American Truck Simulator takes yet another step eastward with the release of the new map DLC for the US state of Arkansas.
With the Arkansas DLC it is now – if you own the right DLCs – for the first time possible to drive from the Pacific coast to the Mississippi river in American Truck Simulator. Not across it though, that’s going to have to wait a while longer.
Arkansas – the Natural State – is maybe not exactly the most prominent and well-known of the US states. For this European I must admit the facts in my head without looking it up are few. It’s the state whose latter name part should not be pronounced like it’s done for its neighbour Kansas (a fact that directly must have inspired both the Arkan-saw sales bundle and the Steam achievement ”I saw Arkansas”.), and it contains the home town of Bill Clinton, who once was governor there. That’s pretty much it I’m afraid. Oh, and it’s flat. And open plains.
Actually, now when I’ve seen the state through the windshield of a truck, the conclusion is that Arkansas isn’t as flat as I imagined. Sure, it’s not a mountainous state in any way, but it has areas like the Ozark Plateau in the northwest providing for some height differences. It also has both forests and swampland within its borders, providing for varied journeys. In fact, Arkansas is apparently known for its extensive forest industy. So much for my midwest prejudices…
So what do we get in this DLC? While Arkansas is one of the smaller map add-ons in American Truck Simulator, it is still big enough to provide for ten cities and ten minor settlements, a number of viewpoints and some unique industries like the Nuclear One power plant and a bromine factory. And as already stated forestry industries are big in the state.
In addition there are also some new cargoes added with this DLC, such as bromine containers, SUVs, clamshell buckets, mobile air compressors, packed lumber, rough terrain forklifts, and a wood chipper.
For those who own the Special Transport DLC there are three new routes possible for such transport contracts in Arkansas – Little Rock to El Dorado and Texarkana, and Jonesboro to Hot Springs.
Arkansas is also the first state to make use of a new dynamic loading and unloading of logs for transporting timber. There is also several instances of the recently introduced new dynamic loading from grain elevators on the map.
The custom built River Port is one of the larger pick-up and delivery points that I have seen in the game and it really gives the feeling of a large industrial area. With a nice view of the Arkansas river as an extra.
Speaking of the Arkansas river, it is one of the main features in this map and provides for one of the new viewpoints with its Emmit Sanders Lock and Dam. An impressive construction which – luckily for us drivers – also functions as a bridge over the river.
Over the years the map designers over at SCS have constantly improved their skills, and it shows. Arkansas is greatly detailed. From the heap of discarded catalogues beside an open mailbox, to graffiti tags and paintings on the walls and people busy working or going about their business, it all adds both to the fun and to the immersion. And let’s not forget the many big billboards whenever we get closer to the towns, this is America after all.
In some ways I suspect making a landscape like the one in Arkansas and the other midwest states can be more challenging than some of the earlier states released. Here there’s no mountains to help blocking the views. Or make for stunning valleys, nestling roads and roaring rivers. Here the views have to be more wide-open vistas, meaning that visually more of the landscape will have to be rendered at any specific moment.
Even with the many details, the journey through the map flows smoothly from a computer graphics perspective. It is always a bit of a challenge for a game producer to make the optimal choice between graphically stunning and not closing out too many potential players. Or even worse, suddenly raise the bar so already existing players find that their favourite game have surpassed their trusty PCs specs. But in my opinion SCS is doing a good job at balancing here. The toughest parts – for my rather average PC at least – are as usual the city centers with their increased number of moving vehicles, but even they have a decent flow nowadays.
As usual SCS manage to deliver a pretty polished experience already from day one of release. I haven’t been able to find any problems bigger than the occasional slight ambiguous confusion of the vocal GPS in some situations and minor decor misses (at least I don’t think the Little Rock Police HQ should have a silver-white flag outside, but I could be wrong).
All in all, the Arkansas DLC is a nice add-on to the ever-growing driveable map of the US. Maybe not the most impressive in ways of spectacular landscape or challenging journeys, but that’s not really the ATS team’s fault. Instead I would say that they have managed over expectations in making a rather anonymous state interesting and varied. And in the process providing me with way more knowledge of this part of the US.
