{"id":66040,"date":"2018-11-30T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/nintendo-switch\/spintires_mudrunner_-_american_wilds_edition"},"modified":"2018-11-30T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T18:00:00","slug":"review-spintires-mudrunner-american-wilds-edition-dirt-splattered-realism-thats-surprisingly-addictive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/11\/30\/review-spintires-mudrunner-american-wilds-edition-dirt-splattered-realism-thats-surprisingly-addictive\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Spintires: MudRunner &#8211; American Wilds Edition &#8211; Dirt-Splattered Realism That&#8217;s Surprisingly Addictive"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/36951eb715fea\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/36951eb715fea\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id=\"\">\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Spintires: MudRunner - American Wilds Edition Review - Screenshot 1 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93908\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93908\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Spintires: MudRunner - American Wilds Edition Review - Screenshot 1 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>One look at the name <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/spintires_mudrunner_-_american_wilds_edition\">Spintires: MudRunner &#8211; American Wilds Edition<\/a><\/strong> and we wouldn\u2019t blame you for assuming this was just another off-road racer. Something in the vein <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/mxgp_3\"><strong>MXGP 3<\/strong><\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/monster_jam_crush_it\"><strong>Monster Jam: Crush It!<\/strong><\/a>, perhaps. But you\u2019d be wrong. This is no speed-obsessed demon, but rather an unusual take on the classic driving simulator more akin to <strong>Euro Truck Simulator 2<\/strong> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/farming_simulator_nintendo_switch_edition\"><strong>Farming Simulator: Nintendo Switch Edition<\/strong><\/a>. Yes, we just used the word \u2018simulator\u2019 <em>three times<\/em> in the same sentence.<\/p>\n<p>Starting life out as <strong>Spintires<\/strong> &#8211; a niche project built from the ground up by Russian indie developer Pavel Zagrebelnyj &#8211; the series was picked up Focus Home Interactive and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/nba_2k_playgrounds_2\"><strong>NBA 2K Playgrounds 2<\/strong><\/a> developer Saber Interactive, which proceeded to add in tougher missions and more overall polish while maintaining the key elements that made the original so popular among its small yet dedicated player base \u2013 namely a hyper-realistic approach to vehicle physics and ground deformation.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Spintires: MudRunner - American Wilds Edition Review - Screenshot 2 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93905\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93905\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Spintires: MudRunner - American Wilds Edition Review - Screenshot 2 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Now, we know on paper the idea of driving a truck along a muddy track, delivering logs from forest to lumber mill might sound dull, but that\u2019s because you haven\u2019t actually tried it. Spintires isn\u2019t a glamorous experience, but it\u2019s one that turns something as simple as navigating a slushy hole in the road into a tense and nail-biting experience. Honestly, we\u2019re not even kidding. Your vehicle \u2013 there are 30 to collect and drive, ranging from pickup trucks to massive rigs \u2013 doesn\u2019t slide about like a postman on black ice, but moves and reacts just like a <em>real<\/em> motor.<\/p>\n<p>Want to traverse a particularly rocky trail with your 4&#215;4? Better take off your handbrake, enable all-wheel drive and lock your differentials so every wheel is turning together to stop your vehicle from tipping over and out of control. Driving a lorry and need to get up a muddy hill that\u2019s turned into a bog? Better fire your winch and pull yourself up while steadily putting on the revs. It turns something as simple as escaping a puddle into an unexpectedly engrossing mixture of careful adjustment and gradual momentum.<\/p>\n<p>Take the game\u2019s opening Challenge mode as a good example. Once you clear Spintires\u2019 simple tutorial, you\u2019re coaxed into trying out a series of missions. It\u2019s here you\u2019ll get a good feel for the more open and freedom-rich world of the main game. Rather than just driving around a series of locales in Russia and North America (the latter is DLC which is included with the main game), delivering logs and battling poor road maintenance, you\u2019re given a specific task and a set of objectives to meet \u2013 or pitfalls to avoid.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Spintires: MudRunner - American Wilds Edition Review - Screenshot 3 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93906\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93906\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Spintires: MudRunner - American Wilds Edition Review - Screenshot 3 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Known simply as \u2018The Rig\u2019, this seemingly simple affair requires you to drive a lorry rig to a nearby shack, attach a trailer and deliver said cargo to a location on the other side of the map. Each of the truncated locations in these challenges isn\u2019t particularly large, but it\u2019s the small obstacles that keep you keep occupied. Backing your rig up to the trailer is one, and attempting to pull your vehicle out of the bog with your winch is another. And let\u2019s not get started on reversing the trailer into a designated area. It\u2019s an experience that takes the easiest of tasks and makes it a battle with the laws of physics, but the elation you get when you finally traverse a pothole-filled road somehow gives you the incentive to try the next gauntlet.<\/p>\n<p>You can play in the main sandbox mode or in Challenges mode on your own in single-player, link up with a friend for some local co-op or form a team of log-carrying pros online. Much like Farming Simulator, Spintires\u2019 multi-part operations really benefit from working as part of a like-minded squad. One player repairs vehicles, another refuels them while the rest focus on lifting logs with cranes and delivering them to a mill. The framerate occasionally drops when there\u2019s four of you operating on-screen at once, but never to a significant degree.<\/p>\n<p>As a port, Spintires is impressively robust. The assets used to bring its Russian and American locations to life aren\u2019t going to give <strong>The Witcher 3<\/strong> any sleepless nights but that doesn&#8217;t mean they aren&#8217;t impressive in their own right. Water flows realistically. Trees bend and sway as you use them as anchor points for your winch and the ground deformation physics are really striking for a game running on Switch. Plus, all the vehicles have been rendered with bags of detail. Each one drives distinctly, and there\u2019s a satisfaction to learning the capabilities and limitations of each one. Even driving around each map finding and unlocking vehicles has its charms, thanks to its slow and steady pace.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Spintires: MudRunner - American Wilds Edition Review - Screenshot 4 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93903\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93903\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Spintires: MudRunner - American Wilds Edition Review - Screenshot 4 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>There are some frustrating design issues, such as the inability to set a marker that automatically plots the best route to a given location. Instead, you\u2019re forced to manually plot your journey like pins and thread on a map. It fits the methodical ethos of the game, but it\u2019s the kind of busywork that could have so easily been solved by simply taking note of what open-world games have been doing for years. There&#8217;s also no way to reset your vehicle when stuck \u2013 other than respawning at your garage \u2013 which does rankle a little after a long haul.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>With Farming Simulator having no-showed Switch in 2018, it falls to Spintires: MudRunner &#8211; American Wilds to fill that very niche gap. While it\u2019s still got some frustrating design faults that have carried over from the previous version, Saber Interactive has kept the core experience intact. The addition of the lush and verdant American wildness helps break up the dreary back roads of Russia, and whether you\u2019re delivering logs on your own or fixing and refilling trucks in multiplayer, there\u2019s a bizarre yet moreish satisfaction to be had. Now, when are we getting Euro Truck Simulator 2 on Switch?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One look at the name Spintires: MudRunner &#8211; American Wilds Edition and we wouldn\u2019t blame you for assuming this was just another off-road racer. Something in the vein MXGP 3 or Monster Jam: Crush It!, perhaps. But you\u2019d be wrong. This is no speed-obsessed demon, but rather an unusual take on the classic driving simulator [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}