Developer: N-RACING
Publisher: Bigben Interactive
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch
Tested on: PC, PS4
FIA European Truck Racing Championship – Review
Racing games have been popular for a while now. Usually, there are cars, motorbikes, karts, and bicycle races but recently a new game was released that adds a different vehicle to the mix. Truck racing is an actual existing sport but now it is also available in the form of a racing game. FIA European Truck Racing Championship gives you the ability to race in big cool looking trucks on known circuits around the world. The Belgian Circuit Zolder is also included what we as a Belgian site, of course, like to see. FIA European Truck Racing Championship was developed by N-RACING and published by Bigben Interactive and we got a chance to review the game.
Story
There is no story present in FIA European Truck Racing Championship. You can start a career mode where you will compete in events and championships, maybe even join a team. However, a true story isn’t present.
Graphics
The graphics of TRC are okay. They don’t look hypermodern and it looks like the developers mostly focused on making the trucks look better. All the tracks look okay but pretty basic. When you change your graphics from medium to high, you see the highest difference in your truck, on the tracks, only the grass becomes a bit more detailed and that’s about it.
Inside the truck, there have been a lot of details added. You do only get to see this when you choose the cockpit view. You have a There is a rear-view camera which shows you the back and there is also a rear-view mirror. The rear-view mirror is oddly low quality, not that a lot of people would use it but still feels like it would be more realistic if it looked better. When you bump into other trucks a bit too much, your window sill starts getting cracks, which looks a bit odd certainly since the game, on one hand, goes for realism but then has a few unrealistic features.
It seems the game has also not been that finetuned graphic wise. There are quite a few lag points and the loading times, although not that bad, aren’t great either. Even though the recommended GPU isn’t that high, it still seems to give FPS issues to higher GPUs.
Sound
The music in FIA European Truck Racing The Championship is very upbeat to get you pumped up for cool trucks. There is no music while racing which seems a bit odd. It might be so you hear the sounds of the trucks better, but it feels odd that there is no background music at all. There are mostly the few tracks of the menu. Accelerating with the truck does sound nice, as well as the breaking sound. Bumping or crashing into other drivers does not sound as satisfying as you would imagine two trucks colliding would sound.
Gameplay
FIA European Truck Racing Championship is a simulation, racing game where you race with trucks in European and world championships. There are two kinds of trucks, ones that are more similar to the kinds you see on the road transporting goods. Then there are also ones that look more stylish with race car attributes such as spoilers. You have two kinds of championships you can compete in, namely the European Racing Championship, and the World Series. The transporting kind usually appears in the European Racing Championship, while in the World Series you see a mix of both. There isn’t a lot of difference between the two championships, as the circuits are the same ones in both. An only notable difference is that the trucks can be the racing heavy kind more commonly.
When you start the game, you get put right into a tutorial race. They explain every button and let you finish the race even if you crash. However, if you accidentally skip this tutorial there is no way to replay it. Having a quick tutorial is certainly handy for beginners and letting a friend play a tutorial before playing together is also fair, weirdly, there is no way to replay it. As you start in the Career mode, you have to first get your driver’s license. This is done by tests that are similar to tutorials. Only they explain more of the buttons and don’t give you a lot of help. There are fifteen tests in total and they aren’t all easy. It can be quite the drag if you just want to play a racing game and first have to go through fifteen tests before you can start your career.
Although this game seems to have a lot of options for beginners, it doesn’t seem to have many options to explain how racing in truck works. They do explain the differences a truck will bring, as the trucks are harder to handle and take longer to slow down. However, at times it can feel that if you don’t play racing games, you are at a big disadvantage. The trucks spin out of control very easily and if you don’t know how to handle that, your truck is just off the road. There is no explanation on what not to do, like how you can prevent your truck from spinning out of control. The driver’s tests are mostly about being able to turn your truck, not to overheat your brakes and what the stopping distance for your truck is. Brakes are very special in this game, they do work the same but obviously, as a 5000-ton truck, you don’t stop as easily. Your brakes also overheat more easily, so instead of getting them stuck, you will have to spray coolant on them. You only have a limited amount of water each circuit, so you’ll have to watch your braking more closely.
All fifteen tests are un-skippable, you have to do them one by one, starting with the first. Only after completing them all you will be able to start your career. Lucky if you are tired of taking tests, you can just do quick play. In quick play you can choose to compete in the World Series and European Championship, then choose your driver and track and you are ready to race. During the small cutscene showing off the track, there oddly isn’t any noise unless you are on a camera close to the audience or a speaker. It makes it feel a bit awkward and makes it, so you skip faster instead of taking a look at the circuit. Besides Quick Play, there is also Time Trial, Championship and Event for single player. In Championship, you select eight circuits which you will then race in and come out as the best. The Event mode gives you a chance to compete against other people in the world in a weekly race. Time Trial is as the name spoils, where you will try to set the fastest time on a circuit.
FIA European Truck Racing Championship also offers multiplayer. There you can play split-screen with a friend locally, join or create a lobby, and use Quick Play to randomly join an already made lobby. If you do manage to make all the tests of the Career mode in single player. You can play championships, manage a team and have a calendar filled with events you can compete in. You will earn money to then repair your truck and pay your team while winning championships or seasons.
Throughout the entire game, a few bugs still exist. If you enter the pit stop not entirely straight it bugs out. When you drive off the terrain, it can feel like your wheel is stuck even though it doesn’t seem like it is. The A.I. is very aggressive and will knock you off the track sometimes, which might be an actual thing in Truck racing but that is unsure. When you add a preset, it seems the game will always go back to that preset even if you were using a different preset when you last played the game. This can cause some confusion, luckily you can delete the preset you made. Sadly, there is also only support for keyboard and Xbox 360 controllers, no support for PS4 controllers is present when playing the PC version. You also know a game is poorly scripted when the AI can’t even handle the trucks as well. If you park sideways on the track, the AI will never even pass you, as they aren’t scripted to pass an obstacle, so they will slowly keep bumping into you until you decide to move. Then again, what was to be expected from the same company that ruined an Asterix & Obelix game, and put one of the worst Hunting Simulator games ever on the market.
Conclusion
FIA European Truck Racing Championship Is a mediocre experience for truck racing fans, which is a shame as there are no other titles available on the market. As a beginner, this is certainly not the game to start the racing genre with. The game is certainly a different kind of racing game and the trucks do add a different difficulty level. Having the coolant mechanic where you have to cool down your breaks or they deteriorate, is also a plus. However, some of the mentioned plusses, don’t make it worth the price tag one bit. If you are a big fan and want to really try the game out, it is recommended to first wait for a sale.
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