18 Wheels of Steel Extreme Trucker

The first in the 18 Wheels of Steel: Extreme Trucker series, this game takes the player on a journey around icy Canada. Good for trucking enthusiasts the game offers a window into the career of daring truckers who take their massive vehicles on some of the world's most dangerous roads, delivering goods come hell or shine: and it is more usually hell!

The demo version offers one hour of play, which is just about enough time to cover the Canadian map, but no further. There is only one game mode and the player must drive to various spots on the map to make deliveries and receive goods to carry on elsewhere. The Canadian terrain is snowy and icy, making it difficult to easily control the massive heavy trucks, especially in the face of oncoming traffic that is equally at risk of sliding on the ice as they progress.

The tasks get harder as the player progresses through the levels, with more and more traffic on the roads, more obstacles looming up and longer jobs to undertake. However, fairly realistically from the point of view of a trucker, the job of driving for hours and hours in snowy conditions to get from one place to another can become quite tiring and tedious. This can make it easy to lose concentration when another vehicle speeds out of nowhere or tricky road conditions suddenly arise. However, it is hard to remain engaged in the game when long stretches of boredom are broken up only with short periods of frustration!

Pros

• A game that shows the genuine face of trucking
• The player can freely explore the whole map without restraint
• Easy premise: pick up goods, take them to their ultimate destination

Cons

• The game rapidly becomes tedious and repetitive
• The graphics and sound track are not brilliant, the landscape could be better rendered
• Free demo only lasts one hour, so only Canada is available to explore