Road Truckers: New Beginning | First Impressions of the Truck Driving RPG Demo

The available demo of Road Truckers: New Beginning offers a first look at a game that aims to combine truck driving with RPG elements, exploration, and vehicle management. Rather than focusing exclusively on transporting goods, it sets out to deliver a broader experience in which missions and interactions with local residents contribute to the development of the community.

With the demo now available on Steam, we had the opportunity to try Road Studio's latest project and get an initial sense of its gameplay mechanics and technical state. The core concept is interesting, and several elements already work quite well. However, there are also shortcomings that need attention, particularly when it comes to driving and audio.

Road Truckers: New Beginning Offers a Different Blend of Driving and RPG Elements

Road Truckers: New Beginning takes players to the fictional region of Vale Rico, where they take on cargo deliveries and contribute to efforts to revitalize the local economy. By completing jobs and developing their business, players can gradually help restore abandoned buildings and businesses.

The demo features Mar de Campos, an open-world area measuring 17 by 17 kilometers, with no time limit. According to the developers, this region represents approximately 20% of the total map planned for the full release.

The most significant difference compared to a traditional driving game is the freedom to leave the truck and explore the world on foot. By interacting with NPCs, we can accept missions that do not necessarily involve transporting goods. Some focus on helping individual residents, while others address the needs of the town itself. As a result, our activities extend beyond deliveries to include a variety of tasks that give us a more active role in the local community.

In practice, switching between driving, exploration, and quests works quite well, providing variety and a welcome change of pace. The RPG elements are not simply an addition to the delivery mechanics but an integral part of the experience. However, evaluating the depth of these systems and the long-term variety of missions will require more time with the game.

Another positive aspect is the dedicated introductory tutorial, which clearly explains the game's basic mechanics. It covers truck controls, attaching trailers, accepting jobs, and completing deliveries.

Driving and Vehicle Physics

Driving is at the heart of Road Truckers: New Beginning and, despite certain weaknesses, generally leaves a positive impression. The controls are accessible, and the truck's behavior is predictable most of the time, allowing players to enjoy their journeys without too much difficulty. There are, however, moments when the vehicle reacts somewhat abruptly and awkwardly.

It is important to clarify that this is not a hardcore driving simulator like Euro Truck Simulator 2. The game adopts a more accessible approach, placing greater emphasis on combining deliveries with RPG mechanics. That does not mean, however, that certain fundamental principles of truck physics should be absent.

The most significant issue we encountered was the lack of a convincing sense of cargo weight. The truck can reach speeds of 100–120 km/h without making it particularly noticeable whether it is carrying goods or running empty. Similarly, its handling through corners remains almost identical regardless of whether cargo is present.

This weakens the feeling of driving a heavy commercial vehicle and takes away some of the significance of transporting different loads. Absolute realism is not necessary, but clearer differences in acceleration, stability, and overall vehicle behavior depending on cargo weight would noticeably improve the experience.

Camera and Visibility Limitations

Beyond vehicle physics, there are several driving-related usability issues that become apparent almost immediately. The most significant is the lack of functional mirrors inside the cabin, which limits rearward visibility and makes maneuvering more difficult. There is also no option to zoom in or out from the driver's perspective, preventing players from adjusting their field of view to suit their preferences.

Equally problematic is the behavior of the interior camera when turning. The view remains fixed straight ahead, even when the truck changes direction. As a result, looking toward the direction of a turn requires manually moving the camera with the mouse.

Combined with the limited control customization options, these shortcomings create unnecessary difficulties in an activity that should feel as natural as possible. These are issues that directly affect the everyday driving experience, rather than simply optional features that would be nice to have.

Truck Maintenance and Mission Systems

One of the more interesting aspects of Road Truckers: New Beginning is managing the truck's condition. Players are not limited to driving and making deliveries; they also need to inspect their vehicles, carry out repairs, and deal with the natural wear and tear that develops over time.

This system works well and adds meaningful depth to the experience. Maintenance serves a practical purpose, creating a stronger connection between the player and their truck. It also ties into the broader upgrade and customization systems, which form an important part of the game's overall design.

Navigation during missions is less successful. Although the game includes a map and a job-tracking system, accepting a new mission does not always automatically activate a route to the destination.

This forces players to take additional steps to plan their journey. More consistent automatic route guidance, alongside the option to manually change destinations, would make completing deliveries considerably more convenient.

Graphics and World Design

Visually, Road Truckers: New Beginning delivers a satisfactory experience without being particularly impressive from a technical standpoint. Natural landscapes, country roads, mountainous areas, and small settlements create a pleasant environment for exploration and deliveries.

The atmosphere created by changing lighting and weather conditions is also quite effective. The transition from day to night, the evening light, and the presence of fog add variety to journeys, while the truck's headlights become increasingly important when visibility is limited.

On the other hand, the towns, villages, and the wider world could benefit from more activity. Although the environments are adequate for the game's needs, they do not always convey the feeling of a genuinely lively region.

Still, this was not an issue that detracted significantly from our experience. Exploring the world remains enjoyable, even if there is room for more traffic, activity, and interactions.

Audio, Characters, and Technical Performance in Road Truckers: New Beginning

The audio presents a rather uneven picture. The sounds produced by the truck, along with the general audio experience inside the cabin, are reasonably good and support the driving experience effectively.

The most significant problems appear in the dialogue audio and environmental sounds. In particular, character voices sound unnatural, sometimes to the point where they give the impression that something is technically wrong with their playback. This is a noticeable weakness, considering that interacting with characters is a fundamental part of the RPG experience.

NPC presentation also needs improvement. Their animations are rather stiff, especially during conversations, making interactions feel less natural than they should.

In terms of performance, we noticed some minor frame-rate drops and brief stutters during our playthrough. They were neither frequent nor severe enough to make the game unpleasant to play, but their presence raises questions about optimization, particularly given that our test system has sufficient processing power.

Further work is therefore needed on the technical side to ensure that the final release delivers a more stable and consistently smooth experience.

Road Truckers: New Beginning Demo – An Interesting Concept That Still Needs Improvement

Our first experience with Road Truckers: New Beginning through its demo leaves us with a cautiously positive impression. The combination of truck driving, RPG elements, exploration, and vehicle management is appealing, while the basic driving experience and maintenance mechanics already provide a solid foundation.

However, there are weaknesses that cannot be overlooked. The insufficient sense of cargo weight, camera limitations, lack of functional mirrors, and dialogue audio issues affect different but equally important aspects of the experience. Technical performance, animations, and certain navigation features also require further improvements.

On a positive note, Road Studio has already introduced changes based on player feedback and has confirmed that the demo will continue receiving updates throughout development. This does not eliminate the problems we encountered, but it indicates that there is room for the overall experience to improve.

At this stage, Road Truckers: New Beginning has the potential to become an interesting alternative for players looking for something more than a conventional cargo delivery game. Whether it manages to fulfill that potential will largely depend on the improvements made before development is complete.

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