There is a hardcore mode for the truly sadistic, but for the majority of players, the standard challenge will prove plentiful. While its limited number of maps and sparse online options make for a relatively limited experience, the gameplay itself remains unique, consistently challenging and utterly addictive. Here, you want to be starting slow and working your way up to….slightly less slow. After years of putting the virtual pedal to the metal, my immediate instinct was to put my foot down – that led to almost immediate and often hilarious failure. My initial approach to the game was, well, it wasn’t what one might call successful. With uneven, slippery and generally quite boggy tracks being the terrain of choice, moving your haulage from A to B is rarely (if ever) a straightforward experience. You will rarely get much above 20mph, but with a selection of logs attached rather precariously to your vehicle of choice, just about any speed you might be doing is likely to feel too fast. Parts of the experience can get a tad mundane, but when it comes to the job of carefully creeping your vehicle across uneven Russian terrain, things soon become incredibly tense and utterly absorbing. Saying that, while Spintires: MudRunner only really does one thing, that one thing it does, it tends to do incredibly well. It would help if some of the locations had a bit more variety, but this is Eastern European country, and that means grey skies, muddy roads and, well, despite Eastern Europe being home to a number of beautiful landscapes, rather drab looking surroundings. Don’t get me wrong, it’s rarely anything less than bizarrely compelling, but it is undoubtedly samey. Patches and updates have added a bit of variety along the way, but for the most part, there is little to this game beyond picking up your haulage (usually logs) and getting them from point A to point B. While that laser focussed approach does benefit the game in many ways, it’s also its biggest problem. Again, it sounds overly simplistic when put like that, and yes, boring, but in action, it’s quite a different beast. There is an element of tactical nous to it, but you’re not building anything here, you’re simply driving and picking things up. Sure, there are farming games which require you to take things nice and slow, but this is different.
Yeah, I know, sounds boring as hell, right? Well, as boring as it sounds, there is a reason that it has turned into something of a sleeper hit on PC – it’s compelling, it’s addictive, and above all else perhaps, it’s unique. It’s essentially a puzzle game set on four wheels, one that encourages consideration and careful planning. It’s a game that asks you to consider every move, every turn of the wheel, to think about your surroundings and the kind of terrain that you’re driving on. Spintires is the complete antithesis of that notion. If there was an F1 game that encouraged drifting, that’s the game I’d be playing. On paper, I really shouldn’t be interested as much as I enjoy the Gran Turismo’s and Forza Motorsport’s of this world, even those feel a tad slow and constrictive at times I’m all about throwing cars into corners at unrealistic speeds and at totally absurd angles. This is all about successfully moving your all-terrain vehicle from A to B without damaging, or god forbid destroying, your rather delicate haulage. This is a game defined by the premise of slow and steady winning the race there is no charging through traffic here, no cops chasing you down (although that would be fantastic) and no crash mode. By contrast, that’s exactly what Koch Media’s surprisingly successful, Spintires: MudRunner asks of you at every possible turn.
Burnout, Need for Speed, OutRun, Daytona, Ridge Racer these are all series that I love, none of which have ever taken much of an interest in driving slowly or safely.