Euro Truck Simulator 2 Is Secretly One Of The Best Open World Games Ever Made
In the open world genre, mainstream blockbusters like Assassin's Creed, The Elder Scrolls, and Grand Theft Auto rule supreme. These increasingly large games cost a lot of money and take a lot of time to build, so it figures that this space is dominated by triple-A games with inflated budgets. But you might be surprised to learn that one of the best and biggest open world games ever made wasn't developed by a multinational studio with thousands of employees. Not a giant like Ubisoft or Rockstar, but a small, self-publishing indie studio of around 150 people based in Prague.
In 2012, SCS Software launched Euro Truck Simulator 2 for the PC. Despite the ultra-specific subject matter, it's an incredible game that everyone should play—whether they care about driving trucks or not. I recently wrote about how relaxing it is, especially in these troubled times. The driving model is nuanced and realistic, the UI is polished to a sparkling sheen, and it's beautiful too, in a modest sort of way. ETS2 has gained a large following over the years, helped greatly by the fact that SCS is, to this day, constantly releasing expansions that have expanded its huge, seamless map of Europe.
Related: In A Messed Up World, Euro Truck Simulator Is A Ray Of Light
Since 2012, the map has been gradually expanded to include Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, a big chunk of Eastern Europe, and even parts of Turkey and Western Russia. It's an impressively vast, detailed virtual landmass, and you can drive across the entirety of it—through multiple varied, atmospheric, and visually interesting countries—without any loading breaks whatsoever. A single drive can take you along scenic Italian coastal roads, through tunnels carved into Norwegian
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