Actually quite compelling and addicting, and very well-balanced. Clearly FAR better than the GameSpot score shows.
Hard Truck: Apocalypse is a vehicle-combat game that takes the classic mouse-and-keyboard tank-driving style of gameplay to a very refined level. (And, in case you're not well aware of this type of deal, there are very few parallels to classic driving or racing games.)
Hard Truck: Apocalypse is a "dogfight on the ground" game; it's a shoot-em-up on wheels; it amounts to a third-person-shooter -type game with role-playing elements.
Vehicle physics are fun -- trucks jounce around nicely and you can ram other vehicles -- but driving is comparatively linear just the same. That's not to say you don't need to maintain control over your vehicle. You can skid, drift, flip, and lose it. You can ram the wrong rock or column pretty hard and take damage. And when you're busy shooting at enemies in one direction while driving in another, it's all too easy to run into an impediment and become an immobile sitting duck.
Nonetheless, trucks are resilient and transcendent of the laws of physics: a rolled truck will often self-right as if it had gyros; when you hit hills and ramps at high speed the vehicles jump, bounce, sail through the air, and land with cartoonish moon-gravity results. It's hilarious. And fun. Especially when you get better trucks and cabs that have some speed. And around mid-game the cabin and body upgrades turn the game into Hard *Tank.* Your "hard truck" ends up an armored beast bristling with three or four serious guns.
There are various vehicles and weapons all of which can be upgraded and/or enhanced. In many ways, the formula is very much like "Freelancer" -- with trucks instead of starfighters. You blow up your enemies, sell or mount salvaged equipment, repair and re-outfit at cities, trade goods if you like, and wander around freely taking on missions as you find them, gradually progressing through the overarching campaign.
Story is thin, but who cares?
Early on, and at a quick glance, things look a little simple -- but don't be deceived. As you play, you discover some nice surprises and a bit of depth to the game-play. I eventually became impressed by the degree of challenge, the ability to reconfigure, and the large explorable maps.
Each region is sprawling and wide open and continuous, with some interesting landscapes, crazy rough terrain, and lots of nooks and crannies -- very adventurous. Your truck can go almost anywhere if you're careful; the "rails" are few and far between. Graphics look decent, and the level of artistic detail -- in both the models and the surroundings -- becomes more complex as you progress through the game and discover new locations and acquire better equipment. The campaign is very long; it takes quite some time to explore each of the huge regions (and there are more than a few of these), and by the time you get involved in the second stage (region), going from town A to town B will often include one or two fairly intense firefights -- and the pyrotechnics become pretty impressive as you move beyond the early stages. These battles frequently leave you hauling tail to the nearest town or gas station for dire repairs.
Shootouts can be quite challenging; often they are brutal and short. If you get the drop on your enemies, you're good to go. Conversely, if your foes get you at a positional disadvantage, or catch you in a crossfire -- Ka-BOOM! Sayonara.
Not to say all is perfect in the AI department. Pathfinding is sometimes horrible, with AI drivers running into trees and so forth. And you may run across other minor glitches and idiosyncrasies. But in many ways the game is very slick, with a clean interface, a workhorse engine, interesting gadgets, nice effects, and satisfying (if sometimes redundant) combat.
Hard Truck: Apocalypse has a lot going for it. It could have been even better by increasing the variety of vehicles; but as it is you have quite a few permutations, as every truck is a "platform" onto which you can change out cabs and bodies from a number of choices. Each body/cabin comes with a different combination of hard-points and gadget slots, different armor, and (mainly with the cabs) different ride-performance characteristics -- and these different bodies and cabins can drastically change the appearance of your trucks. You'll invariably upgrade both cabin and box *at least* once on every truck, before trading in to purchase the next bigger-and-better truck in the hierarchy.
There are far more ups than downs, and the pacing is good -- once you realize those long trips in between destinations will often result in some fun battles and some good loot. It's a pleasantly unique experience, easy to get into, relatively action-packed (once you get past the early stage), and simple-but-fascinating fun. The longer you play, the more you like it.
This game has character. You might just get hooked on it for a time.