MudRunner 2 – Coming in 2019
Spintires fans, get ready to dust off your outdoor boots and mount the cockpit of more off-road big rigs—the next entry in the series is coming this year. MudRunner 2 has been confirmed to launch sometime this year (2019), as revealed in a series of hands-off previews that have been simultaneously posted by various outlets (the embargo seems to have lifted today). These previews not only confirm that this year is indeed the release year, but they also contain some very interesting tidbits about the upcoming game, as well as giving us our first official look at proper in-game screenshots.
A lot of the key points that have now been confirmed are ones that I highlighted a few weeks ago when I analyzed the off-screen pictures that the official MudRunner Twitter account shared from Focus Home Interactive’s special event that it held earlier this month where it showed off a variety of new projects to journalists. MuddRunner 2 was one of the game’s featured, hence why this information is now available. Time to go down the list:
- Improved Visuals and Proper Cockpits – Both DailyStar and Wccftech have reported in their previews that the visuals have been improved over the original MudRunner. Environments will include more detail to foliage, mud, and water. There’s also a lot more visual flair to other elements like vehicles, which include more detailed interiors with “unique cockpit views”, as Wccftech reports.
- Larger Environments – According to DailyStar, the dev team has promised that MudRunner 2’s maps are going to be 25 times larger than the original “in terms of landmass”.
- New Locales with New Terrain Types – Each of the two aforementioned previews have said that an area based on Alaska will be included in the game. This area will also include a new terrain type: snow and ice. A hint of this has been shown off in a picture posted by the official MudRunner account a few days ago.
- More Licensed Manufacturers – There will be more vehicles than in the original MudRunner. Some manufacturers are returning such as Ford, but new ones are joining in such as Caterpillar and Gaz.
- Vehicle Customization with Purchasable Upgrades and Add-Ons – Vehicle colors will now be customizable and vehicles can be outfitted with different components, which will even have an effect on performance and abilities. Wccftech gave the example of adding components that can help a vehicle traverse deeper water. Component loadout will determine which routes through a map a vehicle can take. Upgrades will also be available. New vehicles and parts will now be purchasable with money that is earned from jobs.
- New Vehicle Recovery Options – There will be alternate means of rescuing vehicles that get stuck and/or heavily damaged rather than having to manually recover them by using another vehicle. Specifics were not given, but helicopters have officially been ruled out.
- Improved User Interface – According to Wccftech, it now seems easier to “swap between your vehicles, load cargo and more.” The developers have reportedly been working on it “a lot”.
- More In-Depth Tutorial – Newcomers to the series can look forward to a much more in-depth tutorial which will explain the complex mechanics of the game in more detail which should make MudRunner’s notoriously steep learning curve more bearable.
- Simultaneous Launch on PC and Console – The developers have confirmed that the game will launch simultaneously on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. According to Wccftech’s report, the game is due to launch this year.
(This final detail seems to possibly be an assumption rather than a confirmation):
- Different Types of Cargo (?) – In both the first Spintires and original MudRunner, logs and vehicles were all that you could haul. MudRunner 2 will possibly include different types of cargo, as Wccftech suggests the physics of each vehicle will change depending on the weight of their cargo. The reporter gave the example of a “load of bricks” having a different effect than a “load of pillows”.
Hopefully it won’t be too long before we see some true gameplay footage of MudRunner 2. Though, it’s reportedly still early in development. Nevertheless, if it follows a similar release pattern to its predecessor, it is likely this will be released by Fall/Winter 2019.
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