This is an extremely odd game to discuss. On one hand, we have a game that looks entirely unremarkable, has no story to speak of, a world that feels dead and uninhabited, in many ways is completely un-user friendly. And is so buggy there have been many times I have almost uninstalled the game never to return… But on the other hand, I have seldom been so compelled to play a video game with the highs offered by this game not only completely unexpected, but almost unlike anything I have ever experienced. This should be an objectively bad game, but it isn’t. It might be impossible to recommend this game without heavy caveats, but it is also one of the more engrossing games released so far this year.

For the uninitiated, Snowrunner is the latest game in the Sim genre. Sims are an increasingly lucrative section of the games industry that often sees players carry out tasks and jobs that many people across the world do on a daily basis as work. We have flight sims, train sims, truck driving sims, bus driving sims and even more niche games like cleaning sims. Snowrunner then, is a truck driving simulator of sorts that tasks players with helping people rebuild local economies and their livelihoods in what often proves to be difficult environments, from regions wrought by flooding, to snowy, remote areas without proper infrastructure. Players do this by collecting goods such as wood, metal planks and on occasion larger items like drills and service trailers before delivering them to their destination. This might sound straightforward, but there are almost always obstacles in the way, such as flooded roads, or boggy routes that driving through would be near impossible under normal circumstances, let alone adding large, heavy machinery to the situation.

Beyond describing Snowrunner as a Sim game, it’s quite challenging to actually place it into a solid genre that wraps the whole thing up into an easily understood package. It’s a game that many people will use to unwind, a game that some will use as a vehicle to hang out and chat with friends and for some, this in many ways can be looked at as a puzzle game. Playing through on your own creates an interesting zen like experience where people can forget the hustle and bustle of their daily life and lose themselves in the mundanity of the experience. Traversing the environment is very often a slow and arduous experience, so it forces players to get lost in themselves and give in to the slower pace that exists within the confines of the game world. That’s not to say it’s easy or monotonous though, the make-up of the land meant that I found myself planning my routes in advance to make sure I wasn’t encountering terrain that the vehicle I was using wouldn’t be able to handle, then plan to make sure I had the means to collect and deliver the items, so things like having a crane attached to the vehicle, the correct trailer with enough space, as well as considerations for having enough fuel and any potential repairs that may need to be made along the way. It’s a game that appears to be very simple on the surface, but as soon as the player starts scraping away at its surface, they soon realise, that there is a huge amount of depth, as well as room for solving problems to find a way round challenges in a way that suits the players skill-set and access to materials, tools and vehicles. It encourages players to test the limits of what they can achieve with the vehicles available and is tough and punishing in a relentless way that if the player can somehow drag their machine over the finish line to the end of a mission, there’s a genuine sense of achievement that  seldom felt in other games.

Unfortunately, as previously mentioned,this isn’t a game that someone can genuinely recommend without severe reservations. The experience of many players, although fantastic on one hand, will on the other hand be marred by a buggy environment that is not only inconvenient, but on many occasions will outright prevent players from finishing a mission or progressing. At the time of writing, there is a mission in my game that I can’t complete because the front of a trailer I need to deliver has glitched and sunk into the concrete ground making it impossible for me to attach to my vehicle and tow away. Sadly, this isn’t a one off. I’ve been unable to navigate menus, deliver items, had to restart missions I’m over an hour into all over again and on more than one occasion I’ve become stuck in may garage, unable to take vehicles out to use and unable to to navigate menus properly, forcing me to quit and restart at what is quite honestly an alarming regularity, very often I’m playing the game and given the impression that the entire experience is being held together by sticky tape and might fly apart at any moment, undoing hours of effort and progress. For a full release, this should be an absolute embarrassment to the developers. Even if this were an early access release it would be unacceptably buggy, so to have this attached to a full release is as baffling as it is offensive that the developer felt that this was acceptable to release.

It’s for these reasons that it’s hard to tell someone whether they should play this game or even if it’s worth their time and money. If this were a truly awful game, it would be easy to tell people to avoid it and move on, but the thing is, it isn’t. It’s genuinely compelling, relaxing, challenging and an utterly wonderful experience when everything works and it’s in full swing… but then a moment later, there’s every chance things will unravel quickly, leaving players with a mission that they can’t complete through no fault of their own. The highs in this game are up there with the best I have had this year, but the lows are also perhaps the worst. This is the single most memorable game I have played in quite some time. Some for the right reasons, but unfortunately also for many, many of the wrong ones as well. For me personally, Snowrunner came along at a period in my life when I desperately needed it and for that, it will always be a special game to me, but I’m also aware that this is a deeply personal experience and it’s impossible to recommend this game to anyone without some serious caveats and severe reservations.  

Verdict:

+ Completing Tricky Missions Is Very Rewarding

+ A Fantastically Relaxing Escape From Day To Day Life

+ Great Variety Of Vehicles

– Unacceptably Buggy, Bordering On Broken

– Not Very Pretty

– Checkpointing / Mission Accepting Poorly Implemented

Score: 6.5/10