If you are not familiar with what takes place in the 18 Wheels of Steel games let me give you a recap. The concept is quite simple; you transport one trailer of goods from one location to another and for that you earn money. The amount you earn is related to how far it has to be transported and what type of good it is.

You get more pay for transporting more dangerous goods like oil or nuclear waste. Also oversized trailers with for example tractors will give you a greater income. In Convoy you don’t really have a time frame for reaching your destination, so you can pretty much take all the time you want, which is quite strange. There are some special cargo missions that are on time, but that’s pretty much it.

If you compare this game to its predecessors you instantly notice that the developers have made the game more dynamic. There are more types of traffic, cargo, trucks and additions to the map. The cities have become more alive with landmarks, traffic, streets and so on. A big part of the game is actually navigating through some of the big cities like New York and Los Angeles; it isn’t easy with a huge 18 wheeler.

The new types of traffic is essentially more 18 wheelers, it’s much more realistic than before since a lot of cargo is being transported on roads and there are a lot of trucks out there. However you can’t interact with the other trucks, which is a bit disappointing.

Graphically 18 Wheels of Steel Convoy does look better than previous games. I especially like the sunsets. However the game is not as beautiful as it could be, but it isn’t ugly either. The car and truck models have gotten a makeover and look a lot more realistic.

The game has a couple of bugs, one that’s very serious. Sometimes your trailer will get stuck in the concrete barriers around the roads. In a worst case the trailer will tumble over and you will never be able to collect it again. This can happen even if you hit the curb gently. Every time it happens you have to cancel the job and do it all over again, great if you have been driving for a whole day.

There are no saving options in the game while transporting cargo. It’s perhaps designed to be realistic, but sometimes it can get really frustrating. For example you will have to sit several hours in front of the game if you want to drive a load from Seattle to Miami. It simply isn’t that fun driving a truck on a computer for that amount of time. To compensate the developers have manage to add some extra missions in different cities. These can involve driving a bus or something like that, sort of like Midtown Madness.

Overall 18 Wheels of Steel Convoy is a fairly good game, the main concept is wearing a bit thin and you can tell since the developers have added extra missions to get rid of some of the boredom.