Euro Truck Simulator 2 - Nordic Horizons Review Summary

Exemplary Quality & Value: Widely hailed as one of the best, if not the best, map DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2, players commend its overall high quality, massive content, and exceptional authenticity. The expansion is seen as completing the Scandinavia region with meticulous craftsmanship, offering outstanding value for its price.

Breathtaking Nordic Scenery: Players consistently praise the DLC's stunning and immersive landscapes, highlighting beautiful graphics, exceptional lighting, and unique natural features like fjords, mountains, and the Northern Lights. It's frequently described as the most visually captivating map expansion for the game.

Rich, Varied Driving Routes: The expansion offers a highly dynamic and enjoyable driving experience with a vast network of roads. Players appreciate the mix of challenging winding mountain passes, narrow rural roads, and long scenic highways, which provide diverse gameplay and discourage monotony.

Meticulous Detail in Cities: The DLC features highly detailed and faithfully recreated towns and cities, with players noting intricate building designs, local shops, and recognizable landmarks. This attention to detail in urban environments significantly enhances the realism and immersion.

Overpriced, low-quality content.: Many players believe the DLC is significantly overpriced for its content, citing a lack of new gameplay features, inconsistent map quality, and a general rushed or unpolished feel. Comparisons to previous DLCs, especially Greece, highlight a perceived drop in detail and value, further amplified by the absence of release-day bundles or discounts.

Perceived Promods content reuse.: Players familiar with the free ProMods community map expressed a feeling that elements of the official DLC, such as certain road scenes and signage, bear strong resemblances to ProMods content. This perception contributes to a feeling of less originality and potentially lower effort in the official release.

Unrealistic map design & scale.: Players criticize the map for its unrealistic representation, noting features like roads that are either too wide or excessively narrow with too many small roundabouts. The overall map scale feels too small, the road network is sparse (especially in Finland), and specific geographical landmarks are often inaccurately or blandly depicted, detracting from realism.

Lacks snow and seasons.: A prevalent complaint is the complete absence of snow and dynamic seasonal weather, despite the "Nordic Horizons" theme and the region's location, including areas within the Arctic Circle. This omission significantly diminishes the immersive experience and realistic representation of Northern European landscapes.

Critical launch/technical bugs.: A substantial number of players reported game-breaking technical problems, including the DLC failing to load, not appearing on the map, infinite loading screens, and game crashes. These issues often prevent players from launching the game or accessing the newly purchased content, rendering it unplayable.

Expansive Northern Europe Map: The DLC significantly expands the map into Northern Europe, covering Norway, Sweden, and Finland, and is considered one of the largest map expansions in the game's history. Players highlight the immense size, numerous cities (41+) and depots (200+), and the exceptionally long journeys required to traverse it fully.

Mixed Map & City Design: The map features detailed geographical elements like mountains, bridges, tunnels, and specific regional characteristics like Finnish forests and Scandinavian 2+1 roads. While new custom depots and regional police car details are praised, some players note issues with city scale, roundabout design, asset placement (parking), and the overall map being 'squished' and hard to view at full zoom. Oslo's realistic, confusing layout is a notable detail.

Challenging Northern Roads: The DLC features a challenging driving experience due to the prevalence of ordinary and local roads, with fewer highways, especially in the northern regions. Players noted frequent tolls, narrow and potentially icy roads in Lapland, and the need for high driving skills, making journeys feel longer and more difficult. There's also mention of aggressive AI in roundabouts.

New Features & Events: The DLC introduces new achievements focused on exploration and features various road events. Players noted the presence of auroras in the updated Scandinavia DLC, suggesting a visual enhancement relevant to the Nordic theme. External Contracts are confirmed to work, and event progress is tied to external cargo deliveries.

Authentication & Glitch Issues: Some players experienced authentication issues with their World of Trucks account, which were resolved by using a VPN for the initial login or disconnecting/reconnecting the account. There was also a specific reported bug with glitchy ground physics in Bodø causing truck damage, and a day/night cycle problem linked to an outdated mod.

Optimization issues and FPS drops: Significant feedback indicates a general lack of optimization, especially in DLC regions and after updates, leading to noticeable FPS drops even on high-end systems. There's concern the map's growing size and detail contribute to these performance challenges.

Post-DLC texture flickering: After purchasing and installing the new DLC, some players observed flickering and stretched textures on the map that were not present previously. This suggests a new visual bug introduced with the latest content.

Mod-related map scrolling bug: A specific map scrolling bug was reported in the DLC area, often found to be caused by outdated or incompatible user modifications. This issue was frequently resolved by updating the problematic mods.

Initial bugs quickly patched: The initial launch of the Sweden content experienced several bugs, which were reportedly fixed soon after by a small patch. Subsequently, some players have reported experiencing no bugs, indicating improved stability.

Minor/vague visual observations: Limited and low-quality feedback mentioned minor visual occurrences, such as buildings rendering details only up close, a bug visible in the rearview mirror, or a general bug affecting an entire city. These reports lack specific details.

Highly Recommended & Worthwhile: The vast majority of players enthusiastically recommend this DLC, describing it as a "must-have" and "one of the best" expansions for Euro Truck Simulator 2. They frequently emphasize its excellent value for money and fair pricing, suggesting immediate purchase.

Ideal for Scenic, Relaxed Drives: Players particularly recommend this DLC for those who appreciate detailed visuals, dramatic landscapes, and a serene driving experience away from major highways. It appeals to players who enjoy long-haul journeys and taking their time to soak in the environment.

Consider Purchase During Sale: While many recommend immediate purchase, some players suggest waiting for a discount, especially if they are not ardent fans of the base game or the Nordic setting. This implies the full price might be a barrier for some or that sales are expected.

Awaits Bug Fixes/Patches: A notable number of reviews mention the presence of bugs, including repeated crashes, and advise players to wait for patches or fixes before purchasing. Some reviewers indicate they would provide a better rating once these issues are resolved.

Excellent Road Interchanges: One reviewer specifically highlighted the quality of the road interchanges, rating them as 10 out of 10. This points to a well-designed and enjoyable aspect of the map layout.

Highly anticipated, quality DLC: Players expressed immense anticipation for the Nordic Horizons DLC, with many waiting over a year for its release. The DLC is generally well-received for its quality, leading to positive ratings and thanks to the developers, though some noted the absence of a launch bundle and full price.

Anticipate diverse future DLCs: Players show high excitement for upcoming content, with specific anticipation for Iceland, Turkey/Anatolia, and the Luasina DLCs. There's also considerable interest in the long-awaited bus/coach update, with some hoping for VR support and dedicated bus stations.

Request for seasonal weather: There's a significant demand for seasonal changes, particularly winter conditions and snow, especially in the newly added northern regions. Players suggest implementing seasons as an optional toggle feature and expanding weather variations beyond just sun or rain.

Suggest specific content additions: Players provided detailed suggestions for game enhancements, including adding more intricate cross streets in map areas and introducing rigid trucks with extra trailers to better suit the narrow roads of northern countries. There's also a wish for future e-truck implementation with corresponding e-charging stations, and a request for better clarity on DLC prerequisite ownership.

Map display cut-off issue: Some players reported a world map display cut-off issue, commonly attributed to third-party mods modifying the def/map_data.sii file. However, reports also indicate this can occur in a vanilla game, suggesting a potential underlying issue or configuration oversight.