Truckful Review — What Goes Bump in the Night

If you’re anything like me, you’ve driven down bumpy, unpaved country roads and worried that the gravel might rattle your old car apart. If you’ve also had the unique experience of driving a truck with a bed full of cargo through these back roads, especially the hillier country roads that may as well qualify as amusement-park-level thrill rides, then you’ve probably had the stray thought of, “Is my cargo going to fly out of the bed?” It’s an intrusive thought that no amount of bungee cord securing can ever free you from, and it only becomes worse when you’re hauling a trailer, especially if said trailer has some incredibly expensive motorcycles in it.

My incredibly personal additional details aside, this is the exact fantasy (or nightmare) that inspired Truckful, a game about hauling (and often losing) precious cargo on dangerous country roads.

More specifically, Truckful is a physics-based driving sim all about making deliveries in a backwater town with no other vehicles around. The gameplay loop is pretty simple: You load your truck with cargo, packing it in such a way that secures its structural integrity, to the best of your ability, before driving out across bumpy, hilly country roads to complete the delivery. Doing so earns you money based on how well you complete optional side objectives and how many times you drop the cargo along the way, which you can then use to improve your truck at a garage, allowing you to better facilitate future deliveries.

In a lot of ways, Truckful does its own thing, but it still is pretty reminiscent of the whole “physics game” genre. At least on the surface, I expected it to follow many of the same rules and genre tropes, especially since it shares an art style that should be pretty familiar to genre fans.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I stumbled into the game’s first horror element.

Yes, for whatever reason (not that you’ll catch me complaining), Truckful decided to add a supernatural horror element to its physics-based delivery system. Not only do you have to worry about not going down hills too quickly, but occasionally you also have to balance this caution with a sudden invasion from a terrifying death truck that wants nothing more than to flatten you, or a paranormal, all-consuming black fog, or any of the game’s other nightmarish scenarios that seem to happen mostly in its ominous haunted woods. It is a very bold, much-appreciated choice that adds a lot of tension to the act of balancing your cargo, a combination that I think, frankly, is pretty ingenious.

Beyond the supernatural threats, Truckful is pretty unique in the way it handles loading up your cargo. Instead of giving you a preset stack of boxes for each delivery, you choose how you want everything loaded into your truck bed. This adds a fun layer of strategy that I think also elevates the gameplay.

I really enjoyed upgrading the truck, though I wish it cost a bit more. While there are a ton of upgrades to unlock, it didn’t take long for me to get more than the most basic improvement in each category. I don’t want these upgrades to feel like a grind, but after just one job, I felt like I’d upgraded my truck to the point where driving became significantly easier. Not flawless, of course, but it felt like I was progressing a bit fast for the amount of work I did.

I didn’t have many criticisms during my time with Truckful. For what the game is, being a physics-based puzzle title, I think the game is pretty solid, especially with the added fun of map-spanning deliveries and unexpected horror. However, there was one element of the game that I did feel dramatically decreased my enjoyment.

Truckful wants you to drive around its map, completing deliveries. Some routes are short, some are long, but what really extends the time is that the map isn’t open; it’s a series of levels connected by loading screens.

While I understand what the game was going for with these loading screens, attempting to make each section of the map a unique puzzle to conquer and giving it its own lighting and environment, I frankly think the game is much weaker for not just being one continuous open-world map. When you get into the groove of driving, each section feels less like a unique challenge and more like just another part of the road. The game’s otherwise enchanting drives feel choppily segmented by the loading screens, and you quickly find yourself wishing they weren’t there. They simply feel like interruptions in what should otherwise be a seamless experience.

Despite my minor complaints, I still think that, for what it is and the audience Truckful is aiming to appeal to, the game is pretty good. The car customization is a big plus, and the horror elements were a fun surprise that you don’t see elsewhere in similar titles. While the game lacking a truly open-world map does get distracting and feels like a big downside, I think you’ll still have fun if you can handle your flow being interrupted by loading screens every couple of minutes.

Try Hard Guides was provided with a Steam code for this PC review of Truckful. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Truckful is available on Steam.