The Slaverian Trucker

If you like games like The Long Drive and My Summer Car then this is the game for you. It has a lot of the aspects of both games but including a lot of the assets from The long drive but minus the annoying stuff. Unlike The Long Drive, this game has missions and stores you can go to to buy food, water and resources. Unlike My Summer Car, you can't die from stress and it's not anywhere near as complicated to maintain your vehicle. Aside from that, it's similar to both of those games because you start of with a house, some goodies and a jalopy to get you from A-B until you either upgrade it or switch to something else completely. I've only played this game for 5 hours at the time of this review but I've barely put a dent in traveling the map and I'm already in love with the rusty transport truck you start off with. the tires are bad and the engine is underpowered but there's something charming about how sh*tty it is.
Update: I still think the starter truck is my favorite. You can put the suspension from the Zakmat truck, the tires from the Zakmat truck, the Premium class 3 truck brakes, and the 7.0 Flint Diesel engine with the Big Brutus turbo and there isn't anything you can't do with the starter truck. But after 40 hours of playing and traveling the whole map, acquiring almost every vehicle and figuring out a very lucrative trade route that made money very easy to come by, I'm starting to find the game rather repetitive. It's a good game, it's worth the money but there is definitely a lack of content. I'd still recommend it but currently I might shelve it until some more updates start to come out. The good thing is that there seem to be regular enough updates so I'm sure I'll be back soon.
Also, if there are any devs that read this, I love the ability to make adjustments to my vehicles with the parts adjuster but may I suggest making parts a little more customizable in a future update? I moved my rear tires back on the RUS after adding the cab but not being able to adjust the brake and suspension locations make them a bit of an eye sore. Also, maybe add some toolboxes that can be added to the side of the frame under the cargo beds? Still a great game though, keep up the great work and I'm excited for the games future.

In simple terms; this game is very nice, and I really like it.
Maybe I'm just uber autistic, but mixing soviet era vehicles, the apocalypse(sorta) and some sort of old cold war era political system to control it all? Sign me up! Or if you really want to dumb it down, The Long Drive meets My Summer Car, maybe with the theme of Fallout: New Vegas. The driving is fun and engaging, and there is plenty to do. Quests too, if you can believe, building more of a world and the funnies that ensue. That, and it is very unforgiving and will punish you for being careless. Seeing all the towns, all with their own Slavic theme, ranging from the Balkans to Russia and beyond, seems the land of Slaveria is the true home of Slavs. The variety of tuning and vehicles available is really nice, each suiting any demand or play style that is desired, from rally cars to heavy haulers.
My only real complaints about the game is that there really aren't many instructions on what you can do and what to do. The tutorial, if it can called that, only really introduces how to take jobs from depots and that's really it. Coming back to quests, you better take a screenshot of that beginning quest line dialogue because that's the only info you will get over them. Even then, sometimes the info you get from them can be very vague. Furthermore, you only find out there are even quests in the game by accidentally stumbling into a NPC in a town. Good luck finding the other quests without humping every NPC you run into. Moreover, as said, you only get that one piece of dialogue saying you started it, and no way of tracking if it was completed, the progress or anything of the matter. Luckily they are not super long quests so if you know what you are doing, it should be ok. The hints are good and give a gist of what you need to do but don't tell you about selling misc word objects or items. For example, did you know you could sell the sheet metal and plywood? Me neither until my second play through. Oh and of course, less of the developers fault, but being a Unity game, CPU usage is higher than it needs to be for a game like this and the longer you have it open, the worse it'll run.
Despite those complaints, I really really like this game. There clearly was a lot of heart and soul put into this game, made by a developer who had a passion and put that into a vision. And from that vision, we got this game. I hope as of my writing, Sawyer keeps developing this game until it's completion and keeps making games in general. The Slaverian Trucker really does deserve more recognition, it is a true gem.

My inner Gopnik is fully crouched.
Full of character, fun, culture, kielbasa, and vodka - the main loop never strays too far from tried and true and improves on points of my summer car while also making the true euro truck simulator.
It is priced right at full price - buy it. Support these devs!

