by Amr (@siegarettes)
- Spintires: Mudrunner- American Wilds
- Developer: Saber Interactive
- Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
- Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One
It’s winter in Chicago. As I return to Mudrunner for the first time since last year, I can’t help but think of the way it reminds me of driving through a Midwest snowstorm. There’s a different vibe, but the physicality of it, the emotional content, it’s the same. Mudrunner is all the frustration and triumph of parallel parking on a snowed out street. It’s a translation of the way the tires crest and crush the waves of wet earth. The way the suspension tries to push back, until it can’t. The grinding of the wheels as they steer back and forth trying to clear a path.
Mudrunner is ostensibly a game simply about driving piles of logs between destinations, but it is also a game about the journey and the struggle between you and its primary character: the ever changing muddy terrain.
American Wilds, the new expansion, brings those vibes out to the American forest lands. In practice, there isn’t a major difference. Russia and America may as well be the same place at times, with the same desolate, wildlife free forests. There’s a little more mountain and little more road but if you told me it was the same place I’d believe. What works a bit better is the new selection of vehicles added to aid you.
New to the expansion are trucking cabs with various add-ons, and a few American trucks, notably the Ford F-150. Despite what the commercials might have you believe, you won’t be moving houses with a single Ford. There’s not even a real option to deliver logs with them. That said, there is something classically romantic about driving through the night, scouting a path to resources that can be scavenged. There’s a quiet thrill to taking your truck through difficult landscapes, grappling onto various trees, and scaling rock faces by some absurd effort.
Pathfinding becomes a real joy with this new truck, thanks to its smaller size and maneuverability. I wasn’t able to take the same paths back with the larger vehicles, but reaching an area’s watchpoint and revealing the greater map, as well as familiarizing myself with the terrain did help open the way. Most important was learning where the mud hardened and gave way on the path. Eventually I was able to gauge each path by the color and texture of the mud, maneuvering my tires to meet the hardened earth on difficult paths. Mudrunner isn’t a joyful game, per say, but it is a meditative one that’s easy to be absorbed in.
The Switch version translates surprisingly well. Loading times are reasonably fast, and performance is generally stable, though I did eventually notice some frame rate dips. It runs at a much lower resolution, but the character and texture of it–and more importantly–the excellent soft body mud physics, remain intact. Sunsets still bring that subtle warmth, while nightfall brings that terrifying darkness that seems to engulf your vision.
It still has the same interface problems, there’s a sloppy map screen that’s more difficult to navigate than it needs to be, and the camera is functional but never as helpful as I wanted. These are exasperated by the terrible analog sticks on the joycons which make it difficult to move precisely. It’s also worth noting that analogue control is gone entirely, since the Switch’s triggers are purely digital. Not a deal breaker, but it does make it harder to control on the rare instances where you pick up speed on a clear road.
Regardless of these issues I was glad to have Mudrunner in a portable form. It’s a long form game, but it works surprisingly well for short play sessions. The ability to pick up and start again from anywhere helps a lot, and I find these short journeys satisfying in their own right since there’s always a new hill to crest or mud pit to drag yourself out of. It makes for a good come down after a stressful day. It’s not an obvious choice for a portable game, but I’ve never been happier to be playing in the mud.