Truckful is a delivery set game set in a sentient valley that decides who leaves and who stays. Driving an old truck around has just the right amount of friction.
Nowadays, a whole genre in which you are tasked with delivering a range of packages from life-saving medical equipment to more trivial toys has found its audience. Popularized in part by Death Stranding, the idea of having to fight against the terrain, weather, and maybe sometimes paranormal entities is one that revels in friction against the player. If you lose your package halfway through, it usually means game over and back to the drawing board. Truckful is a middle-of-the-road (no pun intended) courier adventure that delivers thrills and challenges in equal measure.
Truckful wants you to fail. Or at least, that is how it feels in the beginning. As the unnamed driver of a rickety old truck, it does not feel good to neither maneuver nor control. Simply dropped into what first looks like an idyllic field, you soon enter a dark forest to find a young woman distressed. She is a courier who crashed due to unforeseen circumstances.
What are those? A demonic ghost truck that, if you don’t push the pedal to the metal, will hit you as well, causing this unfortunate lady to fling out of your truck bed in a fetal position to certain doom. If this description feels relatively funny, it’s because it is. Her voice groaning as she falls to the ground, it will be a common occurrence here. And if you fail to get to safety, you reload to your last checkpoint and try again.
The People’s Savior
Working as a courier to deliver people, medicine, or gravel to fix the decimated roads, everyone welcomes the only aid since forever. What is a punishing start paves the way for more amicable moment-to-moment gameplay. To begin with, the truck’s movement is weighty. Each ditch, dirt road, or puddle of water is felt. From a fixed camera angle that positions itself accordingly, driving is a mix of Snowrunner and its own design. Improving each truck piece little by little with your hard-earned cash from deliveries, it is palpable on the road.
Truckful wants you to succeed. After this rocky prologue, you reach a more peaceful area of the cursed Valley. Showcasing a vibrant art style rooted in nature, you breathe in wheat fields, flowers, and plenty of sheep standing around. Don’t worry, you cannot run them over; just gently honk your horn, and they’ll scatter with their bells on their necks. Stuck in this place for the time being, as the sentient forest has decided you are simply not allowed to leave, helping the folks in need is the sensible choice to make.
Parallel Parking Is Easier Said Than Done
It would be an understatement to write that Truckful reminded me of the fundamentals of driving. The first car I ever got was an old manual Volkswagen at the age of 16. Changing gears in this rusty beetle required a considerable amount of force, not to mention taking into account the physics and momentum. Likewise, delivering both the main and side missions in this game asks you to carefully place each package in the truck bed in a way that won’t fall off in one of your careless swerves. Then again, backing up and placing them back is done with the press of a button.
Where other delivery games double down on their friction—usually asking you to restart a mission if your package breaks—Truckful is more lenient. Many beacons along the road work as checkpoints, and if you mess things up, you will reappear less than 30 seconds at most from your last save. This allows you to make more mistakes without feeling the anxiety of losing progress. It is also quite necessary to not fall into frustration. The number of times that my truck’s engine got flooded, I fell off into a chasm, or I was simply struck by the ghost truck is too many to count. No matter, as developer MythicOwl counts on you to fail often. But also, to get back up and fulfill the delivery patiently.
Changing The Chassis
Other than changing the known truck parts like the engine, tires, or brakes for better handling, special upgrades are unlocked at certain points in the main story missions. For those with a nonexistent sense of direction, the first upgrade you get is a navigator that points you seamlessly exactly where you need to go. This is the best equipment to have in the first few hours, but as Truckful progresses, it pays to learn the lay of the land. Other upgrades like a winch, a ram to unlock secret paths, or a nitrous boost (rock on) can be attached or replaced alongside it.
Every upgrade naturally costs something, and this is where Truckful asks you to go off the beaten path. Most deliveries ask you to take something simple, like letters or food from one mailbox to another. Generous to no end, this is a contrast to the incursions in the Darkwoods where the Valley Demons lurk. Later on, a new type of currency, scraps, asks you to scour the valley searching for rusty metal to buy new upgrades. While the main game can be finished in less than 10 hours, it is so beautiful that its side content makes you wonder if it would be that bad to spend several more hours delivering about.
What Makes A Ride Better
If I had any bone to pick with Truckful, though, it would be to add more music. The sound design is beautiful in that regard: I still clearly remember listening to the sound of the wheels hitting the rocks on a pebbled road. Or the birds flying about, chirping, and relaxing on cable lines. But then the sound of the truck’s engine can drown out a bit too much of the juxtaposition with the gorgeous landscape.
There is a story to unravel that seems quite sinister but over time reveals a lot of heart. In a small town where everyone knows each other, while the first impression is hostile, they all are eager to tell you their secrets. A journalist known more than he lets on. A rich man feels guilty for his involvement in shady practices. A doctor used to work in the military before devil trucks decided to imprison everyone. An enjoyable mystery overall, it is as gray as it gets.
Verdict: Truckful
For the hoarders. For the scrappers. And for those who know how to change a tire. I do not know where the intersection lies between a car junky and a paranormal thrillseeker, but this is the perfect game for them. For the rest of us, a solid delivery adventure with ghostly undertones awaits. Just be ready to get stuck in the mud more than you expect.
Reviewed for Steam.
A key was provided for the purposes of this review.
Developer: MythicOwl
Publisher: MythicOwl, Pocketpair Publishing
Release date: Out now
Pros:
- Respawn checkpoints are quick
- Physics-based driving is weighty
- World is littered with hidden items
- Relaxing driving (for the most part)
- Car part improvements feel tangible
- Haunting narrative surprises halfway through
- Special upgrades make rides more interesting
Cons
- Some side quests may be too monotonous
- Lack of constant music makes some rides empty
- A quick unstuck button would be faster than respawning at a checkpoint in some cases
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Great
