Expedition Analysis, a Mud Runner game.

Saber Interactive knows its fans and has given us more mud, more trucks and many hours of entertainment in this “Expeditions“.

Expeditions – A MudRunner game This is the fourth part of this saga which arrived without much fanfare. His journey began there 2017 with the first title, Spintires: MudRunner, which takes place in Siberia. The game was well received by the public and exploited a fairly hackneyed genre, the driving simulation, but which, thanks to its new perspective and its strategic component, hooked many players.

Fruit of a success, in 2018 an extension has arrived, Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds Editionand finally in 2020which, for me, is so far, the jewel in the crown, SnowRunner. A title that I have played countless hours of and which has been receiving quality content for 4 years.

Better than that?

Now in 2024Saber Interactive revisits its formula and offers a new adventure, Expeditions – A MudRunner game, a game that does not lose the MudRunner seal. To many it may seem like the same thing, but after a few hours I can tell you that it is not.

Expeditions It is, like its predecessors, a heavy vehicle driving simulation game, but that’s where the similarities end. Expeditions offers us a new way to play these titles. In previous games, we focused on moving across maps full of mud and snow to transport goods from one point to another. In these environments, we had more or less passable roads to get around.

Expeditions offers something totally different, here we don’t have roads, we don’t have trails and of course there is no defined route. We will have to analyze the terrain to see where we want to move and what is the best route to reach the destination.

Completely off-road

The component of exploration and of shipping It’s very well done since each order will be a real adventure.Off road“. To begin with, we will only have two points, the starting point and the destination. At our discretion and in our hands it is up to us to try to get there one way or another, through a ravine or a gorge.

To do this we have several new elements without which this adventure would be impossible. The first is a drone with which you can climb up and get a perspective of the terrain. This will help us identify pitfalls in the field such as swampy areassteep and rocky terrain where you can overturn and identify dry river beds as possible passages.

More people and things on board

Expeditions – A MudRunner game He also integrates assistants into this expedition, many of them will be specialists in investigations, communications and other arts necessary to complete the mission, but they will also bonus our vehicle with improvements such as a larger exploration radius, less damage received, etc.

In addition to this, we will have to equip our truck with everything necessary to deal with problems. Let’s not forget that we are facing a game where the civilization It’s not even in sight, so having spare fuel, wheels and even a jack for possible rollovers is essential if we don’t want to fail.

A little confusing, as always.

Although it is true that the missions and their follow-up are sometimes very confusing. Something SnowRunner was already suffering from. There are missions where the “tracker» It’s not located properly and it’s quite frustrating not knowing where to go. Some tasks become repetitive after 3 p.m. and others no longer make sense, even though the main motivator is to take on new challenges and new routes, no matter what we are carrying or where we are going.

In reference to location Among the missions we have 3 areas, a small tutorial and two large ones in open world mode. Each with a differentiated biome, a desert (Arizona) and another more forested and green in Europe, more precisely in the Carpathians.

Renewed graphics section

And Expeditions – A MudRunner game He was not disappointed by the turn of the gameplay, nor by its technical part. It is true that on consoles it has some minor performance issues, like textures not loading in certain areas or specific stutters.

But the work is nevertheless very visible. graphic level. The roads are much better detailed and worked, their resolution increases and the environments convey everything they want with impeccable designs. Ravines, trails, trees, ridges and massifs are wonderfully reconstructed.

In the menus, the game feels a bit clunky. The increased detail and resolution of the game makes customizing trucks a little easier. frustrating before gap that we experience when we modify a component of the vehicle and its appearance on the screen. Up to 3 and 4 seconds of charge we have available Xbox Series if you change a large part of the vehicle such as a bumper or a trailer. Something that should probably be fixed in future patches.

CONCLUSION

Expeditions – A MudRunner game It’s a great game, it’s clear that Saber Interactive has worked a lot on the title so as not to present us with a simple DLC masked as a new game. It is also worth noting the work both at the technical level, by introducing improvements graphics, as well as gameplay with a new concept and new mechanics (introduction of specialists or tools like the drone and tire pressure). Despite all this, the game isn’t perfect and like its predecessors, it has minor issues to iron out. But for all the fans, Expeditions – A MudRunner game This is an excellent title that should not be missing on your shelves and from which we will surely receive much more content in the future.