Some people play games to compete. Some play to socialize with friends. Some play just for the love of fun. And some people view games as a way to relax at the end of a long day. Many games fall under this category, and some are games that other people might not exactly think of as relaxing.
For me, one of the first games I played to relax? Payday 2, which doesn’t seem like a relaxing game, but on the Xbox 360 I had solo’ed a museum heist on the highest difficulty more times than I could count because I’d memorized the tips, tricks, and patrol routes to do it perfectly every time. It was, in a sense, my zen meditation. I was so focused on performing every step correctly that it eventually become reflex, and I was just in the moment, calm and serene.
While pistol-whipping security guards, but that’s neither here nor there.
When I moved to PC gaming, the closest thing I had to zen was initially Skyrim, stealthing through forts and caverns like a ghost, but it still required my attention.
And then the Steam Winter Sale rolled around, and I was looking for a new game, and Euro Truck Simulator 2 was on sale for less than $4 USD. I was trying to get the Winter Sale Badge at the time, and buying games was the best way to do that, so I picked up the cheap trucking that had good reviews, and forgot about it for a few days.
Then I finally installed it.
Learning Curve
If you’ve played a driving game before, you’ll be fine. Steer, accelerate, brake, upshift and downshift. If you’re playing mouse-keyboard you’re going to be swearing a bit. ETS2 tends to run best with either a steering wheel (the ideal, but most expensive), or an analog controller, as the keymap editor is easy enough to figure out. Just remember that keyboards are digital, and wheels and analogs understand that you want to gently change lanes, not do a hard left at 120kph while hauling 40 metric tons of hydrochloric acid.
In fact, the toughest thing to learn in ETS2 is not driving like a maniac. You have to respect traffic laws, speed limits, and pay attention to your mirrors. These trucks will behave like the real thing. It’s easy to be in the mindset (especially as an American player) that if you get a delivery job, you have to complete it as quickly as possible. The game gives plenty of time, and players have to accept that yes, some jobs will take over an hour of real time to complete.
The Zen Factor
Once you’ve got the hang of it, the game becomes a zen exercise. Players have remarked that the game should be renamed “Zen and the Art of Logistics”, and for some, the game is fulfilling and relaxing, or boring as hell. Noted game critic Jim Sterling wasn’t expecting to enjoy it, and now considers it one of his favorite games. The challenge becomes the same one in meditation: introspection and self-control. You will want to pass that truck. You will want to speed up to make the delivery faster. You will want to ignore the beautiful backdrops and the vistas on that trek through the Italian Alps so you can perfectly time that toll gate so you don’t have to slow down.
As remarked before, the difficulty lies in accepting that the game is nothing more than getting from Point A to B, and getting rewarded at the end for driving clean, not by getting there 6 hours early. ETS2 also offers access to real-life European radio stations covering a wide range of genres. (My favorite is Real Radio XS Manchester(Link for non-UK listeners), a Mancunian classic rock station that, if you live outside of the UK, will have you asking what the f--- PPI is and why apparently so many Brits need it.) The player’s own MP3 collection can also be played as their leisure.
Extra Features
Euro Truck Simulator has a deep modding community, allowing the more experienced players to tweak the game as they see fit, design new trucks and paint jobs, and even enter a multiplayer server where hundreds of other truckers haul on the same roads, and even have their own radio station with volunteer DJs playing requests and giving traffic reports to keep truckers in the know and better choose which contracts to take next.
SCS Software also offers World of Trucks, a website for ETS2 and American Truck Simulator players to share screenshots, truck designs, and participate in community events that reward in-game vanity items.
ETS2 also has a wealth of DLC, and is often best purchased during a Steam Sale to bundle as much together as possible, as the base game doesn’t include Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, or the updated maps for Italy and France, or the additional cargo packs to expand the repertoire your driver can deliver.
Final Word
Euro Truck Simulator is rather binary in terms of activity logs: You’ll either have 90 minutes of playtime before it starts gathering dust, or you’ll have 500+ hours logged and waiting for the next DLC or feature update. It’s a game to load up at the end of a long day to zone out, or to kill a few hours, or if you just want to listen to a radio station on the other side of the world.
It won’t win any graphics awards, but it lives up to the title of “Truck Simulator” given the extensive research SCS has performed, as well as factory visits to Scania and Volvo to insure accuracy. The modding community fills any gaps the game misses, even adding maps for nations not covered yet by SCS, and mods can even remove all damage recording should players be unable to resist pushing their trucks to the redline. Even after having been out for 5 years, it still won Steam’s “Sit Back and Relax” reward for being the best game to zone out to.
Zen Score: 9/10
All screenshots are from my Steam profile, taken in-game. :)
Euro Truck Simulator 2
SCS Software
PC
$19.99 USD
Buy on Steam
Buy direct