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Love at first sight is not only for people, we can also feel a crush when playing video games and/or watching movies and series, among other things. “He who tried it knows it”, quoting the poem by Lope de Vega. And this is precisely what happened to me when I saw Star Trucker at the Future Games Show event during Summer Game Fest 2023. So much so that I dedicated an article to it at the end of November.
Now, the Steam Game Fest has opened its doors and I have finally been able to try the Star Trucker demo. Last night I spent about 3-4 hours playing several games, choosing different options, looking at all the menus and ins and outs of the truck, doing some tests such as crashing into other trucks at full speed, various ways to die and, as I did in Pacific Drive, I tried to remove all possible parts from the truck.
Star Trucker: The Hard Life of the Intergalactic Space Trucker
As you have surely guessed, the demo of Star TruckeI loved it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have bad things or things that could be improved. The first thing you should know is that it does not have any type of save: if you leave the game for whatever reason, you return to the beginning. This means that if you die in any way, you start over. I think it’s something that goes against what a demo means, because testing becomes almost a roguelike experience.
Also, the demo crashed during the game when I had almost completed it. I needed to deliver the last container to the delivery area. There were two or three hours of play that were incomplete. The two times I tried to pass it again, I froze to death. The game warns you that the temperature is dropping and to turn on the heating, but I’m freezing to death even if I turn it up to maximum. I missed something or the game didn’t detail exactly what I should do.
The last negative section of the demo has to do with the tutorials. I am a fervent defender that video games should include trial and error as part of learning instead of including everything absurdly chewed up in the tutorial, although there are exceptions such as Star Trucker.
The truck has a lot of buttons and utilities that the tutorials don’t teach you. For example, searching for a replacement gravity system (under the stairs) for the first time can be a real hell, especially since all the objects get in the way. And as an added bonus, there is no option to increase the FOV or field of view.
What is the Star Trucker experience like?
Beyond the drawbacks, the demo Star Trucker I loved it and it was enough to show me that it is indeed going to be one of my downfalls in 2024. It is a simulation video game similar to AAmerican Truck Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator and even Snowrunner, although there is one big difference: it is set in space, with all the dangers that entails.
Forget that idea of a space trucker relaxing and cruising huge space highways without complications. The rock and country music on the radio in our truck is there to enjoy the small moments of respite it leaves us. Star Trucker between problems. Space is a hostile place in every sense and rarely gives a respite when traveling through it.
Everything revolves around our wonderful space truck, a truck that we must keep running to transport containers from one star system to another. Sitting in the driver’s seat for the first time can be very overwhelming because there are two screens with different channels, more than a dozen buttons and levers, and indicators for speed, fuel, time and more.
But the cabin holds more secrets! A screen with seven bars indicates the status of the truck’s different systems, which require almost constant maintenance with energy cells, air filters and special batteries. And yes, you have to change them by hand. Four have to do with the operation of the truck itself and three for our well-being: spacesuit recharging, gravity and oxygen.
And if all this were not enough, we must control the fuel, the external and internal temperature and finally the state of both the hull of the truck and the possible load. If an object hits or we run out of fuel in the middle of nowhere, we have to go out to fix the leaks and refuel manually. My advice is to never let any system collapse, because the rest cascade.
In this sense, a very curious detail of Star Trucker They are the highways or highways. Why put them in space? Its developers are as smart as they are evil. Going off the beaten path, whether to explore or shortcut, can result in impact from rocks and space debris, resulting in damage to the hull and cargo.
Work and travel in Star Trucker
The way of working in Star Trucker It is not too different from: we go to a contract station, accept one or more shipments, pick up the cargo, travel and drop the cargo at the designated location. It seems like an easy process, we must keep in mind that we must carry out different steps such as the couplings in the bases and with the loads and the trip itself while we keep the truck operational. Additionally, there are random events like police customs checks.
As we complete jobs, we level up as a trucker and gain experience points to assign to a skill tree. It’s not about superpowers or crazy things, more about access to certain truck upgrades and licenses to access different types of jobs. For example, the image below shows the unlocking of radioactively hazardous charges. Needless to say, these are charged better than the normal ones.
We reach the crucial point of Star Trucker: What is space travel like? What is it like to move through the universe? In this sense, it reminded me a lot of what I saw in the demo of Pacific Drive. The world is made up of different open areas, separated by fast travel (space portals) and each one with its own characteristics: jobs, services, inclement weather, risks, rewards… In other words: it is not a big open world.
Personally, I don’t have a problem that the map is divided into fast travel zones, but I understand the reluctance of those of you who are raising your eyebrows while you take a look at the image that shows all the systems in the universe. Still, traveling from one end to the other requires physically going through all the systems in between and making several jumps at designated locations. I advise you not to rule it out just because of this section and to give it a chance.
In short, I believe that the balance of Star Trucker It is very positive and almost all the negative points are related to the demo and can be improved for the final release (2024). I admit that this is a video game for a very specific type of player, but don’t rule out the possibility that it will catch your fancy. It looks sublime and they have to do things very badly in Raw Fury so that I don’t dedicate at least 100-200 hours to it when it arrives in my Steam library.