An absolute hidden gem! 16 hours in 3.5 days is always a sign I'm hooked. Dev seems amazing with great communication and fast hotfixes + still regular updates despite the small community.
The Slaverian Trucker is imo a crucial and fantastic addition to the family of indie survival driving sims. Ended up here because I found The Long Drive great fun; but lost interest due to the lack of goals, variety, reward for progression etc.
Equally I loved My Summer Car in theory, but found it a little too realistic even for me, leading to slow pace and lots of frustration.
This game however strikes the perfect balance. Its realistic (relatively speaking) but without being too complicated, map is massive and varied, handling/feel of vehicle weight is solid, fuel economy is spot on, radio tracks are sweeet, inventory system is slick and saves tonnes of time, atmosphere and interaction with your vehicles is brilliant and thirst/hunger/fatigue etc. are excellently balanced imo (dont bug you every 5 minutes, but need tending often enough to keep you immersed). Game absolutely aces reward for progression, every delivery feels like you've taken another step up the ladder towards a better life in Slaveria.
Its other very strong suit is immersion......
You dont need to be a mechanic to play (Unlike MSC) however you really bond with and appreciate your truck once you've tended to its wheel position, oil and coolant levels, meticulously stacked cargo in the bed, supplies to keep the driver (you) going packed on your passenger seat..... then once you've dropped off your cargo piece by piece in the delivery bay of the pub/dockyard/grocery store etc. and got paid, its off to the pub. Sit down at a table, drink some beer, smoke cigarettes and just relax. All these things feel so immersive as its literally manually controlled, hit a key to remove the cap from your beer bottle, lift it to your mouth and tip in.... your even holding a key to manually pull on the cigarette. I'm rambling, but the point is its satisfying as hell.
Dont get me wrong, its not perfect, but no one could reasonably expect it to be (Also its £9!? My bargain of the year so far)
-I'd currently advise completely avoiding drug dealing/smuggling gameplay features. Cops at present are essentially sparsely placed gods - they have basically X-ray vision and telekinesis...... patrol car spawns in front of you, and you pass each other going opposite ways at 80kph? In that split second, they saw through your truck and into your backpack, saw your 'illicit substances' , took them off you and fined you 350,000 ish.... all without either of you so much as slowing down.
-Hunting is a great idea and perfect feature for the game, but right now its pretty 'financially gated' . To buy a firearms license, hunting license , an actual rifle (not an air one) and some ammo; you're looking at about 2.45 million dollars. As avoiding police consistently is currently impossible, its only really viable to go the legal route for hunting; however animal corpses sell for 2-60k (the ones worth more than 25k being hard to find and dangerous to hunt) Therefore making a profit on your nearly 2.5 mil investment is going to take quite some time....
-A few minor bugs and jank, but honestly for me its been FAR less than other similar titles, honestly very impressive. No crashes in my time so far and haven't permanently lost any items I needed. Items dropped through bottom of the map will reappear above your head and drop back to you/the ground ( Thank you dev for that, much appreciated!)
The main contention point for most people (reason for some negative reviews in the past) will be understanding that the game doesn't hold your hand; the really core mechanics are well explained in pause menu tutorials (including imbedded gifs) and the game guides you to your first source of work and a rudimentary map. Thats about it though.
Finding and completing missions, locating places that sell the right vehicle parts you need, optimising routes, finding the side mechanics like hunting, gambling , finding less 'legal' work etc. etc. all require exploration and experimentation. The wiki is very WIP but does have some critical basic info and maps of towns/cities if you want an extra hand.
Thats the main review cos I'm rambling like a nutter. See below for TL:DR , tips and suggestions.
What I'd like to see:
Working odometer! All that driving we do, but no in-game feature recording how far we've travelled in total/ per vehicle.
Fishing! Map is an island, and has at least 1 lake, we can cook; but as far as I can see there's no fishing rod/mechanic yet
Rebalance of the Police/Law please ;)
More advantages for property ownership- maybe ability to grow fruit and veg?
Dynamic weather - icy/wet slick roads or scorching heatwaves that overheat worn/inadequate radiators would be cool!
Quick basic tips for new players
-Game doesnt autosave, remember to manually save regularly (you have to exit your vehicle to save)
-All grocery stores and pubs are closed all weekend. Other places to get food and water are few and far between. Every Friday, make sure you check your supplies, top up on enough food and bottled water to survive 2 days. (you also cant deliver goods to those 2 types of buyer during weekends)
-Fuel is very expensive but lasts a pretty long time, don't immediately brim your tank when low on funds, half a tank will get you a LONG way
-Rent out your starter house (noticeboard at end of front yard fence) if you're spending a decent amount of time on the other half of the map
-Avoid illegal activities until you understand them and the police system VERY well / Or until the systems get rebalanced with an update. Punishments for being caught are VERY high for new players, while potential profit is nothing special VS legal work
TL:DR Game is very satisfying and immersive, runs surprisingly stable, lots of content. It is challenging and requires exploration and experimentation, some patience is needed to enjoy. If you liked My summer car and/or The long drive, you'll adore this game. Dev is awesome.

Less janky than Snowrunner. Better gearboxes. Better physics. Truck won't fall over every time you drive over a pebble. No need to winch every few meters... 10 times the fun at less than a 10th of the price!

I want to start off with saying that I have about 300 hours in The Long Drive and was expecting something close to that when getting this game.

The whole reason I am here is for vehicle customization so that is what my review is focusing on.

The details of the car parts and mechanics (pun intended) are at a good simulation level that makes it interesting but not overwhelming. Somewhere between The Long Drive and Mon Bazu, but a good distance away from My Summer Car. The car part adjuster is a genius thing that I want in all my car games now.

Traveling around and finding the parts for everything is fun and is what I have spent the bulk of my time in this game doing. I'm all in on this gameplay loop personally.

I have a few issues with the game, but they are nit picks through and through. So if you are looking for something with a bit more car details than The Long Drive, and are okay with that level of jank, this is right up your alley. It has about the same level and caliber of humor, too. Don't listen to the other review saying it doesn't have potty humor, it does, you have a piss meter.

Games are about memorable experiences and I've had a few with this game and I don't know how this dev packed this with so much character but they did.
I can tell the devs really put effort into this passion project. Such a pleasant atmosphere. I feel like I'm in this part of the world. The best trucking experience I've had is in this game driving uphill in the windy roads trying to drop off cargo. Finding someone stuck and taking his salt for delivery. Finding someone broken down, giving them a repair kit to be rewarded with drugs I get fined for later.
All this in a rain shower in the dark with headlights paving the way in 1st gear up the hill. Radio on switching between first and 3rd person views admiring the scenery.
The graphics aren't awesome but it's all put together so well.
Grab a beer and chill with this game for sure when you're in that mood.