Ok, I have to say that I really like this game. It's very similar to the Wing Commander : Privateer model of a golden path where you have an open world, horizontal gameplay and character development with a game story waiting for you to follow it.

There's trading, truck upgrades, modular weapons, towns, factions, and an open world map to boot. The graphics are 2006-ish but if you're looking for gameplay, you can look past that.

The vehicles themselves are based around chassis that have stats but each chassis also has multiple front and back body components which different turret / upgrade / cargo slots. Not all weapon slots are 360 degrees which adds a positional element to combat.

The game won't work out of the box for Windows 7. You have to delete the videos in your Steam\SteamApps\common\Hard Truck Apocalypse\data\video directory.

The Crossout single-player predecessor, Hard Truck Apocalypse (original name Ex Machina fits it even better) was somewhat quite intense when it first hit the shelves. The gameplay (similar to the golden classic of the Russian game development, the Vangers) was quite addictive, with all that driving in the wastes of the post-apocalyptic open world, shooting bandits, upgrading your car, delivering some post quests and convoying caravans... Driving, driving and then some more driving and fighting with your car. There was also an intriguing sci-fi story plot, with some twists and various ways to go through the game (two starting quest lines, non-linear solutions in every big chained mission in every game area, and two endings, with two different boss fights and outcomes).

However, typical for the Russian-made games of that age, Hard Truck Apocalypse was underfunded, unfinished, unpolished, came out with some severe bugs, which were never fixed... So I doubt that you really want to see it even if you like the old games (quite comparable to the modern indie games by visuals and overall quality, but still old and rusty in many ways).

Imagine the lack of fast-travel system, for example. Which is worse, several times through the game course you have to ride all the way through all the areas you have visited back and forth. The gameplay is quite monotone - you drive, look around for respawning bandits, kill'em all or run from them, collect the loot, sell it and buy some new upgrades. And it goes the very same from the start till the end. Yeah, it is even more boring than Mad Max game in the long run.

Why the upvote? Besides the obvious nostalgia, it's still a game which I like for that continuos driving. I know, it's certainly not a very good trait of mine, but I do like such games. On the other hand, I understand that it was not good even when it was only just released, with all those glitches, crushes and all other stuff, typical for a small band of amateurs, which was Targem games 12 years ago. Which is even worse, they haven't fixed their faults even by now! Sure, the game runs on the Win 10 right from the box, and that's a good point. But they haven't updated the bugged stuff besides the basic compatibility issues, and that feels really bad.

So, I love this game, and I know it is not good (mark 6.5/10 on my scales). I don't really recommend it to anyone, but I can't downvote it after all those tons of burned gasoline, thousands of covered kilometers and piles of the cars I've blasted to the bits there.

This game was my childhood, sad that it didn't do very good with marketing, however I doubt anyone sees this coment, but for anyone who's reading give this game a try if you won't enjoy the gameplay then you'll definetly enjoy the story!

Now, I can't say this is alike any game that most people know- for it certainly isn't. It's like a mix of Twisted Metal, Fallout, and Mad-Max style combat with a huge amount of cheesey- and probably bad- translations. It's a Russian game with dated graphics and a decently written story. It's a tale of revenge, messenger-like objectives, and mystery. The lore is actually really complex, and there are some side quests you can take more than the random Bartender mission. Yeah, those guys give you random missions that help early game but are wastes of time in later game due to the prices.
Now, I find it funny that every character wears a Ghost-of-the-opera-esque mask, and lore-wise they explain they're basically a more ornate and compacted Gas mask. I think they made them because they didn't want to have to animate faces, haha. Voice acting is absurd in English; so you may want to just play it in the original Russian with subtitles. This game still has its problems.

Pros:
-Excellent Story and Lore
-Wonderful control system; works pretty well and can be re-assigned if need be.
-Interesting Mechanics- Fuel is a thing, tons of truck upgrades, pretty unique storage system.
-Design of the trucks looks amazing; You even get monstrosities that are crosses between monstertrucks and tanks, wield five guns at once, and guzzle gas faster than five hummers from an oil tank that must be the size of a pond.
-A few hillarious glitches: Pedestrians walk into your truck during cutscenes and splat with a noise like a bug, grass floats, that sort of thing.

