Star Trucker is a space-themed trucking simulation game where you ferry goods across space hyper-lanes and jump gates in a three-dimensional environment. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Star Trucker Review Overview
What is Star Trucker?
Star Trucker is a straightforward trucking and hauling simulator, but instead of highways, you're navigating the boundless expanse of space. Picture intrasystem hyper-lanes, intersystem jump gates, checkpoints, space stations, and a universe brimming with planets and space debris to steer through. As an unnamed space trucker, you’re still cutting your teeth in the cosmos, hauling diverse cargo between distant systems and making a name for yourself among your peers. But don’t be fooled by the simplicity of your craft—space is far more treacherous than any road on Earth, and space trucking is infinitely more challenging than any cross-country cargo run.
Star Trucker features:
⚫︎ Dynamic 3D movement
⚫︎ Authentic trucking experience mixed with sci-fi elements
⚫︎ Vast universe with countless planets and stations to dock encounter
⚫︎ Branching skill tree for new hauling jobs
⚫︎ Performance-based job rewards
⚫︎ Full voice-acting and original space trucking music
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 Xbox |
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| $24.99 | |||||||
Star Trucker Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 The Universe is Alive Immensely Satisfying Hauls |
The Skill Tree is a Lie Indiscernible Lanes and Highways Spacewalking is Just as Annoying |
Star Trucker Overall Score - 66/100
Star Trucker is a solid example of a promising concept that’s been executed… well enough. As a simulation game, it doesn’t exactly grip you, and the experience is bogged down by the tedious upkeep of fuel and power cells, coupled with clunky controls that can’t even be remapped. Despite these flaws, the simulation of the universe you're trucking in is genuinely impressive. With some fine-tuning, this game could evolve into a stellar experience. For now, though, it’s best you keep yourself grounded with a more down-to-earth trucking experience.
Star Trucker Story - 5/10
Star Trucker simply doesn’t offer a story worth looking into. The game’s entire premise can be boiled down to: "You’re a trucker in space." While a narrative might not be crucial for a uniquely-themed trucking simulator, it’s a missed opportunity. It could have benefited from a story that complements its distinctive setting and would have surely benefited from a more defined protagonist.
Star Trucker Gameplay - 7/10
Star Trucker’s gameplay is nothing if not authentic—or at least as authentic as one can get for a fictional space-faring trucker. While I’m not entirely sold on its clumsy three-dimensional steering or the tedious power cell and fuel upkeep mechanics, there’s an undeniable satisfaction in completing each intergalactic delivery. It’s not quite where it needs to be yet, but I can see the game’s potential in providing the quintessential intergalactic logistics experience.
Star Trucker Visuals - 8/10
Forgive the pun, but Star Trucker’s visuals are truly stellar. The truck model is particularly well-crafted—dare I say, iconic—and the assets for the space stations and celestial bodies are equally impressive. It’s a bit disappointing that there isn’t more variety in truck designs, but I’m eager to enjoy the futuristic styling the game offers for the time being.
Star Trucker Audio - 8/10
Star Trucker’s audio shines with endearing and relatable conversations with fellow space truckers over your CB radio, along with robust sound design for your truck, cargo, and the various bleeps and bloops of your interface. The game’s unique soundtrack, designed to emulate radio stations, adds to the authenticity, delivering the perfect trucking vibe. I only wish there were more space-themed trucker tunes to enjoy, but for now, this will have to do.
Star Trucker Value for Money - 5/10
At $25, Star Trucker is a tough sell given its frustrations and shortcomings, but there’s enough charm and substance to keep it from being a complete miss. Missions are lengthy but not varied, and while the game is technically replayable, there isn’t enough variance in each run for it to be worth a replay. It might be worth waiting for a sale or bundle before picking it up. Otherwise, you might find better value elsewhere.
