There are a lot of games that are very niche. What I’ve noticed over the years that I’ve been playing is that if something does really well, it doesn’t matter if I’m interested in the niche itself ahead of time, because it can hook me and then entertain me, no matter what How about type. But it’s still fascinating that despite having zero interest in vehicles in general and heavy machinery in particular, I could spend hours playing Expeditions: A MudRunner Game and have a lot of fun.
This idea of slowly turning the ATV over rough terrain really needed to be good so that I didn’t lose patience and get tired, and luckily that was the case in a lot of ways. With two predecessors, MudRunner and SnowRunner, the series has now begun to establish itself. Being a sequel, you naturally want to do something different, and as the title suggests, the focus here has been on pure exploration rather than transporting cargo. As such, these missions are significantly more focused on driving around massive environments, exploring and discovering every nook and cranny. However, there are some more classic missions, such as retrieving a stuck truck, but a lot of them are primarily about exploring the three maps available.
However, this idea of discovery leads to my first point of criticism. In most missions, you have to fly around with the drone to view your surroundings, and these moments often become time-consuming and interrupt the pure driving experience in a long and boring way. You’ll see a circle that you have to explore, with a percentage in the corner showing how much you’ve drawn, but the process is interrupted by the fact that you’re mostly flying around by chance, hoping to reach 100%, while You don’t really know what you’re actually looking at. There’s also no way to bring up the map to see where you’re flying within the ring, and it mostly becomes very unclear where you have to fly to get the percentage full.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with the overall visual effect.
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Unfortunately, the use of instruments and equipment in general also takes the focus away from the main thing you want to have fun with. There’s a lot going on in the menu, and as soon as something needs to be measured or drawn, your vehicle comes to a stop, which slows it down even more. The interface with the menus and everything isn’t as smooth as I would have liked, and I wish the developers spent less time relying on all the tinkering for different kinds of devices, or at least made the process more dynamic. Once you need to use something, it becomes like resting instead of being able to do it while driving.
Drones can display beautiful scenery, but they are slow and cumbersome to fly.
The driving itself, however, is excellent. It’s great fun pushing large vehicles through treacherous terrain, up steep hills, over small water crossings or through mud. Maneuvering the vehicle through the terrain is extremely satisfying, it almost feels like completing a tricky course in a platformer. Here, you’ll encounter a lot of challenges, and I also like that the three maps are very different in terms of environment.
These maps are Colorado, which serves as a prologue to the five missions, and then Arizona and Carpathia, which are large maps containing a large number of missions. One thing I don’t really like though is that you have to run the missions in a certain order as they are unlocked, meaning if a mission comes up that takes a long time or is very difficult then you have to pass it instead There’s a chance to play something else in the meantime. This leaves me with the more difficult tasks, and I’d rather choose between all the different tasks on offer.
With just a few parts along the way, you can build a small bridge.
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Visually, Expeditions are often a feast for the eyes. It’s important to note that some of the desolate areas are devoid of any immediate life, which is a bit of a shame, but the biggest graphical misstep is that the texture on the ground seems to disappear and appear randomly. If you turn the camera, what is supposed to represent dirt or stone becomes completely flat, and then you drive a little or turn the camera and there it is again. In some ways this is more noticeable and detracts from the overall impression, but overall the visuals are very good.The soundscape also creates a great environment, even if the environment lacks wildlife or movement, the sounds create the best atmosphere and the vehicles sound great when buzzing along
In order to manage to move around in a good way, you usually need to rely on items that you can carry with you. In addition to carrying extra fuel with you on long journeys, and most importantly, there are some widely used aids. Most commonly used is a winch so you can secure the vehicle to a tree for example to get some traction. Here, there are usually several points to anchor to, but not everything is equally durable, trees can be uprooted, which is an interesting detail. Thankfully, you can buy anchor points that attach to surfaces that nothing else can attach to. You may purchase a limited number of vehicles, depending on how many of your vehicles are available in a storage sense.
Exploring the landscape is a joy.
One’s travels usually need to be planned well, something I completely overlooked initially, but especially on more difficult expeditions it’s good to spend some time scouting and planning. Because once you embark on a longer trip it can often be difficult if you have to start over, so it’s one thing to take the time to plan what you’re going to take, open up a map and set markers along a smart route is also like this. This is something I started doing after nearly ten hours of exploring, and it actually improved the gaming experience even further. This way, you don’t have to keep picking up the map to see which route is best, and can instead focus on the difficulty at hand.
This is absolutely too difficult. The physics are a little uneven at times, with the vehicle often climbing up steep hills that feel completely insurmountable with ease, and sometimes the vehicle has a bit of bounce, which feels unrealistic. Likewise, the occasional rock under the tires can completely impede your progress, and you can use the winch to pull the car up sharp-edged slopes. However, one’s vehicle takes damage in a crash, and I understand there is a trade-off between staying true to reality and delivering something interesting.
Often, you’ll need to take some kind of device with you on your trip. This requires larger vehicles.
A short story or some encounter with the characters would be welcome. There are a lot of side quests here, and you’ll generally feel satisfied when you complete a tough adventure, but it would be a big help if there was something more extensive than just picking quests from a checklist, since everything is just in text form Appear.
The task of pulling down the truck is difficult but the fun of doing it is amazing.
While the story feels hollow, there’s a lot of focus on what’s still most important and what makes it a truly great game. Propelling your vehicle requires patience on your part, and mistakes and carelessness can cost you a lot. You often have to switch between lowering tire pressure to gain grip in more difficult terrain, but this costs more fuel and carries a greater risk of damaging the vehicle.
There is much to discover during the adventure. From searching for the wreckage of an old plane, to many other things hidden in the most remote places. I also like simple things like you have enough parts and there are places where you can, for example, build a little bridge to make it easier to cross a river. Even though it’s really just driving from one place to another, it’s a lot of fun. It should also be added that co-op is unfortunately lost from the start, but will be coming in the first update, which will make it even more fun when you can drive around with some friends.
The game has a circadian rhythm and is beautiful at night. However, if you want to see a little better, you can fast forward to a day again.
In fact, it provides a very interesting experience, the main negative criticism is the use of equipment, I would have liked a more elaborate presentation of some kind of story. If you ignore that, it’s just as fun and exciting every time you embark on a new adventure across the vast map. Expeditions: A MudRunner Game is a happy combination that results in a wonderful end result. It’s stylish and fun, relaxing and frustrating, but overall it’s really something you should experience for yourself.
