Simulators are surprisingly massive in video games. It’s as if, even though most of us work all day, we would like to come home and work some more. The issue with simulation games being so big, there are a lot of knock offs that either don’t play well, or just don’t work as a whole. Most of the time, it’s actually both. Anyways, we’re here to talk about Food Truck Simulator, a game where, as you can probably guess, you own, drive, and operate a food truck. You’ll need to order products to sell, cook orders to customer specification, and clean the truck. Like I said, it’s like we want to continue working even at home.

Simply put, Food Truck Simulator feels very uncomfortable to play on a controller. No matter how much I adjust the sensitivity, nothing feels right, and unfortunately I don’t have a mouse and keyboard to plug in to see if there even is a better option. Trying to put burgers on a grill, cook them to the correct temperature, chop vegetables, pull out everything else that’s needed, and not burn everything down when it’s not easy to look directly at one small thing, let alone a bunch of small things is tough. On top of that, driving from one location to the next doesn’t feel the smoothers, sometimes there’s a little bit of rubberbanding which is bad enough without everyone else that exists.

That brings us to the actual driving, and an issue with the AI. If you thought that Grand Theft Auto had some erratic AI drivers, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Not only will it seem like cars are aiming to drive out in front of you, but just in the first couple of locations, I’ve watched drivers shove each other off the road and into posts, walls, and signs. Every single driver in this game has such an insane case of road rage ALL THE TIME that you’re in danger of being taken out as well. It’s almost like there’s some level of trying to artificially lengthen your playtime because you’re scared of other people. I won’t say I’m not the same way in real life, being terrified of other drivers, but usually there’s nothing this crazy.

Now comes the big problem. The very first “level” I had to do three separate times and really made me put off writing this. Food Truck Simulator has a thing for softlocking. The first time though, it softlocked on the tutorial on how to clean the grill and my character just kept spinning in circles for some reason. The issue was cleaning the grill is right at the end of the first level after serving every order and going through all sorts of other tutorials, so I had to do it all again. Fine, I have a little bit of patience even if I’m not s big fan of the controls. The second time through I actually managed to clean the grill, and the game told me “hey open the map and see where your next spot is to go cook.”

The issue with this was, I was locked in the map, no way to get out of it. Figured “alright, at least I finished the actual level part,” nope, it didn’t count. It’s frustrating when something completely out of your control constantly causes issues towards making progress, and if nothing else, gives more than enough reasons to not play the game for very long.

If this wasn’t bad enough, everything looks incredibly bland. Thankfully, the best looking part of Food Truck Simulator is the food truck itself, but as someone that lives somewhere incredibly grey already, the idea that even this is more bland looking is almost impressive. At least the music is decent, not great but decent, and the voice acting is actually pretty alright. You’re not going to win any awards, but characters at least look like they match their voices and sound believable. The ambient sounds are pretty well non-existent though, which kind of ruins a lot of the “atmosphere” of sitting in a park selling burgers, but it sounds like you’re sat in the middle of nowhere.

Basically the too long, didn’t read version is: Food Truck Simulator is incredibly, unbelievably janky. It doesn’t feel good to play with a controller, and I can’t speak on how it might feel to play with a mouse and keyboard since I played on Xbox (yes, yes, PC master race). Though, looking at the reviews of it on Steam, I don’t think I was missing out on a much better experience. I feel like I dealt with way more problems than is justified just within the first 30-45 minutes of starting the game. Unfortunately, I just simply wouldn’t suggest playing Food Truck Simulator on Xbox. On any other platform, to be honest.

Graphics: 4.0 Characters, cars, the city, are all fairly bland. Things don’t look particularly broken thankfully, but it’s all pretty bland and gross looking.	Gameplay: 2.0 Unfortunately, because of janky AI with severe road rage, and uncomfortable jittery controls alongside softlocking and crashing, the gameplay cycle of Food Truck Simulator just isn’t fun. Or even functional.
Sound: 4.5 While there is minimal atmospheric sound in Food Truck Simulator, the characters are well voiced and the music that you can play on the radio is alright. Overall, probably one of the best parts of the game, but that’s not saying s huge amount.	Fun Factor: 2.5 It’s very hard to get into a game that keeps softlocking, crashing out, or just simply doesn’t feel good to play. There’s always a possibility with enough time that you might get used to the controls, but it’s hard when you can’t play more than 30 minutes at a time without it breaking.
Final Verdict: 3.0

Food Truck Simulator is available now on Xbox One and PC.

Reviewed on Xbox One.

A copy of Food Truck Simulator was provided by the publisher.