A review of the Monster Milktruck! online game

Monster Milktruck! is an interesing, casual and somewhat informative free to play online driving game that can be played on any web browser that has the Google Earth plugin installed. Since the game does not feature any story or narrative, this review discusses the two main aspects of the game i.e. visual and gameplay.

The appearance

Visually, like most online free to play games, this game does not seem appealing. You control a little 3D white milk truck that has been fitted with monster truck wheels and has the word "Milk" written on either side of its body. The game makes use of Google Earth's 3D view feature that allows the player to "drive" the truck across the actual landscape of our planet and view monuments and buildings rendered in 3D by Google Earth, though any other vehicles or pedestrians are not seen. The game looks better when played using a high speed Internet connection since the map is rendered as players drive over it in real time. Overall, it is pleasing to look at.

The gameplay

Players control the truck using only the four arrow keys on the keyboard where the up and down arrow keys are used respectively to accelerate or reverse the truck and the left and right keys are used to turn it in the respective direction. Depending on the speed at which the truck is moving, random phrases such as "Whoa there cowboy!", "We're hauling glass bottles here!" and "Creamy!" appear in comic style text bubbles above the truck. Players can use landmark features such as hills and mountains to launch the truck into the air for fun, but there is no clever collision system in place in the game - the truck simply passes through all other objects such as trees and buildings. An interesting feature of the game is that you can choose almost any place on the entire planet to drive the truck through by entering its name in the Search bar available at the bottom of the page and clicking the "Transport" button. Unlike most games though, Monster Milktruck! does not have any objectives, quests, limitations or points system. Even the name can be considered a bit misleading since the only connection to milk in the game is the word "Milk" written on the truck. Thus, it is an interesting concept and is fun in the beginning as players can "visit" their hometown or any other place of interest in the same way in which they're actually driving through the place. However, this Google Earth based game tends to become boring fast. Hopefully, possible future iterations would correct these flaws to make the game more enjoyable.