18 Wheels Of Steel: Haulin', developed by SCS Software, is a realism trucking simulation game. Haulin' puts you in the driver's seat of a big rig tractor trailer truck and it's your job to turn a small trucking business into a massive haulin' mother trucker. Haulin' boasts a realistic gameplay environment with 40+ cities across the United States & Canada, 35 rigs and trailers, 45+ types of cargo and your own cb radio! Haulin' is a cumulative effort from previous 18 Wheels Of Steel titles such as: Pedal To the Metal & Convoy.

Sounds fun right? Wrong! Haulin', like most simulation games, covers a wide range of realistic variables but in a very basic way. This usually leads to an exciting first or second experience but a very boring and repetitive experience thereafter. This is true of Haulin' and unfortunately it is the major downfall of the entire 18 Wheels Of Steel series.

The basic idea of the game is that you drive a tractor trailer truck and haul various types of cargo from city to city in order to receive money. This money is then used to upgrade trucks, purchase fuel, service rigs, pay fines or tickets and sleep in motels as needed. This basic idea may sound fun and for the most part is it. However, this basic idea doesn't go too far and quickly becomes very boring and repetitive. I guess that is part of the realistic factor here because driving a truck really is boring and repetitive. However, that realistic aspect does not work with computer games, there simply needs to be an element of fun, excitement, some goals to work on, anything... but you won't find any of this on 18 Wheels Of Steel: Haulin'.

There is also a backend business model where you can hire drivers and purchase trucks and trailers for them to drive for your business. This business system is not an essential part of the game because there is no incentive for hiring drivers. You cannot speak to them, you cannot see them on the road, you cannot interact with them at all, you simply put them down on paper as a driver and just assume they are doing something for your business in order to earn more money.

One of the biggest downfalls of the game is that there are no stages, no missions, no goals, no status level, no requirements, no ending or that final sigh of relief when you finally beat the game and gain some personal satisfaction. Essentially, there is no timeframe in the game and time neither begins or ends and you are forever lost in a time warp of boring, repetitive and certainly endless trips across America, hauling some fictitious loads of cargo for no apparent reason. Just imagine playing grand theft auto in its most basic form (no missions, no people, no guns, just a single a car and some streets) and all you do is drive around with no real rhyme or reason. It may be fun for about 15 minutes but you'll grow tired of seeing the same graphics and hearing the same sounds over and over and over again; a real mind numbing experience.

Graphics

Haulin' uses the 3dprism graphics engine, which is similar to that of the Half-Life engine. This engine gives the game that feeling where you are actually in a real environment and not some cartoonish or fictitious candyland. Haulin' is realistic in a basic sense that everything is well mapped and accounted for. There is a day time, night time, rain/snow weather effects, smoke effects from the exhaust pipes, rain splatter on the interior view windshield, interior dashboard lights, low/high beam headlights, dynamic traffic lights and high poly reflections that actually reflect the immediate surroundings. In order for the game to be truly experienced the way the designers intended, you need a very good computer system with a 128mb video card. There are options for fallback settings for low end systems but even they are demanding and not worth playing with the lack of quality.

Sounds

An important area for any simulation game is sound effects. Unfortunately, Haulin' fails to succeed in this area. There is one music track on the opening screen and one music track for in-game driving. Thankfully, there is an option to disable music and you will want to disable music! It is also possible to import your own music but the process is very difficult and not supported by the developers. The number of sound effects is lacking and their quality is rather bland and boring. The basic sounds are there: engine, horn, blinkers, radio chatter and other sound effects for rain drops, thunder, windshield wipers, police sirens and general ambience. You'll easily experience all of these sounds in the first 15 minutes, after which they become quite annoying and unrealistic. The biggest downfall is that other cars and trucks honk their horns for no apparent reason, which is not only distracting but also very annoying. The sound effects are basic and simply provide a low level of realism for all the essentials, no jaw dropping excitement at all.

Gameplay

As mentioned earlier, the gameplay is very basic because all you do is haul cargo from point A to point B. Along the way you must obey traffic laws by not speeding, stopping at red lights, staying in the correct lane of traffic, avoid hitting other vehicles, avoid hitting obstacles (poles, signs, medians) and perform other tasks such as: stopping at weigh stations, stopping at checkpoints, refueling the truck, service the truck for repairs and sleeping every 15 hours to avoid blackouts.

For each successful cargo delivery you receive a small amount of money as income. This money can then be used to buy trucks, trailers, upgrades or simply pay your driver's salary. There are several different companies providing different types of cargo which you can deliver. Every delivery also increases the total number of possible "deals" that the company will accept. Again, this goes back to the whole business model system wherein you can hire drivers to fulfill those deals and drive company cargo for your business. It sounds like fun, but it's nothing more than a notebook type system where you simply put down a driver's name and send them on their way, never to see or hear from them again. All aspects of this business model are handled in a notebook which you rarely access anyway because the hired drivers are self sustaining.

Replay Value

18 Wheels Of Steel: Haulin' is boring and repetitive. I hate to rehash this point yet again but it's worth saying. Even though there are 40+ cities across the United States & Canada, 35 rigs and trailers and 45+ types of cargo, you will experience almost every aspect of the game within the first 15 minutes. There are some personal goals and agendas that you can set on your own but there is no reason to work on them in the first place (unless you need something to help pass the time).

Conclusion

While 18 Wheels Of Steel: Haulin' tries to be a new and interesting game, it is nothing more than a generic upgrade from their previous 3 or 4 titles that look and feel exactly the same. I don't know what the deal is with SCS Software and Valusoft but they need to stop releasing new versions of the exact same game when all they did was change a few graphics and fix some bugs that could have otherwise been released as a game patch. I guess they want to leech off their small fan base to make money without actually doing any real work. It may be true that Haulin' is the best of the series thus far but it's also very evident that this game should be considered a beta, as there are too many bugs and glitches that still have not been fixed even in the latest version 106 patch. If you must purchase this title, wait a few months and pick it up from the bargain bin for under $5 (it may already be there now). Otherwise, just avoid this title and pretend it never existed, trust me you aren’t missing anything of real value here folks.


Related Reviews:

- 18 Wheels of Steel: Across America
- 18 Wheels of Steel: American Long Haul
- 18 Wheels of Steel: Extreme Trucker

Recommended: No