Heavy Duty Challenge, by developer Nano Games, is a driving simulator like none I’ve played before. The controls for this newly released on PlayStation 5 game can be considered quite simple with only a small twist. The player is given a gear shift, axle shift, hand brake, and ignition control on top of acceleration and directional control. The main aspect of this game comes from the truly offroad challenge as mentioned in the title. One may explore several different landscapes with a variety of trucks, upgrades, and challenges with each location. In addition to all this, the player may alter the camera angle from first person right seat, left seat, zoomed in, and third person for a wider view. Once a grasp of these controls and the basic idea of this game is obtained, completing challenges and upgrading vehicles occurs at a relatively quick pace with a wide variety of customization.
Unfortunately for Heavy Duty Challenge, the presence of other simulator-style games appeals to a niche audience of gamers. The translation of a truck simulator onto the PlayStation 5 controller felt too clunky, leaving much to be desired even within the simple controls. During playtesting, the slow moving vehicles and camera speed offered little enjoyment during the drive to complete challenges. Looking into the settings of this game offers nothing to mitigate this, either. A camera speed option would greatly improve the third person experience for this console version. There are improvements yet to be made for this game, though undoubtedly a select group will arise to try this one for themselves. I imagine this group will fall in love with the aspects that Nano Games excel in. These being the upgrades, vehicle parts, and challenges presented. Heavy Duty Challenge does run smoothly on PlayStation 5, with each vehicle looking well detailed before I introduced it to a cement divider, empty river bed, or the occasional tree.
There is more to be found within Heavy Duty Challenge that players will come to discover and appreciate with time. As the leaderboards fill up and players flock to challenge the top contenders, it will become more clear which vehicles offer the best performance for a given situation. A few play periods are simply not enough to extrapolate these more focused details so I entrust it to future players who will rise up to the Heavy Duty Challenge. However, for the time being, this game has not reinvented the genre it resides in. Rather, this appears more akin to a step backwards with better graphics being the core focus and general improvement upon the truck simulator style only appearing through the locations featured. These shortcomings grew difficult to overlook with each new challenge opened. Given all of this, the time and effort put into developing a game that did, in fact, challenge me as a player is undeniable. Therefore, it can be said that this Heavy Duty Challenge will at the very least challenge those who approach it. I give this game a 6/10 for challenging me but coming up short in several noteworthy areas mentioned above.
For more information, visit https://nano-games.com/
Related: Reviews by Elliot Applesmith
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