Absolutely love it & 100% recommend it to anyone even remotely interested! Game is easily a 10/10.

I've edited this review many times over the years. My initial review was at 843 hours. 1st edit at 1,738, 2+ years after release. 2nd edit at 2,495, 4+ years. 3rd edit at 3,120, few months ago. This is my 4th edit at 3,171, ~6 years after release. This'll likely be my final edit refining the review. It'll be long. Easily my favorite game & dev of all time. I wish to do them justice w/ this review.

First & foremost, I want to talk about SCS Software, the devs. SCS cares deeply about the community & their games. They listen to & interact w/ the community. They listen to feedback & act on it very often. Some feedback takes longer to act on than others, but the majority of reasonable feedback is heard & addressed. They steadily release new, quality content to keep the game fresh. In between content updates, there's hundreds of mods releasing, so you always have something new to try.

To this day, you'll see people complain there "isn't enough content" or they "want new trucks or maps RIGHT NOW". These people forget what happens when stuff is rushed. When care & quality are thrown away in favor of speed & quantity. Well... Look at all the AAA games & DLC coming out severely unfinished w/ many bugs, game-breaking issues, & complete lack of basic features. This is where SCS differs greatly & what makes them stand apart from AAA studios in many ways.

SCS creates quality content. They take their time w/ whatever they're working on. So much of what they add is completely free of charge too, including new trucks. E.g, a decent amount of content in updates for a map expansion launch, is free to all players. Updates for an expansion launch consist of more than just support for the expansion. Those updates add new companies (where applicable), cargoes, features, & improvements which are added to the base game. Even if you don't buy expansions, you're still getting new content, just from updates that accompany expansion launches. The only paid content after buying the base game are map expansions, paint jobs, occasional specialized cargo DLCs, vehicle tuning packs, & real-branded trailer DLCs. However, all content is always of quality & paid content reasonably priced.

It's noteworthy that SCS NEVER gives release dates for any upcoming content until 1-2 weeks from the content's launch, when they're certain beyond doubt they'll make the date they give. This is another part of what makes SCS an incredible dev. SCS also has an impressive mastery over PR & hype. E.g, map expansions. Let's use Texas. At the time of writing (08/24/2022), Texas is still in development & was announced in March 2021 as one of the next expansions. However, SCS has steadily released blogposts showing off specific cities/areas, industries, & certain industry history. They're keeping us satiated & hyped by info drops & showing development. All the way until the expansion releases. Yes, some people will forever be unhappy & complain regardless. That'll never change, but at the end of the day they'll still be here, still buy DLC, & play the game.

All this & much more is why SCS is vastly different from the rest of the gaming industry. They're down-to-Earth, very interactive w/ their community, & care deeply & passionately about their games. For SCS, their games are a labor of love.

I've spoken at length about the dev. Let's talk about the game now. The game is exactly what the title says. A sim about trucking in America. It's not an in-depth sim like Train Sim or Microsoft Flight Sim. It's much more relaxed. A casual sim.

Looking at the game, especially if you're not wildly interested in trucking, you might think "How could trucking be fun or relaxing?" You're not alone in that. Many people thought the same, but upon trying out the demo or buying the game, many were immediately drawn in. The majority of your time spent is driving. Put on some music or a podcast & you'll be surprised at how relaxing it can be. Passing beautiful vistas, landmarks, small towns, hearing the engine roar alongside your favorite music or podcast... It's such a great experience. I admit I've found myself nearly falling asleep or actually dozed off while playing w/ music on. It's just that relaxing at times.

The game scale is 1:20 IIRC, so you reach your destination in a much shorter time than IRL. Even w/ a map mod that adds the currently missing states, or if you're playing years later from when this is written & the lower 48 is complete. If you run a load from San Diego, CA up to Bangor, ME, it'd only be maybe a 3-5 hour session. Depending if you take breaks, stop to see some sights, or take a scenic route. It's still vastly shorter than IRL. That's part of the draw. From your truck cab as you drive, you can see so much of the US in such a short amount of time & at any moment in your trip, you can park up, save & quit for a while, & come back later if a long haul is getting to be too much. Can't do that IRL.

