Spintires: MudRunner Reviews
As a messy muck around, MudRunner has enough to offer to warrant a few hours of experimentation. Beyond that, for me, the limitations of its controls, camera, and missing mirrors put a cap on the off-road giggles.
I found Spintires: MudRunner to be an improvement over the original, but not enough to come fully recommended. The physics and simulation that goes into the game puts Euro Truck Simulator to shame. It does seem that Saber Interactive really went through the list of complaints, even adding a model of a driver to the barren cockpits of the prior game. But it seems no matter the improvements, the game is only as good as much as you enjoy the challenge and desire to make it to your destination – if the terrain lets you.
There’s a distinctive beauty in Spintires: MudRunner. One that rarely shows itself in games, it’s a journey through time and self-discovery through roads filled with mud and memories. Not someone else’s, yours, from the challenges you overcame or will overcome at some point.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
It would be easy to dismiss Spintires: MudRunner as a niche title but in truth it's surprisingly accessible. It can drag sometimes and if you think patience is a dirty word, steer clear. But for the most part it's an engaging, messy time sink that's well worth getting stuck into.
Mudrunner is a great game for its target demographic but it won't please people of just any audience. Nevertheless, I'm usually not a fan of "realistic" games yet I still found some enjoyment in plowing through the mud like a sadomachosist and it helped that I got to stare at the pretty pictures while doing so. It's a niche game that does what it sets out to do very well.
Spintires: MudRunner is a fantastic game and one well worthy of the praise it received previously. It comes with some fine physics, textures, graphics and realism – more so than we’ve ever seen in any off-road title – and that ensures it is one you should be playing at the earliest opportunity.
Spintires: Mudrunner is very addictive. It won’t appeal to everyone. I have to admit I was curious on this one but I wasn’t excited about it. Now I’ve played it that has changed. There is something about this game that makes you want to play just a little more and see what else you can discover.
Spintires: MudRunner is an off-roading simulator with serious potential to be a surprise hit for fans of simulators.
So in conclusion, should you get this game. Probably not. Here’s why. The physical copy for Xbox One and PS4 is priced at around £30 and £25 on steam. I just don’t feel that this game is worth that price. The majority of the game comes from its predecessor, Spintires, and the only new content is a new map and 9 challenges that take less than half an hour to complete. Even if the game had been built from scratch I wouldn’t recommend this game as it doesn’t feel polished enough for a game studio, maybe a solo indie developer but not a studio. If you happen to be one of those people who own the original game on steam, you can get the game at half price but I still wouldn’t say go out and buy it right now as it’s still a push to charge that much to me for this game.
Russia, mud, raging rivers, steep tracks and us – everything controlled by a perfect physics. However, if you don't like the struggle, let it go. Putting up with all this is the fun here.
Review in Polish | Read full review
It feels like you are the sole survivor in a post apocalyptic USSR where the cold war turned nuclear hot.
With its pedestrian pace and delivery objectives, Mudrunner won't appeal to an awful lot of people, but that doesn't stop it being a fun and often relaxing experience.
Spintires: MudRunner is utterly unique, and as a driving simulator of a niche field it is basically unparalleled. However, the difficulty level and lack of pace are likely going to make it a very niche game, while the camera is an extra challenge in itself. Still, there's grit, determination, freedom and reward to be found here for those ready to wade in.
This game should not be fun. It has almost everything except its phenomenal mud and vehicle physics working against it. Often unfriendly to the point of misery, Mudrunner asks a lot from those who chose to engage it, but like many classic tough games, success simply feels sweeter. The music choices and achievement prompts are straight out of a PS1-era extreme sports title, but hearing the faint sound of butt rock as you near a lumber mill with your final load of logs re-invigorates you like seeing light after eons of darkness. This is the closest we'll ever get to a video game based on William Friedkin's classic thriller Sorcerer. If you are a fan of non-conventional PC games, I cannot recommend Spintires:Mudrunner enough. 9/10 mudcaked super swampers
There's no denying that Spintires is a different take on the transportation simulator game, but different isn't enough if the game in question doesn't keep consistency in its simming. A decent title to potter about in, especially with others, but whenever additional rules are implemented, Spintires is apt to suffer.
Spintires: MudRunner doesn't make a lot of sense on the surface.
Spintires MudRunner brings a new experience on the racing genre, being much better than its predecessor thanks to a new open world map and great quality settings. A game only for those with patience due to its terrible camera.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The camera problems do threaten to take this off-road game into a ditch, but you'll likely come back and persevere with MudRunner far more generously and readily than you would expect. Providing a reason why driving at a glacial pace through the game's muddy tracks is so gloriously satisfying is as tricky as trying to explain why another episode of Ice Road Truckers always seems like a good idea. There's absolutely no doubt that it isn't perfect, and that more patient players will get more out of this than those with a shorter fuse, but it's impressive how such a relatively simple concept can provide so many hours of entertainment.