Star Trucker Review: Mediocre Delivery
There’s no beating around the bush with Star Trucker—what you see is what you get. This game is all about trucking through the stars, hauling heavy loads, and ferrying various materials across different space sectors in your very own Optimus Prime-inspired star truck, complete with the bumps and dents that come with the territory. While I appreciate the simplicity of the concept and the uniqueness of the setting, these elements by themselves don’t make for a great simulation game. There's still a long road ahead for this game in terms of quality, rewarding gameplay, and story. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Let’s mag-lock a couple of trailers and top off the gas tank because we’re in it for the long haul in exploring what makes Star Trucker a mediocre trucking experience at best.
Let’s get this out of the way—Star Trucker isn’t here to tell you a story. From the moment you jump in, you’re thrust into the trucking business without so much as a nod to its complexities. There’s no backstory, no character customization, and the narrative is mostly limited to chatter with other Star Truckers over the CV radio. Your character? A blank slate with no identity or personality, driven only by the urge to complete the next haul.
While this might sound like a downside, it’s pretty standard fare for a simulation game, so it’s not a dealbreaker. Still, it feels like a missed opportunity. The game’s space-age setting is unique, but it serves more as a backdrop than a fully realized world, and some character depth would have added a lot. It’s clear that storytelling wasn’t where the developers wanted to focus their energy, but a little more effort in this area could have made the experience much richer.
Next up, Star Trucker’s core gameplay features and mechanics. As you’d expect, there’s plenty of driving in Star Trucker, but unlike other simulators, you’re navigating through the vastness of space. Forget traditional roads; there aren’t any in space. Instead, your Star Truck can adjust pitch and yaw alongside standard terrestrial vehicle steering, giving you full freedom of movement in 3D space. While this added complexity sounds exciting in theory, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The lack of straightforward lateral or vertical movement makes navigating feel like a convoluted mess that’s more frustrating than fun. Don’t even get me started on docking with space stations or attaching cargo trailers, as it’s a nightmare that tests your patience at every turn.
The game’s controls are clearly optimized for Xbox and its analog sticks. The control scheme is clunky, and with no option to remap keys, you’re stuck with an infuriating setup if you’re playing on a keyboard and mouse. Beyond the driving, you also have to manage your truck’s inventory and maintenance. Inventory management is simple and unremarkable, but keeping your truck in working order? That’s a whole different headache. Your Star Truck demands constant upkeep, so much so that most of your resources are spent just keeping it running rather than investing in meaningful upgrades. Power cells—your ship’s main power source— are both pricey and non-rechargeable, leaving you scrambling to cover operational costs most of the time and barely scraping by with the rest. It feels extremely unrewarding and is what put me off from the experience the most.
But there's more to Star Trucker than just its driving mechanics. Each sector's 3D map is fully explorable (if you’ve got the patience) and filled with beautifully crafted assets like sprawling space stations, other Star Trucks, and bustling hyper-lanes. The visual design is impressive, and there’s a sense that the game might have been better suited as an exploration-focused title. Even so, it does get some of its core mechanics right.
On the audio front, Star Trucker goes the extra mile to carve out its own identity. The game features an original playlist of space-themed country and pop songs that emulate the feel of radio stations on Earth. While the tracklist is a bit shorter than I’d prefer, what’s there is catchy and adds a lot to the game’s immersive atmosphere. The voice acting for fellow truckers is also surprisingly solid, with competent performances and engaging line deliveries (pun very much intended).
Overall, Star Trucker comes across as a game that started with a solid concept and decent execution but fell short in a few key areas, leading to a less-than-stellar experience. However, all is not lost; there’s still plenty of untapped potential within its design space that keeps things interesting, and most of its flaws could be addressed with a few simple adjustments. The game’s biggest hurdle is its lack of story, but as I mentioned earlier, the setting already has a rich and compelling atmosphere—it just needs a bit more effort to turn it into a captivating narrative. For now, though, Star Trucker settles into the realm of mediocrity, waiting for the improvements that could elevate it to something truly special.
