
The same buffer of an hour will keep the multiplier at x1, with another hour dropping it to x0.5. From there, a further hour from that will see it dropped to x0, meaning you won’t see any respect for that job. If, after five hours from the set time, you still haven’t completed the job, the multiplier will start to rise again. But rather than a bonus, it’s counting how much respect you will lose with that contact, at a rate of x0.5 per hour up to x2.
Each contact, of which there are ten in total, has a level meter. Each level (with the bar starting at 0) indicates a new part of their story to be completed. With respect earned, the meter will fill. Once full, you progress to the next level, where you’ll be contacted by that contact about something they want to talk about and to drop by when you’re free. In other words, when not bound by a contract. While you can lose respect, you will never drop a level. You only need to worry about that respect system when dealing with companies that contact owns. Since there’s plenty of companies in the world that don’t have an associated contact attached to them, you have the option of not even pursuing those stories if you don’t feel like it.
But what stories could a truck driver such as yourself get involved in? Well, delivering sensitive cargo, for one. Not illegal, but taking on jobs that the owner would only trust to someone they knew was reliable. One of the contacts you’ll come across owns a hotel and resort. They’re wanting to expand. As you take on jobs ferrying beds and other furnishings to and from the resort (along with other things, of course), you’ll earn the respect of the owner.
With some land set aside, those plans of expansion are slowly revealed to you. You’ll first help deliver materials for the log cabins which include specially designed fittings. After that comes the aquarium, a large sand play area, a track ride… Things that the owner expects will make the resort massively popular to tourists. Between those jobs relating to the expansion, the owner will also have a few jobs relating to his other investments, such as a nearby water sports centre for you to help with. Just because you’re getting these jobs, however, doesn’t mean you’re the only one a contact is trusting with them, as the story for them will highlight on occasion.
Since you are earning money, what is it getting used for? Well, fuel being the obvious one. Along with the maintenance of your truck. Those are handled at garages, where you can also use the computer they have to look for new contracts. Maintenance comes in the form of parts, with each section of parts representing what would be a skill in other games. Upgrading a part improves the ability it holds, such as decreasing stress gain and increasing the capacity of the fuel tank. There are also numerous rest stops around, which you’ll need to use to regain energy via sleeping and reduce stress through entertainment and activities.
Yes, energy and stress. At first, you’ll have twelve hours of energy to use for driving, with the amount of stress gain affecting that energy loss. Rest stops will take the form of hotels and other facilities, with the cheaper ones offering fewer forms of entertainment that will take longer to decrease your stress. Only one form of entertainment can be used per rest stop visit, with each having a set value of time and stress loss. With the entertainment used, you’ll then rest for however long you want. That rest stop will then be closed to you until 24 hours of game time have passed.
With this concept, I hope I have shown exactly what a local truck driving game can be. A world that feels a natural place to live with a gameplay loop that can prove engaging. A world living by a calander, with contracts appearing and disappearing based on that calander. A world, or at least parts of it, that evolve upon completion of certain contracts. A respect system that sees you work toward trust with named contacts. A reason to want money and an aim to better yourself with it. Trucking Local as a concept is different enough to what other truck simulators offer that it should be able to coexist with them. But is it a concept worth pursuing?
Images Taken From:
Maps | Google
Truck Driver | Original Screenshot
