Recommended 17.4 hrs on record (14.9 hrs at review time)

This game accomplishes what it sets out to do. It's been around for alot longer than I can remember, but the version you're buying into now is leagues better. The devs are still updating the game too. This is a home version of a simulator which is meant for driving schools. You know, the kind which sets out to fufil a purpouse. It doesn't have a sense of style nor it's own story. So don't go into this expecting Driver San Francisco.



It might be more "at home" if you live in Europe and understand the nuances and vibe of driving here, but it's an okay platform to learn to drive according to traffic laws. Beats going to driving school every week.



It still suffers from a floaty driving model but mostly everything you can do with a car is in the game already. They recently added in a taxi service and a delivery minigame. Everything is about driving and being as smooth and careful as possible. When you spawn into freemode your tank is empty. Even after doing a few missions there's still no additional credits to continue my session. So turn off the alert signs which pop up on the side of the screen and go racing like a true russian gangster.



The visuals are okay. There are multiple seasons, daytime, and weather. All have their unique characteristics. They all have a consistent quality to them. All cars have a damage model. You will get your dents and broken glass. It looks good, but it's embarrassing to drive around in a vehicle which looks like a T-shirt which dried up while still crumpled in the washing machine. You can also wreck traffic. The maps are unmistakenly Russian. Or Eastern European. The Soviet Union spread their architecture around the whole Eastern part of Europe so you can swap the number plates with any country. The gripe I have with the map are some of the bigger roundabouts. They act more like regular roads which have no buffer over eachother. I constantly get scolded by the instructor whenever I have to cross them.



This game is something I'd like to see spread in the driving genre. Until the devs of ETS2 one up this game or when BeamNG reaches a Cities Skylines level of traffic simulation, this is the only proper driving game where you can fully follow the laws of traffic (which is set up logically) or disobey them and drive like a complete ♥♥♥♥.

Posted 7 September, 2019.