Big Mutha Truckers Review (PS2) By GhettoBandit

7 / 10
02 Jul 2006 at 15:00

Review by: GhettoBandit

Big Mutha Truckers is a game which takes patience and when I say patience I mean P.A.T.I.E.N.C.E. I can personally understand why people get bored with it and I would have written a bit more about the game if it hadn’t of been for its lack of content and/or an easier way to see the price of goods you haul or have to buy in order to start hauling.

Now this game does actually need a lot of intelligence to play it as well as patience due to the fact that you have to price the goods you’re buying and work out how much you spend in case you need a small amount to repair your big-rig. If you actually turned down the volume and played the game on mute you could probably use the game to learn a bit about the economics in American Hauling companies in a much more fun way than reading books filled with pages of unwanted crap…

The basics of the game are that you drive from city to city and at each city you visit the local bar for tips on the market, do some side-jobs for an extra dollar or two and you also have the option to borrow money from loan sharks; not an option I advise you to do I might add. There’s a garage in each city where you can do the usual refuelling, repairs and upgrades for your truck as well as trailer swapping if your cargo is of a different commodity. At each store in the city you can buy goods or sell the ones you already have in your possession, do this well and you’ll soon start raking in the big-bucks! The goods you should usually buy are the ones with the red arrows pointing downwards because these indicate that the city your in has plenty of that product and are therefore willing to sell it a lot more cheaper than those who don’t have it. If they have products that have green arrows pointing upwards my advice would be not to buy them because it means that the city is in dire need of them and are only selling them at a very high price compared to the going rate of the 5 cities. There are all sorts of pro’s and cons which you have to take into account when making any purchases or sales which not only uses your business skills but your mathematical skills as well.

Out on the open roads you have to watch your back because there are truck-jacking motorcycle gangs and if you drive too recklessly then the cops will also come after you. If you do have the pleasure of seeing a motorcycle gang and hit them or clip them with your big-rig they’ll climb onto your trailer and unhook your load, the best thing to do when they attempt to do this is to start driving from one side of the road to the other; doesn’t matter if you hit a vehicle, and this should eventually cause them to lose their balance, fall off and die. If you do have the misfortune of them doing this then it’ll cost you a vast amount of your cash. If you begin to get a good reputation on the streets these attacks will take place more often and you won’t even have to touch the bikers to get them started. To get the cops off your back for a small time period you can change your trucks logo by adding one already installed into the game or you can design an original one-off masterpiece for the side of your trailer...

Now the side jobs you can do from the bars usually happen in ‘Mission Mode’. You’ll do some strange things in them, it normally always varies but they are fun as well as challenging. Not only are these missions hard but the ‘Trial by Trucking’ mode is also a difficult thing to do. You truck for 60 days whilst trying to make more cash than your other three spouses so as your Mum can retire and you can have the business. Now I haven’t yet managed to finish 1st, I usually finish a lousy 3rd with around $9,000,000 but the winner had roughly $20,000,000. Just goes to show who the brains in the family is I suppose...

It can get a bit tiring after a few hours of game play, but if you save it every few weeks you should be alright. Personally, I think it’s a good game and for that reason I’ve giving it a 7/10.

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