Cons:
-Dated Graphics; it's an old game, but that can be looked over.
-A few major glitches; One game breaking one stopped me from palying for nearly a year until I found a guide. Careful when you get to the oil shiping mission in the desert.
-Gets boring at times- you'll spend sometimes an hour or more crossing over three regions that you've cleared before, one-shotting the old enemies and getting worthless crap.
-AI can be a bit of an idiot at times; crashs into enemies, drives off of cliffs, gets stuck on debris.

All in all, I would suggest this game. It's enjoyable and very, very unique- plus it gives me a laugh every now and then, even if it wasn't intended. I'm pretty sure they weren't; but it's funny when a bandit yells something nonsensical anyways. If you want a game of strange bandits, amazing truck combat, massive- and sometimes excellent- landscapes, amazing story, and silly translations, BUY THIS GAME. It's worth it.

Well, after long years of being a huge fan of this game, I finally finished it (I had an original Russian actual version released by Buka company).

My feelings are mixed. I'd like to point out some pros and cons for the game, and you guys will judge for yourself.

I solemnly swear to keep it spoiler-free for those who still hasn't finished it.

Pros:
* A pseudo open world to explore. Due to some scripted restrictions you cannot simly go to, say, Vaterland from Krai. But it doens't mean that actual exploration is not fun and to some extent rewarding.
* A variety of trucks to choose from with a great deal of customization. I love all of them, except for maybe Belaz since I didin't touch it at all.
* A wide variety of weapons to satisfy anyone's taste, from machine guns to plasma cannons.
* Lovely soundtrack and visuals. A bit outdated, but the game is almost a decade old! Explosions and energy particles tho.
* The narrative in terms of lore. Just read the in-game books.

Cons:
* Extremely poor narrative. Both from the point of telling a story and the story itself. I dunno, maybe it's just those Masks that make every character to look the same way? Or voice acting? Or the final which is a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT?
* A dumb AI. More in a matter of path-finding than fighting. Extremely stupid! Sometimes a bunch of trucks cannot make it through a hill because instead of driving around they try to come over it.
* Not really much stuff to do aside from some interesting side quests now and then.
* The final boss battle. A huge disappointment also. No spoilers!
* Dialogue is just a stub. I understand that in such a mission there need to be less talk and more action but damn! I felt sorry for coming to Ben's place and leaving the same instance without even saying good bye. No love for the old guy.
* Restrictions on where to go and what to do. Try to cross that river in Vaterland. Just go and do it.
* Some things are just unnecessary. For example, some inter-regional shortcuts. I never used them and have a feeling that never will. Sad but true.

CONLUSION: This game has it's flaws, and narrative leaves a nasty touch on my tongue. But I still love this game. For the sense of freedom that it managed to give to me despite all those restrictions to go where I want. For the atmosphere of post-apocalyptic road to nowhere. You just go where the wind blows. I just wish I could dive into this world a bit more, leaving all that main storyline somewhere on the side. Actually, a sandbox open-world RPG in HTA setting would be much appreciated and would become a must-have in my collection. Maybe with some neat multiplayer like it was, say, in Freelancer? I don't know, and probably will never know.

Anyway, that's my review. Still love this game and recommend it to everyone interested. Give this game a try.

Actually pretty good, especially at the price. Some minor bugs, and a few major ones, but good music and the gameplay is mostly solid. The localization is a bit flawed, but mostly understandable.
I say mostly a lot because there are a few things, but given the state of games released even today they are simply par for the course.

If you are playing in windows 7 or 8 check the forums as there is an issue with the intro videos playing and you need to delete them from within the game data folder.

Overall a sometimes frustrating but ultimatly enjoyable experience.

I had fun playing this game.
That's reason enough for me to recommend it and this is what the game gave me. I bought it on sale and didn't expect too much but I was surprised. For me it's just one of those easy going, nothing too complicated and decide for yourself kind of game.

So a big thumbs up and I'm going to play some more right now!

The grand daddy of Crossout ;) Developed by same devs.
Lotta people think Crossout is like twisted metal, those people never played HTA.
Most people never knew about it until it was put on steam.
I had this game originally when it released back in 05, I got in spring of 06. (Non-Steam version)(This is why my steam time so low)
If I remember correctly the end mission is bugged and broken and only with luck can you actually beat this game.
Still i recommend the game if you like RPGs and car combat.
You get a couple different vehicles you can customize what weapons to use, but before you know it you'll hit the meta pretty quickly with each vehicle.
I haven't played the game in ages, a good 11 years or more since I actually played to the end, but I don't remember it's story much at all. 11 years is a long time to remember it, considering all the games I've played in those years.
Still I remember it being a fun game, seems like the random A.I. encounters was a bit lackluster it was either to easy or not enough encounters.
Probably not worth full price, just because of it's age and that end bug that breaks the game.
Like i said before you might get lucky and not hit the bug, but it was pretty common back in the day.
I hit it on my 1st play through, since i didn't know about it i didn't have a back up save.
So i was screwed and lost interest at that point.
On sale for $1.59 yea worth it don't expect it to work on windows 7-10 (even if it's mentioned) if ya modern games having troubles just imagine a game 11 1/2 years old.....

