Expeditions: A MudRunner Game has humbled me. Watching gameplay videos of Saber Interactive’s MudRunner and SnowRunner, I would often think: “How hard can being a Regulation Trucker be?” As it turns out, it’s very hard, and moving from soviet bogs to new terrains offers an entirely different challenge for hardcore fans.
Starting with what could be a simple tutorial, it only took me a few minutes to get my truck stuck in the mud. Engaging the differential, and tying a winch to a nearby tree, it took a few minutes to wrench my vehicle out of the dirt and continue onwards, only to turn around and get stuck once again.
Just like its predecessors, Expeditions is a game about learning. Not only do you have to learn how your individual vehicles handle different forms of terrain, but Saber Interactive has gone even further by making the entire gameplay loop all around education.
Instead of being about delivering heavy steel beams or crates of cosmic crisps across the perilous American wilderness, you’re on, well, an expedition. Whether you’re driving a truck around the rocky Little Colorado or a small 4x4 across the Carpathians, you’ll be exploring and learning about your environments for the sake of science, delivering important equipment and rescuing trucks that are somehow worse at navigating treacherous terrain than I am.
While it’s more approachable and, dare I say, casual in its mission structure than its cargo-hauling brethren, Expeditions is still one hell of a challenge. The brutally deep physics system first seen in SpinTires is back in full force, causing your vehicles to forge deep impressions in the dirt as mud envelops your wheels. Driving through a deep puddle sees water split like the Red Sea between your axles, although sometimes misjudged depth will make the joy of splashing through puddles a major mistake as your engine floods from the drink.
Expedition’s three maps — Colorado, Arizona and the only European map, the Carpathian Mountains — are completely different from anything seen in prior games. Routes are rougher and less defined compared to the roads and trodden paths of virtual delivery paths. Instead, you’re defining new routes, carefully exploring your treacherous surroundings.
Thankfully, it’s not just you and your ride as you navigate the unstable terrains of Expeditions: A MudRunner Game. As you keep playing, you’ll unlock all-new tools to use, including a drone to scout ahead of your truck to search for the safest — or if you’re feeling feisty, the fastest — ways to complete your objectives.
As someone who’s never passed a driving test, Expeditions is a lot more involved than any other car-based game I’ve dared to play. Even compared to the original MudRunner, your vehicles have more options to get you out of trouble. For example, alongside the diff-switching, you’re also able to change the inflation of your tyres at will to navigate more difficult areas.
By far the best part of Expeditions is how free the game is. While it can be rather frustrating early on, Saber Interactive has bravely decided to tell you nothing outside of the game’s controls. Do you need more fuel to make this delivery? That’s for you to judge. Can you make it across this river or do you need to go around? Figure it out.
Expeditions give you the means and the bravery — or misguided confidence — to try everything for yourself. Yes, this is how you end up with your vehicle upside down, or stuck in a puddle, or crying as your vehicle slowly starts tilting to the side. But it’s also how you end up feeling the most elated you’ve ever felt as you finally manage to get from one end of the map to the other with only your paint job being ruined.
It’s hard to say if Expeditions will attract the same crowd as MudRunner and SnowRunner did. At its core, it’s extremely similar, but its structure is a lot more freeing. It doesn’t have the same appeal as completing long-form timber hauls does, but that is still core to its DNA. It’s different, but it’s the same, and it’s certainly the most unique driving simulator you’ll ever find.
Expeditions: A MudRunner Game releases on March 5, 2024 for PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Switch.
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