MudRunner Vs SnowRunner in 2025

[Dave_Nosdivad]

I've never played the series.

Should I get MudRunner or go straight to SnowRunner?

[James]

Depends what you want out of the game. General arcade bling with a console controller (SR) or good physics with wheel/clutch/gear handling (MR)?

I personally prefer MR over SR (refunded) mainly because the lack of wheel support for SR. Also, I enjoy the vast amount of high quality map and equipment addons (free mods) for MR.

Hear more opinions, perhaps you are a SR category player, so don't take my word as undisputed 'truth' 😁.

[LeeQuid]

Hello! Here in this community hub, most people will probably vote for MudRunner, whereas in the SnowRunner community hub they will tend to vote for the latter.

I've put together a guide that might be helpful for certain things you wanna know or individual requirements (the whole thing is probably way too much to read). Otherwise, there are already some discussions that summarize well which title comes with which peculiarities and design decisions.

In any case, if you don't like it at all, you can always refund the game via Steam. If you are thinking of buying it, make sure you choose the American Wild's Edition! :)
Content of the American Wilds edition and the American Wilds DLC (as an addition to the base game) is the same. Regarding MudRunner's DLCs - you can download 3 of 4 already for free. Mods from Steam Workshop very often require one or more DLCs to be installed and activated. This user-created content often is more complex, bigger, and sometimes harder to manage - talking about maps (vehicles are often too strong and overpowered, but there are also very realistic and balanced ones, you just need to search a bit).

If you decide to try out MudRunner, I offer some start assistance explaining many things that make getting started much easier, especially at the beginning, and helps with the configuration and requirements.

In addition, the game looks much better, e.g. with Hummer's graphics modification. The graphics improvements are linked in the description of the video linked above. There is a trial version to check, if your computer can run the modification (it requires a much more powerful computer). You also can just install parts of the whole package, e.g. if you don't like stronger colors but an increased draw distance and a higher level of detail. The modder did a great job here and it's worth the money!

EDIT: wording, mentioned graphics modification, corrected a formal mistake

[Emaulligu]

That's a debate that comes back every now and then.
The most diplomatic answer would be to say that both games have pros and cons, unfortunately the problems with Snowrunner can hardly be overlooked. The gearbox system is bad, and the physics are terrible, whch is a little bit of an issue for a physics-based game. Granted it does look better, the maps are larger, the objectives more varied and there's a lot more trucks even considering just the base game without any DLCs.

Mudrunner has better physics and innate Steam Workshop support for maps and vehicles. That being said the palette look terribly depressing, there's less content and the maps are smaller.

I'm trying to be objective here but I know I'm still biaised against Snowrunner lol

[HuskyDynamics]

Pasting my response from an earlier thread on this:

Originally posted by HuskyDynamics:

Disclaimer: I've not played SnowRunner myself, but I've done a fair bit of research into differences between the two.

MudRunner is a refinement of the original core of the game (which started with the original SpinTires), with more maps, more trucks, and the same physics engine that made SpinTires so revolutionary, but the same basic gameplay loop regardless of map or vehicle choice. You explore the map and then take logs from the log yards to the sawmills. That's it.

SnowRunner is a successor game developed on a different engine, with its own physics that generally are seen by the MudRunner fans as much more arcade-y; for instance, trucks don't sink in the mud as much as they kind of just plow through it. It looks flashier visually and has more variety of things to do on each map (and you can travel between maps, so it feels more like a connected "world" than a bunch of isolated "levels" like MudRunner is), as well as just generally more stuff (without getting into workshop content).

It basically comes down to this. SnowRunner offers more content but has less "depth" from a physics perspective (kind of literally, actually), while MudRunner has better physics but a lot less content overall (again, excluding mods and workshop content, which expands the total content available for both games by a lot). If I had to put it in a sentence, SnowRunner is generally decent at a lot of things, while MudRunner is really, really good at a few specific things but doesn't even include most of the others.

I'd highly recommend making the same post on the SnowRunner forums if you haven't already, because then you'll be able to hear from fans of both games. There's a lot of MudRunner players that really, really dislike SnowRunner, so this isn't exactly the best place for unbiased opinions about either game.


As a side note, "Expeditions: A MudRunner Game" is a SnowRunner spinoff that used the MudRunner name to try and draw in some of the latter game's audience (which... didn't really work). It's not related to MudRunner in any way beyond being a spinoff of a successor game. Purely a SnowRunner spinoff title.

TL;DR the general opinions seem to be that SnowRunner has the better graphics and a wider variety of things to do/see, but MudRunner has far better physics.

Honestly, for someone brand-new to the series, it really doesn't matter all that much which one you start with. They both have their quirks and there's some pretty significant differences between them, but they're entirely separate games so that's to be expected anyway. Pick the one that looks the most interesting to you.

