Euro Truck Simulator 2 – Vive la France Review

Euro Truck Simulator 2- Vive la France Review Screenshot 1

Video games have been used as escapism for decades, especially recently as games get more and more realistic. While no one really wants to be attacked by zombies or aliens or whatever standard shooter enemy is in fashion (is it Russians at the moment? I feel like it’s terrorists but I’m never really sure…) there’s something exciting and awesome about doing it. This idea is taken to the true mundane in Euro Truck Simulator 2, and I do not mean that in a bad way at all, and the latest map pack really bolsters the game. Well, it does if you wanted more French roads and areas.

Euro Truck has always been a relaxing and enjoyable experience for me. Cruising around Europe making deliveries, listening to music and generally just loving the sense of peace that the game provides. There isn’t a complicated story, there aren’t a vast array of characters and there aren’t overly complicated mechanics. For the most part it’s you, your truck and the open road. While this means that the standard game can become a little dull at times it’s still a great experience and one I can’t recommend enough.

Euro Truck Simulator 2- Vive la France Review Screenshot 2

But this review isn’t about the base game. This review is whether you should look to improve your trucking game with new roads and French scenery, which makes this review quite complicated. For me it’s always nice to have new roads to explore and for any area of the game to be expanded, especially some areas that were lacking in the vanilla game, but the expansion doesn’t really make the game feel all that different. That’s not to say that there aren’t new things that I love about the DLC, but these things don’t change the game in a way that makes this expansion a must buy.

But what are these new things? I hear you ask. Well I’ll tell you person reading this! The area of France has been overhauled within the game. There is now much more character to the areas that were already in existence and whole new areas have been added. For the first time in my experience some parts of the game are genuinely very pretty, as opposed to looking good but not exceptional, and these areas really do stand out. It’s also great to see an overhaul to the cities and towns in France, meaning there’s more to see and more that locals and more educated people will recognise (I assume, I’m notoriously bad at geography). These urban areas are also spread much further than just the hub areas as well and I found myself driving through urban districts that were just for show. This is brand new to me and was something I’d love to see in the future for areas that I know of (cough, Britain, cough). All this, along with greater variety of road surface, new cargo types and new businesses makes the game better as there’s more of it, but the differences aren’t huge or vital to the game.

Euro Truck Simulator 2- Vive la France Review Screenshot 3

This whole expansion just makes the area of France better. It looks better, there’s more of it and it feels better. This is where the complexity of rating the expansion comes in as you could quite happily not buy this expansion if you don’t use France all that much. For me, someone who always bases their game in the Britain, France is quite important as the gateway to Europe so the improvements will mean more to me than to others.

If you live or know France well you owe it to yourself to pick this one up to improve the area, but outside of that it’s not vital if you don’t want to pay for it. I’d say wait for a sale to increase the value of the pack, but it’s definitely a good pack you won’t regret buying.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.

Subscribe to our mailing list

Get the latest game reviews, news, features, and more straight to your inbox