Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game is the latest in the mud-drenched series and quite the physics-based paradise. This is a playground for experimentation, a succession of challenges of varying difficulty and complexity, but with the common factor of being gritty and exciting, pushing you to the point where it almost feels exhausting. Driving through those trails at snail pace, where the minimum gain in traction can make the difference between moving through or overturning your vehicle, this is the other face of excitement, trading speed for managed frustration, and it works wonderfully.

Braving New Ground

Hot on the muddy tires of the successful MudRunner and SnowRunner games, Expeditions is the new take on the series, and a big, bold, and engaging one, with added variety to the mission objectives and a focus on a scientific tone. The sandbox feel is second to none, little playgrounds of rocks, dirt, mud, water, and many other obstacles that are waiting for your trucks to tackle.

Your first steps into Expeditions aren’t easy and some of the mechanics may seem daunting to players unused to the series, but the onboarding does a good job of explaining most challenges as they come. There’s a lot more than driving here, with several gadgets to help scour your surroundings and take you out of problematic situations. It’s man versus nature with a monumental boost from advanced technology, and more diversity than you can shake your winch at.

There are three main regions with dozens of expeditions to tackle. Most missions are initially out of your reach and follow a linear path of unlocking, describing the exact one that you must conquer first for it to happen. The vast terrain ranges from Little Colorado’s desert areas to the very diverse landfs of Arizona, and finally the beautiful forests and mountains of the Carpathians.

Setting off into the wild isn’t a simple matter of picking the best looking vehicle and revving your way to the goal. With different mission objectives and side-quests, you can take your time to explore or go straight to the goal, which is easier said than done. Far from linear, the regions offer various paths for the player to brave, with a certain degree of freedom that just isn’t limitless because cliffs and rivers will act as natural barriers to your progression – it’s a matter of examining the area and finding the path that seems the most viable.

For this, you have a host of high-tech gadgets such as the drone, allowing you to investigate the terrain and better calculate your route. The winch is one of your greatest sidekicks, adding that extra pull when you need to climb a steep rock or pull a vehicle out of the mud. Each one of the various vehicles divided across a few categories (off-road, scout, and heavy) have many upgrade possibilities, with some gear requirements that you must follow according to the mission at hand – you may need a metal detector or an echo sounder to reach your goal, for example.

Specialists will help you to be better prepared for the expeditions, providing buffs in some departments such as vehicle performance, terrain exploration, or resource efficiency. You can only take one from each of the six available categories, but these are not to be ignored.

Buckle Up

Without getting into complex details that would turn this review into a technical sheet instead of an assessment of the game’s qualities, it’s safe to say that Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game is different enough from the previous chapters, while retaining the charm of what makes this a series with no equal. The initial complexity is quickly a thing of the past as you learn to deal with all the intricacies, from tire pressure to repairs and refueling, and the way these changes are reflected on the behavior of the vehicle is remarkable.

As a sheer playground for wilderness exploration, this is a game that stands up proudly, neck above water. The fun and gritty challenge of forging your way through wilderness locations that seem impossible to overcome at first, the tires realistically reacting to each rock, each bump, spinning on mud and slowly gaining traction as they approach dry land. It’s often exhilarating, almost a masochistic experience with an incredible sense of reward. Watching as each of the different vehicles react in their own way to the same obstacles is stunning entertainment, with physics as real as they come, despite the occasional clipping with tree branches and logs, but overall the work in this area is one of the best ever seen.

It’s also going to last you a lifetime. The dozens of main challenges in Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game are compounded with the optional quests and it is going to take you several days to go through it all. There’s real bang for your buck here, hopefully enough to keep you addicted until the cooperative mode is released later this year – yes, this ride is fully solo at the time of launch, but a free coop update is in the works.

The Best Kind of Rough Ride

Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game is a worthy new chapter in the beloved but fairly niche series. The acclaimed physics are back and better than ever, supported by some stunning sandbox regions with a lot to discover and enjoy. Newcomers and veterans alike will find something here to sink their teeth into, an almost exhausting experience as every bump, every climb seems to get to you in a physical sense, and if that’s not the best compliment that can be made for such a game, then I don’t know what it is. Buckle up, grind your teeth, and get stuck in the best kind of muddy waters in Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game.

Score: 9/10

Pros:

• A true physics-based sandbox paradise
• Tons of gadgets add depth to the gameplay
• Incredible playtime

Cons:

• Camera requires micromanagement
• Somewhat complex at the start, but with good onboarding
• No cooperative mode at launch, but coming later as a free update

Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.