So I've been playing this game for a few days now. Essentially it's a off-road scouting + delivery game set in three rural locations: Michigan, Alaska, and Tamyr (Russia). Each of these locations consist of 4 open world (each 2km x 2km). You have to complete contracts and tasks to progress. Contracts such as: deliver cargo from the warehouse to the factory and tasks such as: pull out a drowned SUV or build a bridge.
VEHICLES
You are initially provided with a Chevrolet Pick up truck which you use to find a bigger GMC truck capable of performing deliveries. You can buy other vehicles in the garage.
Vehicles are divided into categories based on function. These categories include Highway, Heavy Duty, Heavy, Offroad and Scout. Plus all these vehicles (to the best of my knowledge) are real vehicles. There's a lot of variety here and each vehicle feels, runs, sounds and used differently. For example: You may use a scout truck (these trucks and nimble and light weight) to survey the path ahead, then you would use an offroad truck to get to a pickup location (often through harsh terrain) and bring it to a larger highway truck and transport it to the drop off.
CUSTOMIZATION
Your vehicle is extremely customizable. You can change the engine, tires (highway, all terrain, mud, and chained tires. Size can also be changed), suspension height, add a differential lock, AWD capability, change the winch, Add storage racks, snorkels and more. Visual customization is also present. This includes paint, custom bumpers and lights. This really makes a vehicle feel yours and the fact that you have to find and earn these upgrades makes it feel that you've earned it.
Some suggestions are the inclusion of the ability to deflate tires.
LOCATIONS AND PATHS
In snowrunner, all the locations are different (both in terms of visuals and challenges). Each path feels unique, intentional and tries to test a specific skill of the driver. Michigan, being the starter area, is pretty tame in terms of driving difficulty (not to saying that its easy). Meanwhile Alaska is much harder due to its deep snow and ice covered roads. Russia is even harder as the whole map is covered in deep mud and water (Can't say much about Russia as I have just started exploring there.).
GRAPHICS
The graphics in this game are amazing. Being a developer myself, I can say that the graphics are a technical marvel while still running at a respectable 60+fps (Everything cracked) even on a low-mid-end laptop. Each object casts its own shadows. Lights reflect and refract on snow and water. The environment detail is immaculate and models are high fidelity. Even the skybox looks amazing. Mud is realistically smeared onto your truck when you drive around in deep mud. Mud and snow also sticks to your tires and falls off on the highway. The only missing thing I've noticed is the lack of screenspace reflections. Ray tracing should do the game wonders.
SIMULATION
The game features meticulously simulated mud, snow and water which reacts realistically to your truck, creating trails and tracks. But this is not just visual. These tracks become deeper when you spin your tires too much which results in you getting stuck. In that case a winch can be attached to a tree to pull yourself out. Water currents are also simulated. These currents can sometimes turn over your truck if you're not careful.
Your truck is also fully simulated. Suspensions cause your truck to bounce when you hit a rock. Tires effect your speed on the highway and grip in the mud.
SOUND
The sound effects are awesome. The sound of your powerful engine is empowering, and the sound of branches crunching under your tire, mud and water swirling and your tires spinning really immerses you into the game.
The soundtrack is OK. The right music plays during the right time, but the soundtrack itself is really not my type. It drowns out the sound of the engine and the option to turn it down doesn't seem to be working for me. (Turning it off is not an option as it can get quite lonely sometimes.)
CONS: I don't like how the game is pretty much unplayable without the HUD. Turning it off would really improve immersion. The game has a first person mode but it isn't very practical due to the lack of visibility. The game intends on making you use multiple vehicles at the same time but these vehicles are very expensive and requires a lot of grinding. The price of vehicles should be decreased and upgrades should be removed from behind a exp lock. Trailers can be buggy when overturned and get stuck in the terrain. There should be an option to recover trailers too. The game needs to give a better description the its vehicles and upgrades. I had to often look up stuff. I wish they would added the ability to carry a scout truck in a trailer.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The gameplay here is very slow and requires patience and planning. This may lead you to think that the game isn't for you but you'll be mistaken here. I believe that everyone should try the game. Once you do that you'll probably end up engrossed in the beautiful scenery and loving your virtual truck.
There's a lot more to say here but the game is so in-depth that I could possibly remember all of it. Anyway, thanks for reading!