Rig'n'Roll

If you are a fan of racing games you usually have a checklist of what you want to see in any racing game you pick up. You want speed, tight controls, flashy car models, awesome tracks or an open world to explore. You want the ability to weave through traffic and take shortcuts to stump your opponents. Well, what if we told you that you could have all this in an eighteen-wheeler truck? Well, you can in Rig ‘N’ Roll.

This game plays like a mesh between the popular Euro Truck Simulator and more arcade styles such as Big Mutha Truckers or The King Of Route 66 and most importantly, nothing like Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing.

More than meets the eye

What you might expect when jumping into this title is a smash and grab a game that offers a handful of races in a mission format with little else to offer. However, what you get is a game with a free-roam city that plays out like a miniature America with noticeable landmarks belonging to L.A, San Diego, San Francisco and other USA hot spots. Within this city you take on races to earn money so that you can build up your company and be the best in the USA. It’s a simple premise but one that has a lot of narrative to accompany it.

There is a full plot which is something seldom seen within the genre, complete with competent voice acting and cinematic cut scenes. The story is admittedly very cheesy but it’s better than a hollow experience that other games in the genre provide.

Racing meets simulation

This game toes the line between intense racing and long haul simulation pretty well. While the box art may have you believe that this one is a high octane, pedal to the floor racer, you’ll find that it has it’s roots firmly in reality. You’ll still have to race against other drivers and the clock to complete your tasks. However, you’ll have to navigate these tasks at realistic speeds and use carefully planned routes and driving skill instead of pure speed to get the job done.

There are also business management aspects to the game that make this one even more interesting and add layers to what could have been just a throwaway racing title.

The grind is real

sadly, this game leans a little to heavily into the simulation genre without having the substance of the Euro Truck Simulator brand to carry it off. The environment, although condensed into a mini America, is still pretty damn big. So if you want to do a job hauling from San Francisco to L.A, then you’ll be driving for quite a while with some jobs taking up to an hour of real world time.

Then there are the additional consideration and hazards that can halt your progress such as side missions to help broken down cars or to fill up with gas when your running low. Or alternatively, the damage system that will affect your cargo quality and therefore, your wage. Then to add further unnecessary difficulty to this game. It decides to pull a Morrowind and ask the player to completely navigate this mini America with only road signs to aid them. Yes, these road signs are completely accurate but if you are miles and miles away with no point of reference, there isn’t going to be a sign that will help you

The best of a bad bunch

Truck racers are, by and large, a huge letdown and this game does it’s best to buck this trend. In some areas it really shines such as it’s overall presentation and its blend of realism meets arcade racer. However there are drawbacks that stop this one from achieving its full potential. The distance you have to travel for jobs is simply too long to fit into a racing scenario, the amount of simulation that is included also doesn’t lend itself to racing situations and the amount of game crashing glitches that are present doesn’t help the situation either.

Pros

• Racing meets simulation blend
• Business management aspects
• Decent plot
• Nice visuals

Cons

• Racing aspects seem out of place
• Very time consuming
• Game crashing glitches