Regarding performance/stability, the game's extremely stable in a vanilla state (Mods will obviously begin to interfere w/ performance/stability in varying degrees). The way SCS handles updates is phenomenal. S'far as I can remember, SCS has always released major updates to a Public Beta first. Anyone who owns the game can access the Public Betas if they wish to. W/ Public Beta's, there's almost never any game-breaking bugs when the update officially releases to the stable branch. This is due in part b/c they patch the bugs DURING the Betas, instead of compiling a list & doing it after it's released. You don't see many other studios do this. Even those that do something similar don't compare to the level of success SCS' Public Betas have. I honestly can't recall a single time where a fatal bug made it out of Public Beta.

Regarding mod support, the game's extremely mod-friendly. It has a Steam Workshop w/ over 8,200 mods at the time of writing. There's also mods that can be found on various mod sites. They are generally referred to as 'local mods' since they're downloaded & installed "locally" to the game's Documents folder. Though I would highly recommend using an adblocker & a solid anti-virus. Some sites people host mods on can be sketchy w/ their ads. Usually though, most good mods you can find on various sites will also be on SCS' forum[forum.scssoft.com] where they closely monitor mods posted there. Anything you find on their forum is a pretty safe bet. Just get a good adblock & AV, browse mod sites carefully, & you'll be fine. The game has a built-in Mod Manager for both Workshop & local mods, so there's basically no end to the potential of this game w/ modding so easily accessible.

Regarding multiplayer, if you're interested in the game but don't like singleplayer, no worries. The game has built-in 8-player multiplayer w/ AI traffic called Convoy Mode. Convoy offers mod support up-to 70 active mods. Both Steam Workshop & local mods. If 8 players is too low for you & you don't mind playing the game vanilla, then there's TruckersMP[truckersmp.com]. TruckersMP is a multiplayer mod developed by a team of people that allows MMO-style online play in ATS & ETS2. They have servers that hold a couple thousand players at once. TruckersMP, while offering higher player counts, only supports a few very specific mods & doesn't have AI traffic (At the time of writing. I'll update this IF TMP adds AI traffic). Convoy & TruckersMP have their pros & cons. Both are great in their own ways.

I hope you found this review helpful, insightful, & detailed. I absolutely love the game. It has captured my attention for nearly the past 7 years now, & will continue to do so for many years to come. I hope it does the same for you. Strap in, load up, & hammer down!

