Dirt and Water...
Water is a force to be reckoned with, as it batters your truck to oblivion in seconds.
There are no enemies in Spintires, no crazed terrorists shooting at you with AK's, no alien menace blasting you with plasma. There are no enemies, but you certainly have a foe, an obstacle, and a challenge. It just so happens that this unseen force is the earth itself, or rather what makes up the earth. Trees, rocks, water, and more mud then you could ever imagine.
SpinTires is the video-game equivalent to a rainy summer day as a five year-old, insofar as it's muddy and messy as all get out. You control one of a number of Soviet era logging and forrestry trucks and your objective is to explore the maps, unlock garages, and deliver goods to different camps scattered around the forest. Sounds easy enough right?
In many ways it is. SpinTires never tries throwing you a curveball. Everything about it is simplistic and easy to figure out. Where the challenge comes in is actually executing anything. See, Spintires might look like a game about logging, but make no mistake, this is a game all about mud.
Mother Gaia is on the Rag
The world is reactive to your every move, and dynamically changes as you drive.
Mud, sand, and water are all that stand in your way. Unlike other games, even offroad racing games, Spintires isn't content to just get your vehicle dirty. No, you need to contend with the terrain, and often fight against it with all your might. You will get stuck, you'll likely flip over, and you'll do some real damage to your vehicle as you attempt to get through the muddy abyss.
You're not completely helpless however. Each vehicle handles a little bit differently, even more when you start to customize them, and it's important to pick the right vehicle for each job. It's tempting to just take the tank-like heavy truck, but that means sticking to the main roads only and it might be to heavy to contend with water. The light jeep can skitter along no problem, but flips easily and can't carry any goods or extra fuel. There's a good mix of vehicles and trying them out in the mud is an interesting experience.
There's also a series of tools to help you out. You can switch the vehicles gear box to manual for added control of your gears, a must in certain situations. Vehicles can also be equipped with different tires, and many of them have four-wheel drive to help out in muddy terrain.
The most important tool is definitely the winch, which you'll likely use dozens of times in even a short playing session. The winch quickly becomes a universal problem solver as you pull yourself from trenches and pits, often of your own making. Using the winch is, like everything else, simple to do, but quickly becomes a skill to be mastered.
Mud, Mud Everywhere
Flipping often means game-over as you loose all progress.
SpinTires is an interesting experience singleplayer, sure, but the real meat of the game is in multiplayer. Working with friends to fight against the world is simply a better experience, and a proper convoy with extra fuel, repair kits, and good co-ordination can overcome anything the game throws at you. It might be weird to ask your friends to jump into old Russian logging trucks, but if they're keen then it's a damn good time.
Graphically Spintires is definitely serviceable. Everything looks appropriate, and mud and detritus realistically gets attached to your tires and truck, only to be washed off by a dip in a river. The trucks themselves all have an aged-well used look to them, and feel like actual beasts, trampling through the forest. The lighting does a good job of selling the almost serene feel of the forest, and the shift from day to night is subtle and appropriate.
The audio of Spintires is similarly on point, with the thundering and roaring of the engines, to the quiet emptiness of the forest around you. It does a good job of selling the immersion and it's a great sounding game.
If there is one major gripe I have with SpinTires it's the camera, which is insanely clunky and hard to manage. You'll often be struggling to find a good place to center the camera while your driving, and trying to maneuver through the in-game menus while contending with the camera is a challenge in itself. I often found myself cursing the lack of a proper locked camera or even better, a first person view a-la Euro Truck Sim.
In Russia, Forest Cuts You!
Driving at night requires extra care, even on paved roads.
SpinTires is an interesting specimen of a game. I often hesitate to even call it a game, but I suppose it meets the criteria more then some "games". It's a one-trick pony, and it's a trick that it plays really, really well. This is a game about driving through mud, and the driving through mud is the best I've ever seen. There's nothing more to it then that and, to a certain degree, I don't think there should be.
A recommendation for SpinTires is somewhat hard for me. On the one hand it does what it's setting out to do incredibly well, and that's undeniable. But it's a niche that's incredibly small, and the asking price often seems a little to high for something like this. If you like games that are outside the norm, then you could do worse then Spintires, and if you can get into the right headspace it's a fun time. Just make sure you bring some friends, and take a shower when your done.
Image Sources:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/projects/465846/photo-main.jpg?1397810974
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