Review: Spintires: MudRunner (Steam)

Drive incredible all-terrain vehicles, venturing across the extreme landscape! It’s not just an enhanced edition, it’s the ultimate off-road experience!

Pros:

• Ok graphics, Most of the beauty of the game is actually in the truck detail.
• 810MB Download size.
• Opening optional tutorial.
• Three modes- Singleplayer, Multiplayer, and challenges.
• Controller support.
• Steam achievements.
• Trading cards.
• Graphics settings- Graphic quality sliders and resolution.
• Challenges- Do set challenges and earn up to 3 stars thanks to the 3 objectives. These range from all aspects of the game and you have to finish one in order to open the next one.
• Difficulty- Two options, Casual or hardcore. Only available in the singleplayer part. Hardcore is a lot harder and gives you less fuel, Cannot recall trucks to garages etc.
• Map- You can actually plot your route down to the minutest detail. You get a distance notification.
• Hot-swap between trucks.
• Find new trucks in the world and you have to be close to it in order to hot swap to it.
• Each truck has unique abilities and tricks like some have winches, Fuel storage, Able to fix other trucks etc.
• Parking- Just like in Euro Truck Simulator, You have to at times park your truck a particular way. Bust out your thinking cap because there is no auto park feature here! Oh, and it is hard!
• Steam workshop support- Also supports all Spintires 1 mod content.
• Satisfying to finish a job/event.
• Actions- You can winch to trees, Collect logs with a crane, Repair and recover trailers and trucks.
• Water- Worthy of its own entry purely as it has unique current abilities and makes crossing rivers very difficult.
• Single player is a massive world where you need to do jobs, Find watchtowers and new trucks to keep expanding the area.
• Left to play how you want and make your own routes and decisions.
• Responsive controls.
• Decent physics engine.
• Day and night driving.
• Camera- Driver seat and external where the right stick kind of moves on an axis so you can place it all over.
• Multiplayer- Create public or friends only lobbies. Can search and search for games with just mods.
• Uphill and downhill driving.
• The terrain is tough but fair, Hills and ditches are the least of your problems with the trees and rivers.
• Can knock down smaller trees.
• Watchtower, Get into its circle of affect and it will uncover a large chunk of the map.
• Garage- Here you can buy and apply truck mods or attach different trailers for the different jobs.
• At times the cargo or fuel container on your truck will go transparent so you can see the contents moving about.
• A lot of variety.
• Strangely addictive as you attack each job, You feel yourself getting better at not only driving but also route planning.

Cons:

• The camera works in such an awkward way it is really hard to get the right angle.
• Cannot use side mirrors thanks to them being an undetailed unused asset.
• Graphics outside of the trucks are not the best.
• Hands on the wheel move so much almost comically and this can really throw you off.
• Challenge mode should just be called the training school as it is really beneficial to play it first so you know what you can or cannot do in the main singleplayer.
• The cursor used for route creation is so small and deleting old routes or points is tricky.
• Hard to see the route marker when in the driver seat.