It just kind of makes me sad. Expeditions is not a "bad game", but coming from the same team that delivered three bangers in a row, all further enhancing the core gameplay loop of "offroad trucks" (Spintires, Mudrunner, Snowrunner), this feels like it's a mobile game adaptation outsourced to a third party.

What makes games like this disappointing is that you can definitely see how, with a minor change in direction, this could've been a really unique, fun game, taking advantage of the recent popularity of 'overlanding' in the last decade: spend money to configure/rig up your vehicle and set out on a grand multi-day camping trip across the wilderness with what you bring with you. Set up a tent for the night, go through supplies, pack up in the morning and continue on your way.

The one thing that really strikes you, and strikes you HARD, is how you begin the game in Colorado/Arizona, with this multi-million dollar setup already in place, and you begin with a fleet of three Russian vehicles. In the United States. You BEGIN with three Russian vehicles, and I'm going to bet if you went through the nation's vehicle registrations, you'd probably find only a half-dozen ancient Ladas (the DON 71), and zero GAZ-66s (the Actaeon). And even then, if you go to the truck store, I think literally 85% of the vehicles you can buy are all Russian.

Snowrunner began you with an old, unupgraded Chevy Silverado in Michigan, and had some soft progression as the first truck you get is an old beat-up GMC and an old beat-up International off-road truck. Basically, it made some sense how and why you had what you had (ignoring that you're basically stealing vehicles from the locals).

Expeditions begins me in the United States with an impossible fleet of vehicles. Additionally, these vehicles already come with a bunch of upgrades, and when you look at options like roof racks or bumpers, they're these ridiculous sci-fi looking amalgamations that in reality would be incredibly expensive and have to be custom-built by a specialty shop. They don't feel right. In fact, the thumbnail for Expeditions itself shows the DON 71 (again, a Lada, the cheapest, filthiest, most featureless production car ever made in history) with this insane rig covered with specialty fuel canisters. I don't believe for a moment anyone has ever made anything close to that for a freakin' Lada.

Even more, the vehicles just start with these weird 'edgy' paint jobs, that nobody has ever in history used. The Actaeon begins with this bizarre orange and blue 'camo' pattern. Nobody's ever put that on a car, ever. In Snowrunner, the Actaeon had a normal military-style splotch camo job, reflecting its military origins, while the DON 71 had a normal Lada paint job with normal Lada accent stripes.

Then you go to the missions. Who is paying me for these? In Snowrunner I had a reason behind the regions (a flood hit the region, for example). I had contracts from various companies (this oil company wants to expand). Or I had a little story from the standalone missions (I need some bricks to finish my house). In this game I just get handed fat stacks of cash for doing basically nothing that makes nobody any money, without explanation.

All of this just feels so weird. There's no Overlanding, despite what some of the promotional material might make you think. Before you buy it, if you just hear about the features, you might think 'Oh it's like I'm setting up my car with my rooftop tent and RotopaX fuel cans, and I get to fly my drone around, and it's up to me to figure it out'. In Expeditions, you repeatedly follow identical routes,

Even at the end of a mission, there's just an instant auto-recovery to the garage. Snowrunner, you finish a mission, well, you needed to drive back. There's no 'hard mode' and it's easier than the easy mode with all of the free fuel and repairs. You're following marked routes that are just 'drive to the spot and press X', get a pile of money, warp back to the garage.

If you never played Snowrunner or its progenitors you'd probably enjoy Expeditions. But I've got like 1,000 hours in Snowrunner and this just feels like a different studio was subcontracted to churn out a mobile game lightly inspired by Mud/Snowrunner that was designed to appeal to a "new audience" or something, but I don't even know what that audience would be. Even down to the 'specialists' you get that just randomly give you percentage bonuses in damage, fuel, etc. just feels so 'video gamey'.

And it's not even an early access game. There's something you 'could' do with this title but it'd require basically redoing everything - bigger, more free-form maps, a customization system designed around taking stock vehicles and slowly turning them into overlanding vehicles, adding systems that focus on the player (fatigue, food, water), and exploring the wilderness. Think about something like American Truck Simulator... half the fun of that game is seeing real-life locations as you drive around.

I really love the franchise but I hope this game's mediocrity and likely financial failure isn't going to kill it, and stop them from taking the original concept and expanding upon it. If nothing else I wanted Snowrunner 2, but this is to Snowrunner what Mini DayZ (mobile game) was to DayZ.

As near I can tell, there's literally exactly only three American vehicles in the game: the ANK MK38 Civilian, the International Scout 800 (a vehicle that predates the Vietnam War that is a fairly poor scout) and the International Loadstar (a vehicle that predates the Vietnam War that is a fairly poor truck). Good lord, that's it? Yeah, when I go to Arizona and see people offroading, I just see tons of trucks from the Soviet Union everywhere.

But nah I get a freaking Fiat. Who in the hell wants an Italian vehicle that isn't a supercar? Nobody, that's who. And we got a Fiat. Meanwhile the world's most capable, popular off-road pickup truck is the Toyota Hilux.

But we got a Fiat. Oh god.

Honestly that should've been the whole review: "you get a Fiat".

All your trucks are deleted off the map after every mission; this is the intended mission structure and is completely untenable, ruins the game. Some map markers stay as question marks after discovery. Many such basic issues remain unfixed, 11 months after release. Not a worthy successor to Snowrunner.

If you enjoy Snowrunner, give this a miss! Over complicated nonsense!