Played as a kid, never finished it. Now that I finally did, I can say, very, very great game, you never know what is going to happen next. Buuuuuuuuuut it gets a little borring over time, as you keep encountering the same enemies and they are pretty much not a threat to you after some time. 7/10.

I am going to start with a CAVEAT: To make this game work you WILL have to download a Russian 3rd-party patch/launcher, and if you want to play in a custom HD resolution (I play at 2560x1440), you WILL have to edit the config file (not that hard). If you are prepared for that, then please continue reading... or better yet, just BUY the thing already. It's a great game! If not, then unfortuneately it will never work for you and your money would be best spent somewhere else. There WILL be an MMO version of this game by the same developers, and it's currently going through early beta testing. If you don't want to have to mess with (Russian) files and rather play with your friends, just wait for that game to come out, because this is a different experience and requires a bit of effort on your end to make it work.

Now more about this game: This game is awesome... and it was heart-breaking when I had crash after crash on my Windows 8.1 setup. It's a very simple game I hear being compared to the original Elite, but on land in a post apocalyptic world setting. It has a bit of a mixed steam-punk and post-apocalyptic feeling I get from this game, but it does so in a sort of charming way without the typical zombies and gore.

Now here is the thing, I had to start over soooo many times because my saves would not load after a while and then I had to try play it mostly with Steam off by launching it from the game directory... it all failed sooner or later.

Why do I still recommend it now? Well, if you go to the Discussions of the Steam Community for this game, there is a Russian launcher/patch you can download specifically for this game to run on Windows 7/8 (from a Sticky thread). IT WORKS! After ignoring this game for almost a year, I was able to finally load my most recent save and it loaded and played beautifully! Yes, the graphics are a bit old, yes, there are still some glitches, the physics are non-existent, and the game is just simple to play with no base/station building or recruiting anybody... but is that a bad thing? The world maps are large, they are all tied together interestingly (and need to be fully explored to find interesting stuff/missions), trading generally works, and the wonderful trucks just plain look incredible. Unlike a lot of today's games, this one has a certain charm to it that I have not been able to find in any other game since I attempted to play this one originally. Well, to me it's still a lot of fun, and it offers a challenge, especially in the beginning before you learn that you are not that tough compared to what's roaming around out there. From my understanding, there are plenty of these sorts of "learning moments" through-out the game.

As a plus, it's NOT an MMO for a change! It's an honest-to-goodness single-player game in which you don't have to deal with greifers, and online connection, or a bunch of other hoopla you typically have with modern games.

If you are looking for a fun and simple vehicle-based RPG combat/trading game, then this game is for you... IF you can literally download a 3rd-party patch and edit the config for your resolution. If not, then please just move on. Most of the negative reviews are about the lack of stability when the game itself is actually very fun when it works... it's a shame, if it was not for the horrible support for this game, I feel like this could have been a massive and very popular franchise.

UPDATE: As an update after I left this review and added 17 more hours to the Steam-recorded time... I had literally 2 crashes over the course of this time with the new 3rd party patch/launcher. Once it crashed when I tried alt+tabbing out of the game (I have alt-tabbed MANY times over 17+ hours, it only crashed once), and another time when I used F12 to try to make a Steam screenshot. It has run flawlessly for the remainder of the time. No issues loading saved games, no game-breaking glitches, just fun in the sun in my giant trucks! :D

UPDATE #2: Had maybe 2 more odd crashes, but have a solid 30 hours of game time (from what is clocked on Steam) and getting close to the end (just finished the Oracle quest thing and looking for the second disc). The game is getting a little repetitive at times, but new maps look cool, and I still like the exploration aspect and doing missions even though I have more money than I can possibly spend. Still think it's a wonderful Elite-type game that I wish more people gave a chance to. The newish community patch in the Steam Discussions for this game makes this game work great. It's obviously an older game, it's not perfect, but it's unique... and now it actually runs!