ETS2 DLCs Reviewed on Steam: the Newer, the Worse
Euro Truck Simulator fans can't complain about a shortage of DLCs, but they have other reasons to be dissatisfied. At least in theory.
After ten years Euro Truck Simulator 2 still attracts crowds of players on Steam, and the developers continue to polish their game. To date, the title has received seven major expansions (as well as countless minor DLCs), with two more on the way.
But have all the expansions been as successful as the enduring popularity of Euro Truck Simulator 2 suggests? The answer to this question may be provided by the opinions of Steam users on the expansions released so far.
Quality decline in ETS2 DLCs
Although Euro Truck Simulator 2 may seem like a niche item, it is one of the best-rated games on Steam. The number of more than 593,000 reviews is impressive, especially since as many as 97% of them give the game a good (or "overwhelmingly positive") rating.
So far, none of the expansions have matched the base game not only in terms of popularity (which is obvious), but also in terms of the ratings of Steam users. The best performer is Scandinavia, which has the most reviews - both overall (5655) and only the positive ones (95%).
No other expansion reached 4 thousand reviews. The fewest number of players reviewed the latest Iberia, which is also the worst-rated DLC for ETS 2. It is also the only DLC with a percentage of positive reviews below 80% (76%).
One can even observe a downward trend, as also the two penultimate DLCs - Baltic Shock and Road to the Sea - were rated worse by users of Valve's platform.
A chart showing the number of reviews and percentage of positive reviews on Steam.
Old and rusty
This does not mean that the oldest and formally best expansions are not criticized. The main problem is precisely their age. Going East is already 9 years old, and in places this is all too evident.
Bydgoszcz, a Polish city with the population of over 300,000 people, represented by, and we quote, "two crossroads with some houses," is an amusing example of how badly and outdated some locations look in ETS 2 even with official DLCs. Hence the popularity of fan initiatives and the frequent requests from fans to the developers to update Poland, Great Britain and Sweden, among others.
Too much for too little
Of course, this problem is absent in the latest DLCs, which nevertheless have not gained as much popularity as the older expansions. This is by no means due to the prevalence of the aforementioned fan projects that improve the appearance of certain parts of the map. Suffice it to mention that the popular Promods require the installation of official DLCs to work.
However, fans have long had reservations about one issue: the price and content of the DLCs They cost almost as much as the basic version of Euro Truck Simulator 2, and that's without taking discounts into account.
In Steam Autumn saleETS2 can be purchased for $5, while the discounted price of the Iberia DLC is $10. Older DLCs now cost from $3 to $5 (only until November 29). Worse, according to some Internet users, their content does not justify such pricing.
In the case of Iberia there are also complaints about optimization. A year after its release, the DLC still manages to surprise with performance drops and the game crashing.
Another thing is that despite these complaints, even the "weakest" expansion still has "mostly positive reviews." Apparently, most players are not bothered by these flaws - at least not enough to give the DLCs negative reviews on Steam.