Pros of Star Trucker
| Things Star Trucker Got Right |
|---|
|
The Universe is Alive Immensely Satisfying Hauls |
The Universe is Alive
One thing that kept me engaged with Star Trucker is the lively population and density of its various areas. While it’s far from a realistic portrayal of how space colonies would actually be populated—don’t even get me started on the continued use of “kmph” in space—the bustling presence of other Star Truckers, comets, asteroids, space stations, loading docks, shops, and flashy advertisements adds a layer of vibrancy to the otherwise empty void of space. This silent community breathes much-needed life into the game’s vast, open expanse, transforming what could have been a dull, empty horizon into a dynamic and engaging backdrop.
Immensely Satisfying Hauls
The satisfaction I get from completing each delivery is almost indescribable, but it’s undeniably real—and one of the few reasons I stuck with Star Trucker’s wonky controls as long as I did. Ironically, it might be the awkwardness of those controls that makes the catharsis of finishing a haul feel so rewarding, rather than the task itself being inherently fun. If that’s the case, there’s a delicate balance to maintain; improving the controls could risk losing this sense of triumph. Still, I’m holding out hope that the game can find a way to refine its mechanics without losing the thrill of a job well done.
Cons of Star Trucker
| Things That Star Trucker Can Improve |
|---|
|
The Skill Tree is a Lie Indiscernible Lanes and Highways Spacewalking is Just as Annoying |
The Skill Tree is a Lie
My biggest gripe with Star Trucker isn’t its orbit-defying control scheme or its frustrating truck upkeep—it’s the so-called “Skill Tree,” which isn’t much of a skill tree at all. Instead, it’s more of an unlock tree that grants access to bigger and more complex delivery jobs, along with a few arbitrary boosts to truck capacity and weight limit. I was hoping for something that would improve my vehicle’s handling or, better yet, introduce an autopilot feature to ease the monotony of traveling between points. But nope, all you get are more reasons to tear your hair out as the challenges ramp up without offering meaningful ways to enhance the core experience.
Indiscernible Lanes and Highways
Separating each sector are warp gates that teleport trucks between systems at the cost of a few hours of travel time. While these are great for logistics, their smaller-scale intrasystem counterparts are anything but. Each system features a network of corridors that vehicles can follow for quicker, debris-free travel between locations. While these lanes work fine in the early sectors, those in Edgeburgh and beyond are a nightmare—tiny pinpricks of light that are more likely to wreck your truck with collisions than any debris field ever could. It’s a frustrating and counterintuitive system that often results in busted paychecks and broken controllers, turning what should be a convenient feature into an aggravating obstacle.
Spacewalking is Just as Annoying
Maintaining your Star Truck involves more than just swapping out batteries and refueling at stations; it also requires patching up hull breaches and, on occasion, manually refueling your truck with jerry cans. Normally, these tasks would add the variety needed to break up the monotony of long hauls and keep the gameplay fresh. Unfortunately, when you step out of your truck for a spacewalk, your spacesuit uses the same awkward control scheme as your truck, complete with the same wonky key bindings. Only this time, there’s no truck between you and the cold, unforgiving vacuum of space, turning what should be an engaging maintenance task into a frustrating and dangerous chore.
Is Star Trucker Worth It?
I’d Wait For A Sale
Star Trucker has a few strong points, like its vibrant universe and the stunning vistas that frame your often frustrating trucking journeys. However, those merits don’t quite justify the $25 price tag, especially when there are other titles in that range that offer more bang for your buck. I wouldn’t dismiss it entirely—there’s still potential for improvement, and fans of simulation games might find it enjoyable—but if I were you, I’d hold out for a sale.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
Xbox | ||||||
| Price | $24.99 | ||||||
Star Trucker FAQ
Does Star Trucker Support Flight Sticks and/or HOTAS?
According to the game's developer, Star Trucker will not support flight sticks and HOTAS on release, but support for those controls is being prioritized for official support.
Will Star Trucker Be Available for PS5 and/or the Nintendo Switch?
There is no official news of the game's potential release for the PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch.
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Star Trucker Product Information
 | |
| Title | STAR TRUCKER |
|---|---|
| Release Date | September 3, 2024 |
| Developer | Monster and Monster |
| Publisher | Raw Fury |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam), Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | RPG, Simulation |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Star Trucker Official Website |
