What’s better in a dreary early December day than go drive a lorry through the sun-drenched Greek countryside? Well, actually being there, obviously. But with the lack of possibility for that, SCS Software’s newly released Greece map expansion DLC is a really good substitute.
So welcome to Greece. The land of ancient lore, mediterranean sun and sand, tourists, olives – and islands.
A journey through Greece include many prospects of having to use a ferry. In fact without having counted I think this map expansion is the one including the most ferry lines of them all. There are quite a number of them, both between the Greek islands as well as through the Adriatic in order to connect Greece with other parts of Europe. You can in fact go directly to Greece all the way from Venice, saving yourself a long road trip through the Balkans. Something which of course becomes very useful for those who don’t own the West Balkans or the Road to the Black Sea map expansions.
The new ferries themselves is a cut above the ones in the game since earlier in terms of visual feel. There is also now in several cases multiple useable ferries in the same port. (A fact that I first noticed when having driven onto the wrong one.) So making brief ferry exchanges in a port is now a thing.
For someone more used to northern Europe’s combined large ferry terminals and border points, there is also a certain novelty in these smaller Greek island port terminals’ informality and positioning in the middle of the town.
Of course the game doesn’t allow for every little island to be visited by lorry, but with five different islands accessible by ferry – Crete, Rhodes, Lesbos, Kefalonia and Chios – its more than enough to make it feel properly Greek.
Generally it feels like SCS’s map makers have consistently upped the ante when it comes to providing some driving challenges compared to the earliest map areas. For Greece the main challenge is spelled narrow streets. (Mytilene, I’m looking at you.) The town is one of Greece’s oldest cities and it sort of shows in some of the street layout.
There are of course also a fair share of large motorways connecting the different parts of Greece – the ones that are not islands, that is. This makes for a very agreeable mix of types of driving. After starting off a journey by navigating through town streets of varying suitability for big lorries it feels downright nice to be able to stretch out on the big highways. Then there’s of course those pesky highway toll stations… Yes, Greece is one of those countries.
The map expansion also provides for both new industries as well as new versions of old ones. Since it is Greece we’re talking about it wouldn’t be complete without some touristy stuff, so now there are five hotel sites based on real life ones who requires goods taken too and from their custom made depots. In addition to that there’s also olive oil processing plants and big ports like the one in Pireaus, Athene’s port city. And even if marble quarries showed up already in Italy, the ones in Greece are refreshingly new in their appearance too.
As usual the map makers have included a selection of photo points for the photo trophy collecting as well as a number of viewpoint vistas, and the Greece map is of the same high quality as we have gotten used to in the latest map expansions. And for players who owns the separate Special Transport DLC there are a couple of new contracts on moving really big equipment around as well.
With the release of this Greece map expansion southeast Europe is complete and the avid collector of the map DLCs can now enjoy a very extensive journey across most of continental Europe, even if some parts of it are more in-game beautiful than others due to their very different times of coming into existence. When you compare a new map region like Greece with the oldest it is clear that SCS’s map makers have come far since the game’s humble beginnings over a decade ago. Greece is presented in all its splendor and provides good immersion with all its details.
The Greece map expansion pack is one of the smallest released for Euro Truck Simulator 2 and it is luckily reflected in the price asked for it. It is however a nice little gem in that it brings a very nice rendition of the Greek landscape – and seascapes – together with a good mix of driving challenges thanks to the sometimes really narrow roads and dramatic mountainous landscape. All in all ETS2: Greece feels like a very fair deal for some extra content with quite a lot to offer in terms of entertaining driving sessions.
