I’ve been addicted to this game for the past couple days. I only ever played MudRunner with others, but this one I’m playing on my own, at least so far. (If you play with other people, only the host unlocks things but the other players get stars and money.)
At first I was afraid the world might be missing the bleakness that I like in MudRunner, with its additional colors. But the colorful areas are very nice and full of rivers and mountains and things. The bleakness this time around takes the form of snowy areas. I love the sound of a frozen lake cracking as you drive over it.
Seeing a lot of DLC for a game is typically off-putting for me, but in this case it’s the good kind of DLC, meaning serious additional content along the lines of Dark Souls or R-Type Final 2. Of course, I’ve barely scratched the surface and I can’t imagine trying to get through it all.
Here’s me tipping over right before reaching my destination at the top of a mountain:
As with MudRunner, you often have to fight for every inch of progress. But the world is crafted cleverly so there’s always a way through (unless you pick an unsuitable vehicle, of course). But they also set things up in many places to be intentionally annoying, which is great.
Although I’m generally not in favor of combining fictional worlds in any way, I can’t help wish that they’d add an expansion that lets you drive around in Caelid.
Starting tip for anyone new to this game: get the free DLC pack that includes a couple of trucks. Sell one or both of them immediately and upgrade one or two of your starting vehicles so they aren’t complete garbage (and/or buy one or two additional vehicles and upgrade those ones).
The level progression in this game is very interesting. I feel like Michigan teaches you how to avoid the obvious paths, Alaska teaches you that sometimes you actually do need to rely on those, and then Russia (default game) is the classic spintires synthesis of both. I haven’t played any of the dlc but like kola introduces ICE and seemingly impossible paths so it is a cool gimmick. Almost every dlc level has a new mechanic or forces you to think about what you know a different way. Its kind of why I think the game is better then mudrunner in some ways
The dev hid a time bomb in the games code because of a dispute with the publisher lol. I forgot the details ATM but that’s why mudrunner exists. A shame almost nobody got to play the china dlc for spintires due to the turmoil
I really like this area because it’s the one place (of those I’ve seen so far) where you can go fast across wide expanses with few obstacles, exactly the opposite of the rest of the game. Though the last time I raced across the ice I overshot the edge into some non-frozen water and it was slightly unnerving to see the truck float along for a minute and then sink to the bottom and just sit there, driver and all.
I played with a friend for a little while today and we found that the non-host player gets upgrades in addition to stars and money. During that session, I also discovered that there are scout trailers. The fuel one is very useful, but for some reason I can’t buy it with or attach it to my favorite scout vehicle (Khan 39 Marshall). So I just have to summon it with another truck and pull it around using the winch.
Maybe I’ll be done with SnowRunner by the time the new game comes out. Speaking of, if anyone wants to try an online SB SnowRunner session at some point (PlayStation, unless it supports cross-play) let me know.
Edit: It does support cross-play between PS, XB, and PC.
Here’s me mistakenly assuming that since my little scout trucks with big tires can drive right over frozen rivers, my other vehicles can, too. (I became hopelessly stuck.)
The articulated towing platform seems impractical. I don’t know a case when it’s not easier to just winch a vehicle out of the water and tow it along. Especially given how easily the vehicle can fall off.
Cranes are more fun and more useful. Anyone reading this who has visited the Kola Peninsula area will probably understand exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing in this picture.
I really need to start playing this again (and get some of the DLC). I think the last thing I did was approach a half-submerged Humvee in the snow level from the completely wrong angle, which requires me to practically Spider-Man my way around with a winch on a narrow strip of land next to, uh, a bridge?
Not sure why I didn’t take that, or approach it from a million other safer ways, but damn was it fun.
Apparently this game has “crafting,” too. I haven’t come across that, but I imagine I’ll skip those missions the same way I skip all of the time trial ones.
I played this a bit last night (I’ve done the intro missions before via gamepass, but now I’m on PS5). It’s riveting. Though I ended up getting to Alaska because the tutorial tells you to go there, and I have no idea how to take my truck back to Michigan, where I would much rather do missions for the time being than this frozen hellscape. I trudged over a frozen lake to a watchtower and it was grueling. I’d like to pay more.
Open the global map, either from the garage or from another map, and that shows you little icons on each area’s tile for any trucks you’ve left there.
