Review: Forklift Truck Simulator 2009

Developer: Astragon

Publisher: Excalibur Publishing

When you think about simulators, what are the first vehicles that spring to mind? Probably ships, trains, planes, trucks and the like, but not Forklifts. Your main aim in this game is, as you’ve probably guessed, to pick up items with your forklift truck and move them around in a variety of missions.

You start off with a small tutorial driving test, where you must first manoeuvre your forklift through a cone-marked course, followed by picking up a pallet and placing it into the back of the truck. The forklift handles and controls as you’d expect it to, giving you full control of the forks, including the ability to tilt them backwards or forwards. There are also multiple camera angles from which you can view your truck, from a “CCTV camera” view to a moveable one in the cab, allowing you to position with precision. The trucks are also nicely modelled, so you get a good amount of detail no matter which one you’re using. The control is adequate for what you need to do, but don’t expect any adrenaline rushes from it.

The missions, of which there are six in total, take place at two locations: a lorry loading warehouse and a train station warehouse. All missions follow a basic structure, giving you 30 minutes to shift 8 pallets from one place to another, mainly unloading trucks and trains and re-ordering the warehouses. Some of the missions give you the opportunity to utilise two trucks in one mission (out of the 3 available), with a diesel engine truck for outside work and an electric for use inside buildings. The total 30 minutes are never really needed to finish your missions, so you can generally blast through each one in 10-15 minutes if you’re efficient. Whilst this means you can finish everything the game has to offer in less than two hours, there is a free play mode where you can move pallets to your heart’s content.

Despite most of the game performing as you’d expect it to, there are a couple of little niggles. The first one is the aforementioned length, which means you’re not getting a huge amount of actual game for your money. Outside of the missions, the free play can only keep you entertained for so long. The second problem I have is crashing your forklift into objects and the scenery. There’s no health meter for your truck and one hard bump totals it, forcing you to restart the entire mission. This is particularly frustrating if it happens when you’re on your last pallet, as you have to do the entire 15 minute mission again.

All in all, Forklift Truck Sim isn’t a bad game – in fact, it’s actually quite fun and relaxing to play in short blasts. If you’re into sims this is probably worth picking up for the uniqueness, however it lacks the depth and replayability that you can find in other simulator games, so it may be worth waiting until the price drops before trying it out. If you’re not a fan of sims, however, you’re unlikely to find anything of interest here.