With the massive release of the Texas map expansion a few months back, American Truck Simulator fans have certainly been entertained. But, the progression of the sim’s world seems to forever be making steady progress in the background, as it didn’t take long after that release for the team at SCS to show the first screenshots of the next map expansion, Oklahoma.
Fast-forward to now, the Oklahoma map expansion has been out for a few days. After over 7 hours of venturing through its 10 marked cities and snapping pics across the several hundred virtual miles of road, I’ve come away with an interesting feeling about this particular bit of DLC.
Sizing up the ‘Sooner State’
Oklahoma’s arrival is a special milestone for American Truck Simulator, as this marks the first truly central state of the map. Texas also technically fits into this category, though due to its massive size, it spans both the western and central regions of the US. Oklahoma, on the other hand, is considered to be completely part of the south central region of the country.
Also Oklahoma is now the smallest map expansion that the sim has gotten so far. In real life, Oklahoma has a total area of 69,898 sq mi. This puts it at just a tad smaller than Washington state, which is 71,362 sq mi.
While these real-life measurements do not apply to American Truck Simulator, which features very abridged renditions of its featured states, that smaller size is still apparent even in-game.
As mentioned earlier, there are just 10 marked settlements on the map at launch. Even looking at it on the in-game map, it’s easy to see how compact it all is compared to the other states. But, what’s it like to actually explore this virtual version of the US’ 46th state and American Truck Simulator’s 11th map expansion?
The journey begins
In-game, one can enter Oklahoma from three other states, assuming all the relevant map expansions are also acquired. You can drive in from Texas (through multiple entry points,) New Mexico and Colorado. At Oklahoma’s iconic panhandle to the west, there are entry points from all three of these states that are very close together.
In my case, I decided to drive in from the northwestern tip of Texas, heading eastward to first hit the town of Guymon. It’s a dry, rocky settlement in the OK panhandle.
It didn’t leave any big first impressions on me, but I was still in the early hours of the adventure. It didn’t take long for the scenery to start being a little more eye-catching, thankfully.
After collecting a trailer of nuts from Guymon, I continued to the east, with the next stop being the city of Woodward. Between the two is a beautiful stretch of farmland that straddles both sides of the road. Little did I know, this scene would become more and more common as I continued further into the state.
Heavy hauling to the east
When I rolled into Woodward, I quickly realized that its name is quite fitting. It has a strong nature/earthy aesthetic to it, with a touch of a suburban atmosphere. Upon dropping off the previous trailer here, I then picked up a heavy haul—a bulldozer—that needed to be transported further east to the city of Enid.
Along this route, I took note of even more farmland. It also occurred to me at this point just how flat Oklahoma is.
Upon further research, it turns out the highest point is only a tad over 1300ft above sea-level. Considering the fact that so much of the western US has very mountainous or at least hilly terrain (which is well reflected in-game,) having a state that’s now mostly flat is quite the change.
On that note, it should also be mentioned that this flatness means there isn’t much in the way of challenging roads at any point on the map.
Taking on Tulsa
While Tulsa is not the capital of the state, it’s arguably Oklahoma’s most well-known city. At least for me, it’s the first place I think of when it comes to Oklahoma itself. That said, she plays second-best to the real capital, aptly named Oklahoma City. With a population of over 413,000, Tulsa is certainly an urban sprawl on its own, however.
But, like most major population hubs in the rest of American Truck Simulator, you don’t really get to trek too far into the heart of Tulsa.
The road networks take you to the major industrial areas out and around the city, with its tall skyline being visible, but not touchable. After picking up a power generator from Enid, I delivered it to a factory outside of Tulsa, allowing me to view the city from afar.
At this point, I’ve now successfully crossed almost the total span of Oklahoma’s northern strip from the east to the west.
Pulling up the route map, the aforementioned Oklahoma City would be the next spot to check off. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an actual job between it and Tulsa at the time. So, I opted to just take a free roam drive down; the first of what would end up being many.
Oklahoma City is okay
Making my southwestern drive down to OKC, I was met with a downpour. That, along with it becoming night time, I didn’t really get to see much of the scenery surrounding Oklahoma’s capital. That said, not all hope was lost.
Once the sim notified me I had crossed into the city limits, I then continued on westward to the city of Clinton. Here, I was able to grab a trailer that needed to be transported southeast to the city of McAlester. The majority of this journey would just take me in the opposite direction of the route I just took to come from OKC, albeit now with daylight and clear skies. This would be the longest single drive of the adventure, clocking in at 241 miles.
So, on this second pass of driving through the major highway networks surrounding Oklahoma City, I got to admire just how much of a sprawl it is. As always, SCS did a great job at modelling the intricate road web of a major city’s highway system. But, seeing that I couldn’t really go into the city, there wasn’t much to note other than its skyline.
The Skydance Bridge, an iconic feature of the state, is present, however. It’s also a Photo Trophy. Additionally, I spotted what appears to be Charles B. Hall Airpark, a part of the Tinker Air Force Base. Though, this is interestingly not a Photo Trophy despite being so well detailed.