Absolutely love it & 100% recommend it to anyone even remotely interested! Game is easily a 10/10. [h3]Note:[/h3] I've edited this review many times over the years. My initial review was at 843 hours. 1st edit at 1,738, 2+ years after release. 2nd edit at 2,495, 4+ years. 3rd edit at 3,120, few months ago. This is my 4th edit at 3,171, ~6 years after release. This'll likely be my final edit refining the review. It'll be long. Easily my favorite game & dev of all time. I wish to do them justice w/ this review. [h3]The Devs[/h3] First & foremost, I want to talk about SCS Software, the devs. SCS cares deeply about the community & their games. They listen to & interact w/ the community. They listen to feedback & act on it very often. Some feedback takes longer to act on than others, but the majority of reasonable feedback is heard & addressed. They steadily release new, quality content to keep the game fresh. In between content updates, there's hundreds of mods releasing, so you always have something new to try. To this day, you'll see people complain there "isn't enough content" or they "want new trucks or maps RIGHT NOW". These people forget what happens when stuff is rushed. When care & quality are thrown away in favor of speed & quantity. Well... Look at all the AAA games & DLC coming out severely unfinished w/ many bugs, game-breaking issues, & complete lack of basic features. This is where SCS differs greatly & what makes them stand apart from AAA studios in many ways. SCS creates quality content. They take their time w/ whatever they're working on. So much of what they add is completely free of charge too, including new trucks. E.g, a decent amount of content in updates for a map expansion launch, is free to all players. Updates for an expansion launch consist of more than just support for the expansion. Those updates add new companies (where applicable), cargoes, features, & improvements which are added to the base game. Even if you don't buy expansions, you're still getting new content, just from updates that accompany expansion launches. The only paid content after buying the base game are map expansions, paint jobs, occasional specialized cargo DLCs, vehicle tuning packs, & real-branded trailer DLCs. However, all content is always of quality & paid content reasonably priced. It's noteworthy that SCS [i]NEVER[/i] gives release dates for any upcoming content until 1-2 weeks from the content's launch, when they're certain beyond doubt they'll make the date they give. This is another part of what makes SCS an incredible dev. SCS also has an impressive mastery over PR & hype. E.g, map expansions. Let's use Texas. At the time of writing (08/24/2022), Texas is still in development & was announced in March 2021 as one of the next expansions. However, SCS has steadily released blogposts showing off specific cities/areas, industries, & certain industry history. They're keeping us satiated & hyped by info drops & showing development. All the way until the expansion releases. Yes, some people will forever be unhappy & complain regardless. That'll never change, but at the end of the day they'll still be here, still buy DLC, & play the game. All this & much more is why SCS is vastly different from the rest of the gaming industry. They're down-to-Earth, very interactive w/ their community, & care deeply & passionately about their games. For SCS, their games are a labor of love. [h3]The Game[/h3] I've spoken at length about the dev. Let's talk about the game now. The game is exactly what the title says. A sim about trucking in America. It's not an in-depth sim like Train Sim or Microsoft Flight Sim. It's much more relaxed. A casual sim. Looking at the game, especially if you're not wildly interested in trucking, you might think "How could trucking be fun or relaxing?" You're not alone in that. Many people thought the same, but upon trying out the demo or buying the game, many were immediately drawn in. The majority of your time spent is driving. Put on some music or a podcast & you'll be surprised at how relaxing it can be. Passing beautiful vistas, landmarks, small towns, hearing the engine roar alongside your favorite music or podcast... It's such a great experience. I admit I've found myself nearly falling asleep or actually dozed off while playing w/ music on. It's just that relaxing at times. The game scale is 1:20 IIRC, so you reach your destination in a much shorter time than IRL. Even w/ a map mod that adds the currently missing states, or if you're playing years later from when this is written & the lower 48 is complete. If you run a load from San Diego, CA up to Bangor, ME, it'd only be maybe a 3-5 hour session. Depending if you take breaks, stop to see some sights, or take a scenic route. It's still vastly shorter than IRL. That's part of the draw. From your truck cab as you drive, you can see so much of the US in such a short amount of time & at any moment in your trip, you can park up, save & quit for a while, & come back later if a long haul is getting to be too much. Can't do that IRL. Regarding performance/stability, the game's extremely stable in a vanilla state (Mods will obviously begin to interfere w/ performance/stability in varying degrees). The way SCS handles updates is phenomenal. S'far as I can remember, SCS has always released major updates to a Public Beta first. Anyone who owns the game can access the Public Betas if they wish to. W/ Public Beta's, there's almost never any game-breaking bugs when the update officially releases to the stable branch. This is due in part b/c they patch the bugs DURING the Betas, instead of compiling a list & doing it after it's released. You don't see many other studios do this. Even those that do something similar don't compare to the level of success SCS' Public Betas have. I honestly can't recall a single time where a fatal bug made it out of Public Beta. Regarding mod support, the game's extremely mod-friendly. It has a Steam Workshop w/ over 8,200 mods at the time of writing. There's also mods that can be found on various mod sites. They are generally referred to as 'local mods' since they're downloaded & installed "locally" to the game's Documents folder. Though I would highly recommend using an adblocker & a solid anti-virus. Some sites people host mods on can be sketchy w/ their ads. Usually though, most good mods you can find on various sites will also be on [url=https://forum.scssoft.com/]SCS' forum[/url] where they closely monitor mods posted there. Anything you find on their forum is a pretty safe bet. Just get a good adblock & AV, browse mod sites carefully, & you'll be fine. The game has a built-in Mod Manager for both Workshop & local mods, so there's basically no end to the potential of this game w/ modding so easily accessible. Regarding multiplayer, if you're interested in the game but don't like singleplayer, no worries. The game has built-in 8-player multiplayer w/ AI traffic called Convoy Mode. Convoy offers mod support up-to 70 active mods. Both Steam Workshop & local mods. If 8 players is too low for you & you don't mind playing the game vanilla, then there's [url=https://truckersmp.com/]TruckersMP[/url]. TruckersMP is a multiplayer mod developed by a team of people that allows MMO-style online play in ATS & ETS2. They have servers that hold a couple thousand players at once. TruckersMP, while offering higher player counts, only supports a few very specific mods & doesn't have AI traffic (At the time of writing. I'll update this IF TMP adds AI traffic). Convoy & TruckersMP have their pros & cons. Both are great in their own ways. [h1]Review Conclusion[/h1] I hope you found this review helpful, insightful, & detailed. I absolutely love the game. It has captured my attention for nearly the past 7 years now, & will continue to do so for many years to come. I hope it does the same for you. Strap in, load up, & hammer down!