Spinning Muddy Tires in the Snow

Years and years ago, I talked about a rather obscure game called Spintires and how it represented a very different take on the driving simulator genre.  Specifically, it's not a racing game in the traditional sense.  The competition doesn't come from other vehicles on the road, but rather from nature itself.  Being set in the vast undeveloped wilderness of Siberian Russia provides a surprising amount of challenge, even when the goal is simply to get from one place to another.  All that said, this blog post isn't really about Spintires, but rather two very similar games that came after it.

Through some Eastern European legal gymnastics that I won't pretend to understand, the original developers of Spintires lost the rights to that game, but were able to move on to making another game called Mudrunner...which is almost the exact same game in terms of goals and assets.  Generally, it is thought of as the superior product, due to minor improvements to performance and graphics.  Several free DLC products were released for the game (maps and a few "classic" Russian vehicles), as well as one paid product called American Wilds.  As one might guess the paid DLC introduced a bunch of new vehicles and locations based in the USA.  Personally, I don't like this design direction because I think it takes away from what made both Spintires and Mudrunner so unique.  In particular, there is no American equivalent to some of the monsters that the Minsk Automobile Plant produced during the Cold War era.  Regardless, it sounds like the developers of Mudrunner are pleased with their American-themed expansion pack, because the newest game in this soon to be quasi-trilogy is Snowrunner.

Unlike the couple of dozen relatively small maps and challenge zones found in Spintires or Mudrunner, Snowrunner boasts three massive areas that each have a unique geographical theme.  The first is in the snow-covered Alaskan mountains, the second is in an Autumn-colored Michigan and the third is a more traditional location in the Taymyr Peninsula.  Objective variety has been expanded on somewhat as well.  Instead of just delivering logs to lumber mills, it looks like the player will be building, repairing, supplying and rescuing for cash.  Said money can then be spent on new vehicles, upgrades and cosmetics.  Speaking of vehicles, it appears that there will be at least; if not more than the number available to choose from in Mudrunner.  Additionally, each of the licenced vehicles in the game has fully (and accurately) rendered dimensions and interiors.  Dynamic weather will also play a part in the game on top of the pre-existing day/night cycle.

Overall, it sound like an improvement over the previous two games in almost every way.  A small part of me worries the game might be a bit generic though.  One of the neat things about Mudrunner is the fact that road conditions deteriorate from use.  Hence, the player had to consider routes carefully in order to complete a map before it became a replica of the Battle of Passchendaele.  Lumber yards and outposts can very easily turn into mud pits due to heavy traffic.  It is a cool mechanic, but could it work in the new game?...especially in the case of perpetual content generation akin to Euro Truck Simulator?  I don't know...perhaps the developers have figured out a way to make it work.  Regardless, I hope Snowrunner isn't just bigger, but also objectively better without sacrificing what made it stand out to begin with.