SnowRunner

 Xbox One
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 59 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 59
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 59
  3. Negative: 13 out of 59
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  1. Ughduty
    Jan 2, 2021
    7
    A great game that get's dragged down by a few sloppy development decisions. If these shortcomings get ironed out I would give the game 9 to 10 out of 10 points.

    1. Community mods do not work reliably and are therefore useless I had a simple equipment mod downloaded and activated via the ingame mod browser. I bought the piece in game in the garage and fitted it to one of my trucks. It    A great game that get's dragged down by a few sloppy development decisions. If these shortcomings get ironed out I would give the game 9 to 10 out of 10 points.

    1. Community mods do not work reliably and are therefore useless
    I had a simple equipment mod downloaded and activated via the ingame mod browser. I bought the piece in game in the garage and fitted it to one of my trucks. It worked nice until when the next day I played the game the equipment was gone and with it my money for it. In game the piece of equipment was still available in the store but it looked like I never had bought it.
    This is extremely bad because imagine your whole fleet of vehicles were modded ones and you bought them with your limited money and the next day they would all be gone!? You literally would have to start over with the game! Imagine further you would at this point have played for about 100, 200 or even 300 hours, all gone! Therefore mods are as of now for me not usable.

    2. Control scheme is in part horrible and not freely customisable
    There are 4 predefined control schemes but unfortunately all of them are flawed and you can't customise them. For example in one of them the "handbrake" and the "winch release" are on the same button. So if you have the handbrake on and use the winch, as soon as you want to release the handbrake the winch will also get detached! If the controls were freely customisable one could at least correct such short comings but as of now you have to life with rubbish like this.

    3. Immersion breakers
    Every fuel station, production site and quest location has some huge running yellow and/or red dotted frames on the ground. Further the borders of the areas of the maps in the game that surround the usable terrain and that you can't cross with your vehicles are bordered by huge running stop signs that hover over the earth. It all looks really ugly and immersion breaking! And there is unfortunately no way to at least disable these. I at least don't need them.    … Expand
  2. rideabike
    Dec 11, 2020
    7
    There are plenty of reviews that detail the game's mechanics and mud simulation, so seeing as I am writing this roughly six months after release, I am going to focus more on the support from the developers this game has seen post-release.

    Let me disclose that I'm a sucker for this sort of sim game. I love trucks and vehicles generally, I love logistical puzzles, and I like a game that    There are plenty of reviews that detail the game's mechanics and mud simulation, so seeing as I am writing this roughly six months after release, I am going to focus more on the support from the developers this game has seen post-release.

    Let me disclose that I'm a sucker for this sort of sim game. I love trucks and vehicles generally, I love logistical puzzles, and I like a game that lets me play at my own pace. If this sounds like you, you're going to like SnowRunner. If not, think carefully before shelling out your hard-earned cash. Personally, I've put more hours than I care to admit into this game.

    Many of the reviews you'll read will complain of bugs that were present and features that weren't at launch. It's hardly debatable that the game could've used more time in the oven before being released. Unfortunately, this trend has continued throughout the season pass DLC content. For example, the most recent expansion includes a new cabin system that requires you to craft and deliver cabins for the workers at your various project sites. It's a great idea and adds welcome depth to the gameplay, but this addition came with bugs. For example: 1) if you leave a cabin in a worksite after the mission is finished, it causes the map screen to go into a frenzy whenever it's opened, and 2) several missions are meant to require 3 cabins but the developers accidentally set it to 10 cabins, which requires an absurd amount of work.

    This has been a trend; an update comes out and adds features or fixes old bugs, but breaks something else. Players then wait weeks for whatever was broken to be fixed.

    Fortunately, any bugs that have been introduced have historically been resolved, but due to the process console developers have to go through to get updates certified, the wait is often long. I have confidence that the new bugs will be fixed, but I have also had to come to terms with the fact that I will have to find work-arounds in the meantime and simply not do some of the broken missions until they're resolved.

    To their credit, the developers listen to the player community. A feature that was glaringly lacking, the ability to secure trucks on trailers, recently arrived and works well. The controversial steering mechanics now have a toggle in the settings that allows you to switch between a "steering wheel" setting, which is more arcade-like, and a "gamepad" setting, which is more realistic. Most of the smaller bugs and game-crashing bugs have been ironed out.

    If you plan on playing coop, be aware that the issues that you sometimes see with online play for a game from a small developer are present here. Latency issues, animations sometimes not syncing, trailer physics being wacky, etc. For these reasons, I keep a separate save game for multiplayer to avoid corrupting my main save. In an ideal world, that wouldn't be necessary, but here we are.

    In sum, if you are interested in this game, I have two suggestions. If you want a fully-polished experience, consider giving the developers another six months to use their paying player base as beta testers. On the other hand, if you don't mind browsing forums and social media sites to problem solve with your fellow players, you'll have an enjoyable, addictive experience. Personally, I've had more fun in this game than I've had playing any solo game in quite some time. Being into trucks and logistical puzzles isn't enough to enjoy this game, though -- you need to have patience both for the slow pace of the driving and the slow pace of the developers and the constraints they face with fixing bugs quickly on consoles. For those reasons, this game gets a 7/10 for the time being, but one can be mostly confident that it will only get better as time passes.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

30
#30 Best Xbox One Game of 2020
40
#40 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. AusGamers
    May 15, 2020
    86
    Co-op bugs, weird camera angles, and sub-par engine sounds aside, I love this game. The huge variety of things to do with the 40-odd vehicles in the stunningly beautiful open world sandbox makes the game a joyful and (mostly) relaxing experience. And as the aural feedback is virtually non-existent anyway, lowering or even muting the volume entirely while loading up your favorite Spotify playlist is perhaps the best way to enjoy it. So sit back, crack a brewski, revel in the marvelous scenery, and haul a few loads. Just don't forget to pack your spare undies - you're gonna need 'em.
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  2. XboxAddict
    May 7, 2020
    89
    SnowRunner is a huge improvement over the game that preceded it. It is also a title that can be challenging but yet rewarding. The visuals are top notch, the audio brings the in-game world to life and the control and game camera are much more fine-tuned. Yes, there are a few hiccups now and then, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. If you are looking for an off-road simulation game that is not only different from the rest out there, but one that will give you a challenge and a lot of gameplay, then you can’t go wrong with SnowRunner, as there is no better game in the genre.
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  3. COGconnected
    May 6, 2020
    74
    SnowRunner brought out the kid in me when completing contracts. It reminded me of playing with Tonka trucks in the sandbox, but instead of sand, it’s snow and instead of Tonka, it’s real-world branded trucks and heavy machinery. While the realism kept me thinking like an adult, the mud running familiar to the series and newly introduced ice and snow mechanics make building bridges and fixing roads feel more interesting than other games. I enjoyed many aspects of SnowRunner and see the improvements that Saber Interactive has made with the new entry into the series. After tackling mud and snow, it’ll be interesting to see where the next title treads. It feels like they took a big step from MudRunner to SnowRunner and if the next step is just as big or bigger, it may be the perfect vehicular simulation game.
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