Known simply as ‘The Rig’, this seemingly simple affair requires you to drive a lorry rig to a nearby shack, attach a trailer and deliver said cargo to a location on the other side of the map. Rather than just driving around a series of locales in Russia and North America (the latter is DLC which is included with the main game), delivering logs and battling poor road maintenance, you’re given a specific task and a set of objectives to meet – or pitfalls to avoid. It’s here you’ll get a good feel for the more open and freedom-rich world of the main game. Once you clear Spintires’ simple tutorial, you’re coaxed into trying out a series of missions. Take the game’s opening Challenge mode as a good example. It turns something as simple as escaping a puddle into an unexpectedly engrossing mixture of careful adjustment and gradual momentum. Driving a lorry and need to get up a muddy hill that’s turned into a bog? Better fire your winch and pull yourself up while steadily putting on the revs. Want to traverse a particularly rocky trail with your 4x4? Better take off your handbrake, enable all-wheel drive and lock your differentials so every wheel is turning together to stop your vehicle from tipping over and out of control. Your vehicle – there are 30 to collect and drive, ranging from pickup trucks to massive rigs – doesn’t slide about like a postman on black ice, but moves and reacts just like a real motor. Spintires isn’t a glamorous experience, but it’s one that turns something as simple as navigating a slushy hole in the road into a tense and nail-biting experience. Now, we know on paper the idea of driving a truck along a muddy track, delivering logs from forest to lumber mill might sound dull, but that’s because you haven’t actually tried it.

Spin tires mud runner