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Truck Driver: The American Dream Nintendo Switch Review – A Road Worth Taking?

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For this Truck Driver: The American Dream Nintendo Switch Review, we learn that years after the death of our father, a famous and well-respected truck driver, we decided to get our life back on track by stepping into our father’s shoes. However, this new path doesn’t come without its hardships, as the road to becoming a successful truck driver might be a hard and lonely one. So strap yourself in and be ready for anything as you chase the American Dream in this brand-new adventure!

Truck Driver: The American Dream Nintendo Switch Review Pros:

  • Decent graphics.
  • 1.8GB download size.
  • 3 save slots.
  • Motion control support for both Joycons or a seperate motion control for one Joycon only.
  • Graphics settings – screen size, gamma, and brightness slider.
  • Controller settings – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders, rumble strength, and camera. Invert the axis and sensitivity sliders, and you can remap the controls.
  • Truck driving simulator gameplay.
  • Four avatars to choose from – two male and two female.
  • In-game cutscenes are mixed with some still art and text-based frames.
  • Currency and unit type can be configured.
  • Five driving views, including in the cab and top down.
  • You can click to have the wing mirrors show on the screen all the time, regardless of the driving view.
  • Opening Prologue showing controls with pop-ups and set scenarios.
  • The garage is where you go to buy trucks and upgrade/repair them.
  • Decent loading times.
  • Three trucks to unlock and own.
  • Upgrade your truck options – tires, chassis, and engine, which affect performance, durability, and fuel consumption.
  • Add-ons are the customisation options for your truck – air freshener, dashboard table, curtains, dashboard items, roof lights, food and drinks, license plates, bumpers, sun visors, mirrors, and paint jobs.
  • The free view in the garage lets you just fly over your trucks.
  • Earn cash and experience for doing jobs.
  • You get fined for jumping red lights.
  • Any collision results in truck damage and needs to be repaired.
  • The game tries to be more Simulator than an arcade.
  • You get control of the lights, windscreen wipers, and indicators.
  • The radio has a handful of channels and full volume control.
  • It is a full 3D world, and you get 360-degree camera control.
  • Find and choose jobs from job boards.
  • When parking, you get an accuracy percentage bar to help line it up for bonus rewards.
  • Acts like the triggers have feedback and restraint.
  • The game is full 3D with 360-degree camera control.
  • Truck actions like indicators, cruise control, lights, wipers, etc, are on a radial dial pop-up.
  • A mini-map shows your route and points of interest.
  • You can only listen to the radio in the cab.
  • Nice locations.
  • The dashboard is detailed, showing all your dials and mini-maps.
  • Save when you want.
  • Full photo mode.
  • Fuel is a mechanic, so you have to spend your money on refilling at petrol stations.
  • The game does a good job of having so many controls tied to the controller.
  • The skill tree is where you spend your points.
  • Uses day and night, along with different weather types.
  • The stamina system in it goes down over time, and you have to find truck stops to rest and sleep.
  • Earn experience with trucks to unlock new customisation and upgrade parts for them.
  • Skills are earned for using different trucks, taking on missions, driving safely, and there are a lot of them.
  • Passives are another set of rewards and unlocks to work towards. You can spend exp on passive bonuses, like earning more money or parts that wear out slower. You do have to unlock the ability to buy passive, and this can be done by doing things as simple as discovering places.
  • Missions can be timed, which adds a bit of urgency and variation.
  • There is a lot to do, and it is a great checklist game.

Truck Driver: The American Dream Nintendo Switch Review Cons:

  • No accessibility options or Colourblind support.
  • The trucks don’t feel that tight.
  • Shows free roam mode, but it’s locked and coming soon.
  • The AI traffic is terrible, they are staying still at red lights, they constantly ram you, they don’t recognize you, and they try and go past or through you.
  • So many slow areas and the speed limits make it all a big slog.
  • Had it where the game wouldn’t always save my preferences for units and currency.
  • The radial dial is not good for actions like indicators, wipers, etc.
  • Prompts for missions are not clear.
  • It seems the game doesn’t have a strong rule set for the road, like signaling, crashing, and speeding.
  • The lighting goes weird, especially when changing from night to day.
  • The view in the wing mirrors is really slow and laggy.
  • Hit detection is not great.
  • Invisible walls and in stupid areas like the parking challenge.
  • Tries to be both a simulation and an arcade game, and it just feels a bit all over the place.
  • The dialogue is delivered with so much lackluster that it almost puts you to sleep.
  • Had a few hard closes of the game.
  • Slowdown happens a lot.
  • The mini-map on the dashboard is so small and blurry that it’s hard to read.
  • Using the main big map is bad, no feedback, the ability to mark it, or even a pop-up text saying what is what.
  • The game is a story-focused game with trucking parts.
  • Yes, it’s all fetch quests, but the issue is that the length of the journey just gets longer for no reason.
  • Having to go back to the motel to rest and move the game forward is a real pain.
  • The skill tree takes a long time to open up in order to actually make your own character as it were.
  • The grind for cash and exp in particular is a long road.
  • Your partner/passenger is motionless.
  • Felt like a lot of PC and Console version game options didn’t make it over.
  • Pedestrians will just appear, but will also disappear instead of you hitting them.
  • The screen feels very cluttered, and it doesn’t leave a lot of room for you to see around.
  • I would personally prefer it if the guideline for missions were on the road instead of the mini-map.
  • Pop-ups and menus love to go over each other, making it messy to read.

Related Post: PAYDAY 3 Review (Steam)

Truck Driver: The American Dream Nintendo Switch:

Official website.

Developer: SOEDESCO

Publisher: SOEDESCO

Store Links –

Nintendo

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!