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"Not bad - but very short! 5/10"

Pros: Average racer, helped by fairly good graphics.
Cons: It needs at least a half dozen more courses!!

In “18 Wheeler” you are the driver of a long-haul semi-truck pulling a trailer with various sorts of freight. You must drive across the United States through four varied courses, trying to beat a rival rig while dodging cars, buildings and other obstacles along the way. If you think this sounds a lot like other arcade racing conversions such as “Crazy Taxi” and “Smashing Drive”, you’d be right; 18 Wheeler borrows heavily from such games. And like those arcade to home conversions, this game suffers the same fate as those: it’s an amusing and interesting premise that is hurt by being far too short in length.

Controls: 7/10
The controls are straight-forward: you have buttons for gas, brakes, and both high and low gears. The left analog stick is used for steering your rig. One nice feature is that the controls are completely adjustable: you can assign the various functions to other buttons. I wish more games had programmable controls!

Gameplay: 6/10
The driving action gameplay is merely average because it's held back by more-or-less linear tracks. You have to get from point A to point B before a timer runs out – or it’s “game over”. Although there is an occasional short-cut or fork in the road, the main challenge is simply avoiding major obstacles that will slow you down – and beating the clock to the finish line for each of the four short segments.

Graphics: 7/10
I do think that the graphics are above average and well-done - but good
graphics only go so far. The quality of the landscape and various objects is detailed and done in a realistic manner – I was particularly impressed by the southwest USA course, with its Monument Valley rock mesas. The framerate is fast with little or no slow-down.

Sound: 4/10
Sound effects are adequate but nothing unusual. There is a voice-over with allegedly ‘helpful’ comments being offered up by fellow truckers, but I found these very annoying, and there is no way to adjust the volumes of the voices independently of the sound effects.

The major flaw of 18 Wheeler – and it’s a big, big flaw – is that it suffers from shortness. There are only a measly four short segments in the cross-country journey, along with four even shorter loop tracks for timed lap racing or two-player games. In addition, there are only four (what, is 4 the programmers' favorite number?) styles of semi-trucks to choose from. I ran through every course and every truck within just two or three hours after putting it into my GameCube.

I'd give 18 Wheeler an above-average six out of ten, but the extreme shortness hurts it, bringing down the score to an average 5/10. Rent this one for maybe a weekend, but don't waste $50 on it!
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Reviewer's Score: 5/10 | Originally Posted: 03/08/02, Updated 03/08/02

"CONVOY!!!!! sorta!!!!"

Introduction

I got this game for christmas 2002, i left it unopened for 2 weeks until my birthday, when i slowly turned off Star fox to test one of my other games. I'm not a fan of driving games and i was a little wary of playing this game which i'd never heard of that involved trucks. When i started to play it, i was pleasantly surprised...

First Impressions

First impressions of this game aren't exactly brilliant. Your in a lorry, and you rush to a certain point to drop off your cargo, which varies (from lighter to heavier loads) and then you repeat, over four levels of being intercepted by hurricanes and an evil rival, who will do anything to stop you getting there first (including going through fences as if they're made of butter).

Graphics

The graphics are average, but they're ok for what this game is, a driving game. Your driving a lorry so you don't exactly need the beautiful bodies that GT provide. However, if your looking for a game which is a feast for the eyes don't pick this up, this game relies on good gameplay rather then good graphics.

Gameplay

Once you get into this game, theres little stopping you until you've finished.(which shouldn't take too long.) It may only be a lorry driving sim, but it has many fun elements. For one the rival that i mentioned earlier. Chasing down a highway packed with cars and trying to avoid eachone would be easy, if it weren't for the rival, who attempts to know you and everyone else of the road. The timer also makes things increasingly difficult.

Difficulty

This all depends on whether your an experienced driving game player. If you are, this might be easy, if not (like me) then it is difficult to start off with. The timer and the rival makes things worse. And thats not the end of it, theres natural events such as hurricanes which stop you in you tracks, forcing you to take an alternative (and usually longer) route. The routes themselves, aren't actually that hard to maneuver along, but the traffic, and all the points i mentioned earlier make this game harder then it should be.

Multiplayer

This is my favourite part of this game. When i first played multiplayer i was playing it for hours. This isn't the best multiplayer game ever, it adds most of the elements from one player mode so i'm not going to write it all out again.

Overall

Overall this game is worth a play if you don't want to play something deep and difficult. I gave it 7 because it is definitely something less able gamers (especially less able driving game players) should have a go at.


Reviewer's Score: 7/10 | Originally Posted: 06/08/04