SnowRunner is an off-roading video game, featuring an advanced physics engine, larger maps, more licensed vehicles’ manufacturers, improved visuals, new cargo types, vehicle customization, and more. SnowRunner is developed by Saber Interactive and published by Focus Home Interactive on 28 April 2020 for PlayStation 4. It is a sequel to MudRunner (its working name was indeed MudRunner 2), expanding and improving on the previous simulation video game.
SnowRunner is essentially a truck simulation game in an open-map sandbox. There is no particular storyline, players are free to move their truck in any direction they want. Most of the game, players have to carry extreme payloads and hauling heavy freight. It is a solid track simulation set in challenging terrains, like the frosty grounds of Alaska (Mountain River, Pedro Bay, White Valley, and North Port) and Kolskiy (Lake Kovd and Afrikanda), or the mucky wilds of Michigan (Black River, Island Lake, Drummond Island, and Smithville Dam) and Taymyr (Drowned Lands, Zimnegorsk, Quarry, and Rift). Besides these US and Russia regions, some new maps are coming as DLC (Canadian Region, Wisconsin USA, and Yakutia Russia).
Players are taking all-terrain vehicles across extreme landscapes and hostile environments, including storms, torrential waters, snow, and icy roads, frozen lakes, and more. There are over 40 off-roads cars and tracks, including scout vehicles (like Chevrolet Apache or International Loadstar 1700), off-road vehicles (such as Freightliner 114SD or International PayStar 5070), heavy trucks (for example, Derry Longhorn 4520, Western Star 6900 TwinSteer), heavy-duty trucks (like Chevrolet Kodiak C70, FleetStar F-2070A), as well as highway trucks (such as GMC MH9500 and Transtar 4070A).
The heavy vehicle physics is the best in its class. The simulation is impressive, taking into consideration many factors, like weather, water density, wheel rotation, temperature, terrain, and more. Muddy swamps, thick mud tracks, grinding quagmires, flooded fords, snow, ice, mist, rain, and more – all influence the driving and put the vehicle and haul in danger. The vehicles may be customized (tires, color,…etc.), as well as upgraded. The attachments and add-ons will have an important impact on gameplay (for example, trucks with snow-chained tires will slide less). The weight of the cargo will affect the physics and gameplay too. SnowRunner is an intense simulation, a deep, laborious, tiresome, but highly rewarding game experience.
SnowRunner offers some unbelievable moments, like when crossing streams of water; or when the mud distorts under the wheels of the truck; or when in online multiplayer co-op mode, your vehicle is towed out of the mud by another driver’s truck. Everything – dynamic weather simulation, dynamic terrain simulation, vehicle animations, and physics simulation, open-map sandbox concept, amazing graphics, beautiful wild landscapes, 4-players cooperation gameplay,…etc. – contribute to a unique gameplay experience.
How thought that haulage simulation may be so addictive? However, if you think a little, you realize that some things in life are all about the journey, not the destination. SnowRunner offers an unparalleled experience, where people, machines, and nature come together. Through SnowRunner, some very unlikely human tasks become possible. Maybe not a game for everyone, but certainly one of the best in its own, and the best of its type.
