Hard Truck Apocalypse,a third person driving shooter distributed by CDV Entertainment.

I’ve survived Vaterland, driven across Ridzin and survived the road to Hel. Now I’m marooned in the wasteland that is Vahat.

Dunes and arid mountains surround me, the inhabitants greet me with joy to my face only to fire on me once my back is turned. In anger I have destroyed all city defenses, I was tired of getting shot after a friendly visit. Hey, I can’t get any farther so as fat as I’m concerned everyone can die!

Hard Truck Apocalypse is a fun game. I like shooters, there’s a lot of action, and in Hard Truck Apocalypse there’s certainly action.

The concept is interesting, instead of me walking and running around shooting bad guys I’m a truck driving and shooting. OK, I’m actually (name) driving the truck, but the truck is the star and as I progress from land to land the star gets bigger and more powerful weapons.

The fun part is driving around smashing into the enemy, flying over cliffs and blowing things up. Yet there is an element missing. As a vehicle shooting other vehicles the game lacks a human component. From a physiological point blowing up trucks is probably better than blowing peoples heads off but it restricts a connection with the characters.

The Game:

Driving is easy and done with the traditional WASD keys with guns aimed with the mouse.

Weapons firing uses mouse and number keys. At the beginning you’ll only have access to one or two weapons so things are straight forward. Once you progress to more weapons and pass the three or two mouse keys available number keys come more into play. Hint: When you add or move weapons remember to reassign your keys. It’s tough getting into battle only to find that your weapons/key relationship has changed. Also, you can assign more than one weapon to a key.

You’ll have the opportunity to earn money by running errands for townspeople. That is helpful in the beginning but get’s time consuming and as far as I’ve found unnecessary as the game progresses. At this time I have nearly 60,000,000 “coin” and am not interested in delivering a package to some far off town for 413 “coin”.

Save often. It’s true with any game and I often forget. The game has not crashed thus far but I have traveled far only to get blown up losing my efforts and time.

Once you blow an enemy up you can pick up their cargo. Your space is limited so pay attention to the value of the items and what town pays best. It helps in the beginning. You can also buy cargo cheaply in one town, transport it to another to sell. I’ve found that there are enough bad guys out there that buying cargo has not been necessary.

Now I sit on my dune surveying the land. The race I have found unwinnable, why do the other racers stop after one lap? I was first but it registered me as last! Can’t smash ‘em all, I tried, so how can I win?

Can’t deliver the oil, the tanker just sits there. Last night I tried to push the tanker with my hard truck. Took too much time so I went to bed.

Hard Truck Apocalypse is a fun distraction. There’s always something to shoot and a lot of fun driving. I will play it more but it’s time for me to get back to an RPG.

Rating

Final Thoughts

Hard Truck Apocalypse is worth the $20 price tag. The learning curve is short and it is different enough and has interesting elements that will keep you playing. It's probably more of a filler game than an epic all time favorite.

About Hard truck Apocalypse

The plot puts you in a post-apocalyptic world.

You enter the reality of the year 223 since Great Cataclysm. The world we knew was erased as the result of a mysterious accident. In less than one hour the most part of the world population disappeared.  Those who survived try to adapt to new conditions. There are new cities and settlements with trading alliances and mobsters. The vital transport hubs are controlled by gangsters and pillagers. Hence, armored heavy truck drivers have become the only resisting force against the “shadow” elements. 

You are to drive through dangerous regions of the new Earth with its mysterious places and hostile habitants.  Your ultimate goal is to reveal the guarded secrets of the lost civilization.  Your heavy truck is the only hope. You will need it to travel, earn your lining and fight your way through the perilous areas. It’s crucial that you continuously upgrade your truck. Your ability to equip smartly your “iron buddy” will make or break the success of your journey. So, go to towns and villages, trade with them, help them and you are sure to raise the cash required for powerful weapon and new gadgets.

The action and the RPG elements are closely intertwined to create a stunning game experience:

the action part embraces the driving, chilling combats with the use of wide range of destructive weapons;

the RPG part allows you equipping your truck to flee your enemies from battle field.

Unveil the fate of the mankind. Joining with powerful allies come over the resistance of deadly enemies.

• The player will have several unique trucks to choose from, with various stats and a great number
  of upgrades and improvements.
• The player can change the cab and the body of the truck, equip it with various gadgets to
  improve the truck stats.
• Over 30 types of weapon: guns, machine guns, missiles, mines, energy weapon.
• Tons of enemies: heavy trucks, war transports, robots, infantry, bosses
• Incredibly realistic driving and combat physics.
• Spectacular truck damage and destruction by various types of weapon with stunning special
  effects. Detailed damage model.
• Elite-type trading system: trucks being the combat units and cargo transport.