The Steam Top Sellers chart is a rather strange place. For the most part it’s in a constant state of flux with titles popping on and off it almost daily, usually when sales of a particularly good title go on sale or a hotly anticipated game goes up for pre-order. However there are some titles that manage to secure a top spot on there for a long time, seemingly immune to the regular ebbs and flows of the market. Titles like Rust, DayZ and Counter Strike: Global Offensive are regularly up there but every so often one title manages to break into there, seemingly out of no where. Spintires was one such title attracting quite the following for a game that, to me, seemed to be little more than Euro Truck Simulator with mud. Still the videos were enough to convince me to give it a look in, even if it wasn’t a genre I’d typically play.
The premise of Spintires is simple: you’re to get a bunch of lumber from the mill to its destination, easy right? Well in between those places is a whole mess of treacherous terrain just waiting to stop you in your tracks, foiling any attempt at lumber delivery. However you have a multitude of vehicles at your disposal which you’ll need to make full use of if you want to complete that objective in a reasonable amount of time. Honestly after playing it for a few hours I feel like my initial assessment of it was quite apt as whilst the premise sounds rather dull there’s definitely a lot going on in Spintires that I’m sure simulation geeks will love.
Spintires is quite impressive visually, making heavy use of level of detail and depth of field that give it a much more realistic feel than it would otherwise. Games like this typically forego visual flair for more accurate simulation but Spintires seems to get a decent mix of both of them, being both visually appealing (if a little drab) combined with a driving simulation that matches my brief experience with driving in similar conditions. There are limits to the simulation of course which will provide joy and annoyance in equal amounts but overall Spintires is a surprisingly polished product.
As I mentioned earlier the core gameplay of Spintires is centered around taking lumber from one location and delivering it to another. Depending on what vehicles you have at your disposal (or unlocked by exploring the map) you’ll be able to deliver different loads which have higher point values, allowing you to accomplish the task quicker. However it’s not simply a matter of driving from one location to another as there are numerous hazards that will get in your way, not the least of which is the seemingly endless mud tracks that you’ll be trucking across. In some of these situations you’ll have to bring along additional help in order to get yourself out of trouble or, if you don’t plan it right, dig yourself in even deeper.
Whilst the controls are pretty easy to get the handle on initially it becomes quickly apparent that the tutorial, if you could call it that, is a little bit inadequate. The above screenshot shows you how most things work however even if you combine that with looking at the keybindings you’re still likely to find yourself wondering how to do certain things. Thankfully Oovee’s forums are filled with tons of good advice for people like me who had no idea what they were doing. Still it feels like Spintires could probably do with a short tutorial map with everything unlocked in it so you could get a feel for the game before diving into the bigger maps.
The simulation experience is pretty good and from what I can remember of the short time I went 4WD driving with my scount troop back in the day it mirrors real life pretty well. Whilst you’ll most likely be running full diff lock and all wheel drive constantly (which makes the point about it consuming more fuel mostly moot) there’s still a lot of challenge to be had, especially if you’re just exploring or trying to remove the cloaking on a map. The core game of transporting lumber is somewhat less exciting though as unless you’re transporting the long logs you’ll be doing multiple trips and that just loses its luster very quickly. Still there’s a lot of fun to be had in trying to bug out the physics engine, which I assume is part of the appeal for games in this genre.
It doesn’t take much to do that unfortunately as whilst the simulation seems to work well in most circumstances it starts to behave very oddly once it’s outside its comfort zone. Rocks floating softly up and down, vehicles having a distinct preference for being right side up (unless special circumstances are met) and ground changing it’s consistency randomly are all issues I encountered during my brief play through. There was also the issue of it crashing to desktop a couple times with one time resulting in my save game file disappearing. There’s also the issue of the camera which seems to be too smart for its own good, making moving it around an exercise in frustration. In all honesty it has much the same feeling as many other just off Early Access games do, something which I feel all developers need to take note of and avoid in the future.
Spintires is a game that I’m sure will appeal to lovers of this genre as it recreates the experience of driving heavy vehicles through muddy terrain with a disturbing amount of accuracy. This shows through in several aspects of the game, namely the visuals and the core simulation engine, something which I’m sure many will appreciate. However it still seems to be suffering from some early stage teething issues and honestly whilst I can see the attraction to these kinds of games it’s probably not the kind of title I’ll find myself investing anymore time in. So if you’re a lover of all simulators great and small you probably won’t go wrong with Spintires.
Rating: 6.5/10
Spintires is available PC right now for $29.99. Total game time was 4 hours with 6% of the achievements unlocked.
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