You drift sideways as you attempt to cross rivers, wheels shiny and wet as they cut gratefully into the relative dry of the opposite shore.

Tyres become clogged with it almost immediately, spinning and burying themselves, your truck pitching and wallowing in a realistic manner. MudRunner has the most realistic simulation of water and muck I've ever seen. I felt like I'd really spent several days struggling through mud. Your reward for perseverance is the dawn, which varies from crisp yellow sunlight forking through the trees to a dirty orange glow that lights the woodland in colours reminiscent of Firewatch, if Firewatch was set in a sodden peat bog in darkest Russia.Īt the end of the first level I felt exhausted and filthy and yet triumphant. Getting stuck in the mud in the early hours of the morning, with no sign of civilisation nearby, evokes a feeling of strangely realistic isolation. There’s a constant nagging thought that I could be doing something, anything, more enjoyable and productive. It’s probably not what most people would choose to do in their free time. Most of the time you’ll be driving a heavily laden lorry slowly along a muddy track, wheels slipping on the mud, dreading the moment when they bog down and spin helplessly with little hope of escape. I’d struggle to describe it as 'fun' without caveat because much of the game simply isn't. It’s less Fast and Furious and more Grimy and Gradual. That means I averaged slightly less than 6 km per hour. The first level took me 3 hours and 21 minutes to complete, during which I drove 18.64 km. It’s beautiful and detailed but also gruelling and unforgiving. Spintires: MudRunner is a game about driving slowly through mud.

Mud runner game to play