Spintires: Review

A full -fledged game that grew out of the technology or crafts “for their” and other frivolous experiments – this is now no one to surprise. The time has long been returned when the developer could write code alone, engage in design, compose a plot and successfully sell his creation. Tools like full -fledged game engines available to everyone and everyone for a symbolic price (and sometimes completely free), and services like Kickstarter or Greenlight allow anyone who wants to try their forces in the difficult work of creating their own masterpiece. Someone goes to the end, and individual lucky ones achieve global recognition.

Spintires is a vivid example of this particular development of events. Five years ago-a small program that demonstrates the capabilities of the HAVOK engine, and today is a full-fledged simulator … Soviet tractors-inventors? impassable taiga roads? the most realistic mud in video games? All this together? Let’s try to figure it out.

The relatively light UAZ allows you to ride quite quickly, but is afraid of deep puddles and can tightly get stuck in the rut, if you slowly slow down.

Around five hundred

As the name implies, to engage in Spintires We will have to what hundreds of thousands of drivers around the world do – while driving their iron horse to “wrap a mile on the cardan”. There are five small cards that do not shine with a special variety, on each of them the surrounding area recalls the large -scale development of the natural wealth of the East of our Motherland in the middle – the end of the last century. Taiga open spaces, among which inconspicuous divisions of loggers were lost, narrow roads that never knew asphalt, multi -ton trucks transporting the forest, ubiquitous vile and impassable dirt after each rain. In such places, a car that can cope with off -road is definitely not a luxury and not even a means of transportation, but a harsh life necessity.

They do not set any mandatory tasks for us-no one stops riding at their pleasure, exploring the area initially closed by the “fog of the war”. It is worth finding an intelligence point in a secluded place – a small part of the card opens. In addition to these peculiar “lighthouses” there are other places of interest. On the forestry you can boot with logs and take the load to the sawmill;Garages, if they “open” them with a special load, become a new place to start and allow you to install various modules on cars – from a trailer with a fuel tank to a crane platform. All this equipment is necessary for a reason – without refueling, sometimes it is not possible to get to the right place, and the change of tires allows you to facilitate hard driver’s work.

Finally, the main characters Spintires (by the way, there is no driver model – in the cabin is empty) – heavy all -terrain vehicles that can cope with local roads or, rather, their absence. There are few cars, only seven pieces: from a passenger UAZ to a heavy four-axle tractor, in which MAZ-7310 “Hurricane” is easily guessed. The names of all machines are invented, but everyone who at least familiarizes with the domestic automotive industry can determine the “parent” of a truck. All the main “stars” here: ZIL-130, Ural-4320, KamAZ-6520 ..

However, with someone who https://moneyslotsonline.co.uk/ is the main character here, you can argue. It is worth driving the first few meters through the local impassable dirt, which for some reason is called expensive, as it becomes clear-it is she, her behavior and influence on the car determine the gameplay from beginning to end.

Mud tanks are not afraid

In fact, it is unlikely that someone will be interested in another simulator of the truck driver. How many of them were already? And how many worthy mention left? “Truckers” Yes Euro Truck Simulator – compete with them Spintires I would never be able to rely only on those poor opportunities for the study of the map and transporting the cargo between a pair of points on the map.

The whole essence of these leisurely trips is to combat off -road. We can safely say that dirt, so similar to the present in appearance and behavior, has not yet been in video games. Modeling the behavior of the car suspension in this very dirt does not lag behind: the slurry is crushed under a multi -ton weight of the truck, spraying to the sides, sticks on the hood and body, you can smoke into it on the axis – and then only the second car with the winch can get out of the western.

It is necessary to take “mud baths” immediately after leaving the garage: from the roads there is only one name – ruts of half -meter depths, huge puddles, in which you can drown at the very top of the cabin of the truck, insidious tops, tightly grabbing the car, which is unlikely to turn off the road – around the forest, the trees are very unlikeI had to throw stuck equipment halfway and transfer to the tow truck.

Models of technology are worked out to the smallest detail, but with a drawing range and the behavior of the camera still big problems.

Cars differ not only externally – the driving style is to select for each model individually. Where a relatively small “UAZ” will slip through, a heavy timber truck will not squeeze, but when trying to cross the river, the domestic “jeep” can simply demolish the current to the depths. Cars begin to behave differently, if you install additional modules on them-riding with a trailer full of logs, is strikingly different from the trip “Light”.

Actually, it was precisely in the show of modeling the operation of the car suspension and the dynamic change in the landscape under the wheels that the task of the very “demo” of five years ago was from which it grew Spintires. Even then it looked quite interesting, and even now and even more so. You feel any movement of the machine – this is not just a box on wheels, but a complex mechanism with mass and inertia.

The work of the hands of drowning

But still, if you look closely, you understand that the game is not much different from its ancestor. The main gameplay find is good, but besides it, nothing worthy is worthy in the release (with the exception of, perhaps, models of technology). Attempts by developers to add some goals that pushing the cards to study are very weak, there is no worthy incentive to fight the road, and to knead the dirt with wheels only for the sake of the process itself quickly bothers. There is a multiplayer, but he is also enough for a short time due to the lack of a competitive or cooperative element. In fact, so far we have only a workpiece from which a truly interesting game can be obtained.

To do this, it is not at all necessary to come up with a stunning plot or tighten the graphics (which, by the way, is quite good now) to the level of AAA-shuthers. One of the possible recipes for success is to arm the players themselves with tools to create their own missions, maps and models of technology. If the developers do not please the variety of content, you will have to get down to business on your own. A powerful editor, coupled with a simple script language – and community can make Spintires candy. Example of the series OFP And Arma shows that if there are available means for modding, the game can remain relevant for a very long time.

Not only the road under the wheels changes dynamically – you can “wash” the car stained with dirt, just driving into the river.

Instead, we admit, a rather boring transportation of cargo from point A to point B can come up with so many things – there would be enough fantasy. A multi -level quest with a trip for a bottle in the Selpo, so that there was something to thank Petrovich, who promised to give a tractor to pull out a stuck truck (with subsequent driving into a intoxicated form from Petrovich himself);the fulfillment of the combat task of deploying the Skads battery on the battlefield under the artillery shelling (the good “hurricane” is already there);Yes, at least trips to other people’s planets on an all -terrain vehicle of the future – why not?

Despite the release, there is something to work on: in addition to the already mentioned tools for creating modifications, the game is acutely lacking caterpillar technology, mountain and winter cards, worthy of musical accompaniment, a view from the cabin ..

It is hoped that the favorable technique provided Spintires the public (the simulator has firmly settled in the top of Steam sales), will allow the developers to focus on a decent development of their creation-after all, they are not at all pampering with such original ideas.

Pros: realistic behavior of cars on the road;cute machines;dirt!
Cons: uncomfortable camera;small number of cards and equipment;off -road trips without intelligible purposes are quickly annoying.