Food Truck Simulator Review

Simulator games are a strange genre to me; the idea of spending time off from work doing more work always seemed odd to me, although I get the base concept. From what I understand, it should be down to getting into a rhythm while learning how to do each thing perfectly in this virtual job. Recently, I had a chance to try one of these simulators myself, which allows me to use my lacklustre cooking skills as a career! I am talking about DRAGO Entertainment’s Food Truck Simulator.

There’s something I want to make clear before we start: I reviewed this on my Xbox, so one aspect I need to look at is the controls and how they work with a gamepad. Honestly, it’s not great. There are some issues with the menus that I will get into later, but if you do want this game, I would recommend the PC first. It is playable on consoles, but some of the finer cutting you need to do gets a bit fiddly. The game is very fair with where you need to cut, but getting the maximum number of resources with a mouse is easier.

Onto the review, first and foremost there IS a plot in Food Truck Simulator, which honestly surprised me. You play as a young man whose father has, sadly, passed away; you have taken his food truck to honour him, but you hit an issue when you meet Dennis. Dennis is another food truck operator who makes your life a nightmare by burning down your garage. Weirdly, he never gets arrested for this, despite nearly killing you, but that’s video games. You’ll need to work to build up a new truck, contacts, and perhaps even get your revenge on ol’ Dennis. The plot is enough to give you a reason to do everything, but it won’t win any awards, and even the occasional moral choice options feel a bit forced. The issue is that none of the choices or events hit home and end up feeling very by the numbers. 

The gameplay is basically split into three different aspects. The first is your garage, where you can upgrade your van, order ingredients, or accept the odd mission to earn some extra cash. Once that’s done, you can drive into the open world to collect said ingredients, head to food spots, or complete a delivery. It all blends together, although it gets annoying having to drive back to the garage to order new food and then head out again to collect it. You can go to the store directly, but if you order it and then get there within a set amount of time, you get a discount. The driving is nothing special: the van feels weightless and swings into stuff a lot. Thankfully, there’s nothing to pay attention to while driving, as you can’t damage anything anyway. Honestly, the travelling feels like the least worked-on aspect of the game.

The main thing on the road to look at is your cool new van, which you have a few options to upgrade. In the garage, it is possible to change the look of your van and buy some new cooking apparatus to make it all feel more personal. Well, that’s the intent anyway, but there aren’t that many options, although more do become unlocked as you become more popular and unlock new cuisines.

Speaking of cuisines, it’s time to get into the meat and potatoes (heh) of the game. You have a wealth of options when it comes to cooking, be it Italian, American, or Asian. However, you tend to focus on people's wants in a specific area. For instance, if you are on the beach, people usually don’t want sushi. The way it works is that you get an order from a customer and have a set amount of time to cook the food. Let’s take the example of a cheeseburger: here’s what we need to do to cook it. First, we check how the customer wants the burger (they want it well-done because they are monsters). So, we turn on the stove and place the patty on the grill. While that is happening, we have to cut the bun in half: this is done by moving the knife (represented by a blue line) and pressing the lower face button to cut it. Then, when the *hurk* well-done burger is ready, it’s time to place the bun in a box, then the meat with some cheese plus the top bun. There, you’re done. 

Now, there isn’t a lot to really get wrong with all this; it's all pretty by the numbers. The actual challenge comes from organising your time and cooking space. For instance, the meal I mentioned will take up three spaces on the grill: one for the meat and two for the bread. Now, imagine you have three orders all at once, then you’ll see where the challenge comes from. I found the experience enjoyable; the almost mindless pattern following became comforting, but the issue is that there are three different meal sets. It’s quite disconcerting when you’ve been making burgers for the last few orders, and then someone asks for a pizza. 

Earlier I mentioned that the game suffers slightly with the controller, and here is why, finally. The issue is that, as you get more orders, there's a certain amount of finesse required. Take cutting things, for example: cutting bread is fine; you only need two slices, but with other ingredients, you have to cut a lot to get the best value. This is because once you set it away from the board, that item is gone. You just get one slice. Add to this how tight you need to be to place things on plates or boxes, and the controller just makes it all a bit more stressful than it needs to be.

Visually, Food Truck Simulator is nothing special; in truth, it is often downright meh. The food looks plastic, and the character models can be pretty terrifying when they pop up behind you. Also, certain food types are tiny when they are cut. I have spent longer than I’d like trying to pick up a chilli slice. Some voice-acted lines get the job done, but I feel like the writing could have used some punching up. 

Food Truck Simulator is a game to while away a lazy afternoon, not to focus on but to instead drift through. When I was focusing, I found the entire experience tedious, but when I had something on in the background while letting myself relax, I found it way more enjoyable. Is it enough to get me more into the simulator genre? No, it was enjoyable enough that I may wander back on occasion, and that is all a game needs to do.