Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Title:Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds
Developer:  Saber Interactive
Publisher:  Focus Home Interactive
Website:  http://www.mudrunner-spintires.com
Genre:  Racing, Simulation
Platform:  Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One (Reviewed)
Audience:  All
Release Date:  October 31st 2017, November 27th 2018 (Switch)
Price:  £29.99 – Rapid Reviews UK was very kindly provided with a review code for this title.

What the Developers say

Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds is the ultimate version of the indie hit Spintires: MudRunner, putting players in the driver’s seat and daring them to take charge of incredible all-terrain vehicles, venturing across realistic, physics-simulated landscapes with only a map and compass as guides!

Drive more than 30 powerful all-terrain vehicles including iconic US brands like Western Star, Hummer and Chevrolet, and equip them with 60 add-ons to suit your mission! Complete your objectives and deliveries across 10 unique sandbox maps and 11 challenge maps set in the untamed landscapes of Siberia and for the first time in MudRunner, Northern USA.

Overcome muddy terrain, raging rivers, and other obstacles that all realistically react to the weight and movement of your vehicle powered by the game’s advanced physics engine. Take your map, compass, winch, and your driving skills, go solo or join up to three others in the coop multiplayer.

Introduction

Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds is an off-road challenge based title where players control a range of  off-road vehicles across multiple terrains to complete a wide range of objectives. With nothing but your vehicle and a compass, players are put to the ultimate test in resource management in both single and multiplayer modes.

Look & Sounds

Upon first inspection, Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds is quite a pretty game. The muted grey and green tones of your woodland surroundings of each map fit perfectly with the vibe that developer Saber Interactive is going for. On closer inspection, some assets can, in fact, look quite blocky.

The logs you carry on the back of your truck look more blocky than round and some ground textures can look a little rough around the edges. The game is also quite foggy with a lot of assets such as trees and shrubbery only coming into focus when you approach them. While this is not a major issue, it is quite noticeable from the onset.

In terms of sound, the soundtrack to Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds is that of nature. Birds chirping in the background, a flock of birds taking flight and of course the noise of your track as it crashes into huge puddles and traverses across difficult terrain. It fits the game perfectly.

Gameplay and Replayability

Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds can be quite challenging, and it will take players time and patience to get to grips with how everything works before they can truly appreciate what is on offer here. Driving across the terrain in each map is difficult, as it should be, but it can at times feel quite frustrating when the slightest nudge of the joystick can see you crashing into a less than desirable pile of mud. The game would work a lot better, at least on casual mode, if they weren’t so sensitive.

There are also plenty of moments where you will become stuck in a large field of mud or a pool of water. You can get yourself out of these situations usually by using the winch. This handy tool can be attached to nearby trees to assist you out of a tight spot.

The key and main gameplay element of Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds is resource management – ensuring that you have enough fuel at all times as well as not trashing your vehicle. While running out of fuel was never much of a concern in casual mode, damaging your vehicle is another story entirely. Ensuring that you don’t damage your vehicle too much requires you to think ahead and contemplate your routes which adds a nice little touch to the game.

Beyond the single-player campaign, there is a challenge mode which some players might find more enjoyable as the challenges and your routes are clearly defined. There are only a handful of challenges available however and Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds is not the type of game that has any replayability.

Conclusion

Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds is not going to be a game that appeals to everyone. Those who enjoy other games in the off-road genre will not surprisingly lap this up, but to newcomers, they may find Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds too frustrating to stick with it.

Rapid Reviews UK Rating

You can purchase this game for Xbox on the Microsoft Store at the following link, Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds.