American Truck Simulator – Utah
Nils Jakrins / Excalibur Games
American Truck Simulator has really carved out its very own unique niche within the gaming industry. Just as game developers SCS software has illuminated many places we’ve never seen with Euro Truck Simulator, so have they allowed us to travel to some of the many of the interesting states within Northern America.
They started off with California, then gave us the beautiful surrounding states of Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona, before heading north and allowing us to travel to the lusciously green states of Oregon and Washington.
Well, now they’ve set their sights on the canyon country with American Truck Simulator – Utah. To tell you the truth, I didn’t really know what to expect upon hearing about this newest offering. Although I’ve heard many times that Utah is indeed easy on the eyes, I’ve never been their personally. The only way that I know it is through pictures and various people’s opinions.
In order to kick off my tour of Utah, I picked up a haul in Nevada and headed straight east. After clearing Nevada, I couldn’t see much because it was nighttime. As the sun rose, I came into the quaint small town of Salina, which was surrounded by some of the first greenery I’d seen since crossing the state line, although there wasn’t a lot (a few pastures). But that’s okay because I like dry, rocky landscapes.
Utah didn’t really start to show off its eye-candy until I drove further north. Looking east over the vast mountains of the Manti-La Sal National Forest and west at Salt Creek Peak, I traveled up through absolutely gorgeous canyons with made it hard to keep my eyes on the road (okay, I actually did have a couple of fender-benders, but nothing serious, shhhhh).
I continued on through the small towns of Mount Pleasant and Indianola and then hardly saw a thing except canyons and mountains for a long ways. I’d always heard that Utah was pretty sparsely populated (it has just over 3 million inhabitants in it), but now I was really getting a sense of that.
Eventually, I sliced northwest through a humongous mountain range that included Spanish Fork Peak, before emerging on the other side of it to witness something truly breathtaking. I saw the trio of neighboring cities of Mapleton, Spanish Fork, and Springville, all nestled in a lush valley. To the west stretched the green and blue waters of Utah Lake.
The college city of Provo was a little further north, boasting the distinction of being the home of Brigham Young University and having quite a bit of stunning vistas. I hadn’t known that Utah had such luxuriant greenery—everywhere I looked I saw lots of trees, bushes, and other assorted foliage. I thought to myself, “So that’s what you’ve been holding out on the rest of us, Utah.”
Salt Lake City, Utah’s capital and largest city, was next. As I passed through Provo and north on up to Salt Lake City, I begin to see a lot (and I mean A LOT) of industrial buildings. As I passed over a few of the freeway overpasses that led into the city, I could clearly see that it bristled with an impressive skyline, with some interesting buildings to boot. Although I did enjoy my time checking out Utah’s capital, I really didn’t come to the state to visit another metropolis; I yearned for more of what made the place unique.
Striking to the extreme northern portion of the state, I came across the sister cities of Ogden and Logan. This is where I really got to see some of the most gorgeous scenery probably in the Western United States. The landscaping relied heavily on serene, flower-studded parks and other natural areas while keeping the wildness of the surrounding countryside intact. It’s as if these places were celebrating both man-made ingenuity and the overwhelming beauty of the natural world, but together in harmony.
After my digital journey throughout Utah, I felt as though I really wanted to see this place in real life. That’s a testament to the aesthetic mastery of American Truck Simulator – Utah’s developers, SCS Software. I can’t imagine other states topping Utah, but then again, both Wyoming and Montana are coming soon…as well as Colorado.
SCORE: 86%
American Truck Simulator – Utah has some pretty good looking graphics that make its open-world gameplay truly shine. However, you want to have a pretty beefy gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:
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