Select an area’s tile and you’ll see to the left of the map a list of trucks and trailers (above the list of task givers and buildings).
Select one of the trucks to highlight it on the map and you’ll see an X button icon next to the name. X jumps to that vehicle and you can then recover it if you want to get it out of the area.
Selecting the garage on the map screen also gives you the X option to jump to the garage in that area.
I’ve only done Michigan and Kola Peninsula so far. I don’t think I’m really prepared for Kola Peninsula but the harder it gets the more determined I am to stay there and not go back to the earlier areas I skipped.
I figured out how to hop between trucks in different locations. But the tutorial made me like store a truck and move it from the Michigan map to the Alaska map, and now that I’m there I can’t access the garage to do this in the opposite way. The spot where I assume that you would enter the garage is bounded with a dotted line that’s red, unlike other “accessible” interaction zones that are dotted with a line that’s green. It seems like I’m still in an arbitrary tutorial mode, but I don’t think I have more objectives to work through
Oh, that’s just the back of the garage. Go to the other side of it and it should have a yellow zone.
But to actually enter the garage, open the d-pad up menu and select Recover. You can do that from anywhere, not just in front of the garage.
And you can also enter the garage from the map at any time without putting away your vehicle by selecting the garage from the list on the map screen (the X icon thing I mentioned above). This is helpful for when you want to pull out more than one vehicle at a time, something I find myself doing a lot.
For example, when I bring a non-scout truck somewhere and don’t need a trailer, I often attach a scout to the back with a winch and tow it along. That way, the scout can break off and explore something with a full gas tank at any point in the journey.
I’m still spending way too much time in this game. Last night I reached a major milestone in Kola Peninsula. I like that area a lot. It’s bleak, punishing in just the right ways, and the exploration is tense and rewarding. And I found a very nice new scout truck there, too.
If all of the other areas are this good, I’m going to be hooked for a while. (I’ve done only Michigan and Kola so far.)
idk, think i have played 20-40ish hours of Snowrunner, and never have encountered the crafting bit so far, and you can live w/o it very well.
can only recommend doing more missions, because you can buy some mighty Trucks w/ the rewards.
Also go hunting for upgrade parts, you can get improved Suspension parts or tires that can make a huge difference in mud/icy conditions.
Cat CT680 is one of the high speed trucks, BMi17 is the workhorse when it gets tough.
I have to go somewhere after work today but I’d rather stay home and make some more progress in Michigan. I’ve been trying to figure out what makes this game so compelling for me, and I think it’s a combination of
Attractive realistic environments full of little surprises: new vehicles, upgrades, scenic views, cleverly-placed obstacles, etc.
Delivery mechanics similar to Death Stranding in some ways but expanded upon.
Apprehensive exploration of new areas that feels a little like Dark Souls in that there’s the illusion that more is at stake than really is. How is it anything like Dark Souls when there are no enemies, you might ask. But there are enemies, such as those skinny leafless trees that conspire to thwart you. And having to send in a truck to rescue another is kind of like recovering lost souls.
You never have to see any people (other than the little driver who never leaves the vehicle) or hear any talking. There are only the text descriptions of the objectives. You might argue that there’s not enough of a tutorial, but I’ll take that over too much any day. Introducing voice acting in video games was a mistake.
I had thought that the contracts were just bonus harder objectives. I’ve played quite a bit, and I’ve never yet completed one. But it turns out I’ve been doing nothing but side quests and the contracts are the intended goals of the game.
When I say I’m glad there aren’t any people in this game, I mean talking characters and especially character portraits.
Most of the time it’s not strange that you don’t see anyone walking around outside because you’re out in the mountains, but it’s a little odd when driving through the center of a town. I don’t think it’s supposed to be a Death Stranding situation where everyone’s dead, since the mission descriptions indicate that there are people all over the place and a normal economy.
There’s a church in the first area of the game where you can hear a choir singing. That makes for a slightly unsettling atmosphere, which I can appreciate even if it’s totally unintentional. Maybe it’s not a choir at all but a winter lantern in there.
One of my favorite scout vehicles in the game is the Rezvani Hercules. I’d never heard of it, but the real-life version has an impressive feature list.
Wasn’t this like the self-defense don’t get Taken truck that had the commercial with the white soccer mom jizzing herself about how she could destroy her imaginary assailants
