Once I sat right down to play Highway Kings in April, the occasion organisers had been very clear: if you’re completed driving round within the sandbox, tell us and we are going to load up the catastrophe film scene. After fifty minutes of my hour with Saber’s spin on American Truck Simulator, I would utterly forgotten in regards to the second mission. I used to be merrily absorbed in hauling truckloads of train bikes between the cities of South Georgia and Northern Florida.
Saber are positively taking part in meet up with SCS Software program. The latter’s American Truck Simulator launched over a decade in the past and it now options almost half of North America. Naturally, Highway Kings will ship with a a lot smaller map and roster of automobiles. Although Saber hope to drag forward by injecting a bit drama.
Whereas Highway Kings has all the identical bones as SCS Software program’s simulator – taking up jobs, driving between stops, incomes cash to start out a trucking firm – there’s additionally an AI director hovering within the background able to spice issues up at a second’s discover. Chances are you’ll be driving down the freeway when a voice on the radio calls in asking for assist. One other driver may need you to tackle a job for them, a weigh station could possibly be calling you in for a examine of your cargo, or a detective may need assistance catching a killer on the run. Okay, not that final one, however the different two will occur.
They could not sound too dramatic but it surely does have implications for the sport’s different programs. Take a driver asking you to assist with a supply job for them. As you’ll be able to tackle a number of jobs without delay, every with their very own load, drop off location, and supply time, it’s worthwhile to work out should you may also help the driving force and preserve all of your present commitments. And do it with out falling asleep on the wheel. Meaning trying up your route, seeing should you can work in one other drop off, and the place in your schedule it may go. It additionally means extra bodily practicalities. Unloading items takes time, much more so if it’s a must to unload a late cargo choose as much as entry one thing else within the trailer.
Now contemplate what occurs if you tackle that different job. You are now underneath much more time strain, at risk of ruining your relationship along with your brokers and getting late charges in your deliveries, so that you stick his heavy ellipticals within the again, although it now places you over your authorized weight restrict. Now if that weigh station name comes, you are all of the sudden going to pay a nice for making an attempt to assist.
Whereas it has been some time since I booted up American Truck Simulator, the precise driving in Highway Kings is relatively good. Your truck has actual weight and momentum to it, making sudden stops hair elevating. That stated – and keep in mind, the construct I performed is already 4 months previous at this level – whereas the sport would detect after I was dashing on the interstate and provides me a ticking off, it isn’t all the time so correct. It informed me I used to be doing “Nice driving” moments after I by accident rammed into the again of a faculty bus.
And but, Highway Kings has pushed proper into my veins. Maybe it is the logistics sicko in me, however give me a jobs board, map suffering from depots, and variable price jobs, and I will go hog wild making certain I do not take a job that does not maximise my income.
It is occurred once more – I’ve forgotten the catastrophe film scene. If I simply discuss Highway Kings as an American Truck Simulator contender, I could also be burying the lede considerably. In addition to incidental jobs that get radioed in, there are additionally set piece missions that provide one thing that is positively not in ATS.
Loading up the save file, I used to be taken to a gasoline cease on the backside of a rustic street. I am informed a storm is coming in and I have to ship some restore supplies to a wind farm up on the hill. As I climb up the slender street, I cross vehicles parked up on the banks, warning triangles out, stranded from the heavy rain and powerful winds. Additional up the climb I discover unluckier truck drivers, their hundreds tipped over and spilled throughout the street. I cross them cautiously, giving a grim nod of solidarity as I’m going.
The wind is selecting up, the rain sloughing down, and the street is changing into icy from the chilly. With lots of cautious driving, I attain the generators and drop-off the products. However then, as I take off down the slender street, the wind turns into a hurricane. A turbine within the distance is spinning like a dervish. The generator at its centre sparks and explodes. A catherine wheel of flame pinwheels from its centre. One other turbine, this one nearer, follows swimsuit and one in every of its blades, lifted by the vortex, plunges down into the street, blocking my path. I choose up pace and observe the street again right down to the freeway, turbine blades and spilled cargo usually blocking the street. A landslide sends timber spilling down throughout me.
Once I lastly attain degree floor, males in excessive vis jackets direct me down a flooded street and in the direction of a car parking zone the place I take shelter for the evening.
Thank goodness I survived. Tomorrow I’ve received to ship some mild bulbs to Jacksonville.
Journey, meals, and lodging had been offered by Focus Leisure.
Hi, I’m Rishab. I’m a passionate pc gamer and an avid video game content writer. I have been involved with video games for over 2 decades now, and even today, after playing an astronomical number of games over the years, I’m still eager for more. In my free time, you will find me enjoying a hot cup of coffee and playing my favorite relaxing fishing game, Dave the Diver.