The South of the Sooner State
After about 45 real-world minutes, I arrived in the city of McAlester; quite a very picturesque little city. It had a well-detailed downtown area which I was able to get quite a few snaps of.
From here, once again not being able to find a delivery job, I free-roamed it over to the city of Ardmore. This journey took me further south into the state, and then a bit to the east.
For the most part, I didn’t notice anything particularly interesting until I got onto a gorgeous stirp of Route 70. The road rolls over a beautiful lake. Upon looking at a real life map, that lake appears to be that of Lake Texoma. As the name suggests, it’s a shared lake between southern Oklahoma and northern Texas.
After finally hitting Ardmore, once again my attempts to pick up a delivery job were thwarted. So, trailer-less once more, I made a small skip to the east over to the city of Lawton.
Nothing about either of these two cities really stood out to me, but at least in Lawton I finally scored another gig.
Pushing to the far east
Finally, I had come to the last part of this crisscross journey of Oklahoma. A trailer of waste paper needed to be transported from Lawton in the west, to Idabel in the deep southeast—the last Oklahoman city left for me hit.
At 229 in-game miles, this route was just slightly shorter than the Clinton-McAlester drive. Now hitched up, I pressed on eastward, sliding south of Ardmore, almost straddling the Texoma border. For me, this proved to be practically the most picturesque part of the entire journey through the state.
There’s a Scenic Viewpoint nearby Hugo Lake which shows off some gorgeous shots of the lake, the dam and bridge that are all in the area.
It also helped that I did this drive during the early hours of the in-game morning. There’s something about the lighting of the early morning/late evening that make any surrounding area seem almost magical, and that was exactly the case here.
Upon finally descending on Idabel and making the delivery, I found it to be a quaint little city. It has a rustic, almost weathered look to it that makes it feel lived in.
This is true for even the unmarked small towns that you pass through between the 10 marked cities. SCS’ scenery designers have done a remarkable job at capturing the look and feel of the state. Even the cities that didn’t strike me as being particularly interesting still had nicely detailed motifs.
One last hurrah through nature
Although crossing into Idabel marked the completion of visiting all of the cities in the state, there was still one last important sector of the map I hadn’t yet checked out. Just north of Idabel, to the far eastern section of the map, I noticed a winding serpentine headed back towards I70. There are also several Photo Trophies and a Scenic Viewpoint along the road, so I could tell it must be something quite remarkable.
My deduction was correct, as it turns out to be SCS’ rendition of Beaver’s Bend State Park. Mirroring other modelled national parks such as Yellowstone and Glacier in other states, Beaver’s Bend is well modelled.
There are log cabins and beautiful vistas to admire. You can see traffic vehicles that fit the area, such as SUVs with small boats in tow.
Interestingly enough, this park actually allows commercial trucking, as there’s even a large energy plant that you can take deliveries to and from. There’s also a bit of the Ouachita National Forest shown off along this route.
Seeing that you can access Idabel and thus Beaver’s Bend directly from driving in from eastern Texas, this could either be an early great first impression or, like in my case, an excellent finale to the Oklahoma map expansion. Having it as a finale was a satisfying touch, as it did help to sway my final opinion of this DLC.
Signing off on American Truck Simulator: Oklahoma
As we established early on, this is the 11th map expansion for the sim and the smallest thus far. It does set up the next succeeding map expansions quite interestingly.
Other than North and South Dakota, the states to the north and east of Oklahoma are all notably smaller than the majority of the western states. Due to its size, we all knew that Texas was going to be the magnum opus of the entire collection. In a way, it’s going to be pleasant to have progressively smaller states to explore.
This may very well give SCS a chance to focus on scenery density; not that its had a problem with it before, but a smaller area to focus on is bound to give the designers more freedom to craft specific areas in potentially greater detail.
All that said, however, as it relates to Oklahoma specifically, it’s a mixed bag for me. On one hand, I have to commend SCS on its continued deliverance of quality scenery design.
This state looks and feels quite authentic; buildings and roads have wear and tear, graffiti, cracks, etc. All of this makes American Truck Simulator’s world feel believable. Not to mention that the studio has only gotten better at area creation in the several years that the sim has been on the market.
But, even with this level of quality, I guess because of the real state itself, it just didn’t hit me like other expansions. While driving through the other states have made me hope to visit key spots one day, there’s only a few places, such as Beaver’s Bend and Lake Texoma that I want to see in real life.
Other than that, Oklahoma just came off to me as being a mostly flat state laden with acres of farmland and some cute little cities dotted around. In the context of American Truck Simulator, for completionists, there’s no denying that picking it up is a must. If you’re just a casual player, waiting a few months to grab this on sale won’t be a detriment to you at all.
Overall, this is a another great expansion from SCS. However, I do wonder what its northern counterparts will look like.
As American Truck Simulator enters more of the Great Plains of the US, known for vast swaths of emptiness and lonely roads, it will be interesting to see just how interesting they prove to be from a gameplay standpoint.
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