Edit: One other thing in support of MudRunner is that the hardware requirements are much lower than for SnowRunner, if that has any effect on your decision.

[Dave_Nosdivad]

Originally posted by James:

Depends what you want out of the game. General arcade bling with a console controller (SR) or good physics with wheel/clutch/gear handling (MR)?

I personally prefer MR over SR (refunded) mainly because the lack of wheel support for SR. Also, I enjoy the vast amount of high quality map and equipment addons (free mods) for MR.

Hear more opinions, perhaps you are a SR category player, so don't take my word as undisputed 'truth' 😁.

I play with a old Logitech Wheel (G27) and I use a clutch on Euro Truck Simulator. I'm super casual Racing Simulator player but I love using the manual sequential gear or the clutch.

So, SnowRunner does not have support for H clutch. WOW that surprise me!

Thanks for your time mate!

[Dave_Nosdivad]

Originally posted by HuskyDynamics:

I'd highly recommend making the same post on the SnowRunner forums if you haven't already,[/b]

Good one...I'll do it!

Thanks for your time mate!

[Dave_Nosdivad]

Originally posted by LeeQuid:

Hello! Here in this community hub, most people will probably vote for MudRunner, whereas in the SnowRunner community hub they will tend to vote for the latter.

I've put together a guide that might be helpful for certain things you wanna know or individual requirements (the whole thing is probably way too much to read). Otherwise, there are already some discussions that summarize well which title comes with which peculiarities and design decisions.

In any case, if you don't like it at all, you can always refund the game via Steam. If you are thinking of buying it, make sure you choose the American Wild's Edition! :)
Content of the American Wilds edition and the American Wilds DLC (as an addition to the base game) is the same. Regarding MudRunner's DLCs - you can download 3 of 4 already for free. Mods from Steam Workshop very often require one or more DLCs to be installed and activated. This user-created content often is more complex, bigger, and sometimes harder to manage - talking about maps (vehicles are often too strong and overpowered, but there are also very realistic and balanced ones, you just need to search a bit).

If you decide to try out MudRunner, I offer some start assistance explaining many things that make getting started much easier, especially at the beginning, and helps with the configuration and requirements.

In addition, the game looks much better, e.g. with Hummer's graphics modification. The graphics improvements are linked in the description of the video linked above. There is an trial version to check, if your computer can run the modification (it requires a much more powerful computer). You also can just install parts of the whole package, e.g. if you don't like stronger colors but an increased draw distance and a higher level of detail. The modder did a great job here and it's worth the money!

EDIT: wording, mentioned graphics modification

Thanks so much for all the guides and videos link.

[Mad Combine]

Comparing snowrunner and mudrunner is like comparing GTA 4 and GTA 5

GTA 4 is very dull but has more realistic physics (mudrunner and spintires), meanwhile GTA 5 is more colourful and has more content, but at the cost of lackluster physics (snowrunner)

If you want more content, go for snowrunner, if you want realism, go for mudrunner.

[TheOrangeBox]

I throw my two cents at the table and look at a different perspective.

1. Mudrunner has the original game engine that made the game famous - Snowrunner used a different game engine and mimics what the original game engine did.

2. Mudrunner has a better value price-product ratios - Snowrunner has a worst value price-product ratios.

3. Mudrunner has a more realistic feels - Snowrunner has a more arcade feels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oal-etDDGk

[-reno-FR-]

Originally posted by James:

(...)
Hear more opinions, perhaps you are a SR category player, so don't take my word as undisputed 'truth' 😁.

Even if I prefer the deep physical system of Mudrunner, I enjoy a lot Snowrunner.

And I did not know that there would be "2 categories of players" with one that, apparently, would automatically excluding the other one.

There are people that will enjoy BOTH game.

[TheOrangeBox]

Originally posted by -reno-FR-:

Originally posted by James:

(...)
Hear more opinions, perhaps you are a SR category player, so don't take my word as undisputed 'truth' 😁.

Even if I prefer the deep physical system of Mudrunner, I enjoy a lot Snowrunner.

And I did not know that there would be "2 categories of players" with one that, apparently, would automatically excluding the other one.

There are people that will enjoy BOTH game.

Gamers have choice, they always had - but the argument is where the dev/publisher makes deliberate decision to change the DNA of the game.

You loose a segment of the existing players and you gain another segment of new players.

[Dwarf80]

as far as graphics go the old mudrunner has adapted and can use the nvidia geforce filters, where as like some older games that cannot. Is like turning a light on in the dark with plenty of color since mudrunner usually looks washed out to todays standards.

[TheOrangeBox]

Originally posted by Dwarf80:

as far as graphics go the old mudrunner has adapted and can use the nvidia geforce filters, where as like some older games that cannot. Is like turning a light on in the dark with plenty of color since mudrunner usually looks washed out to todays standards.

The 'washed out' graphical post-processing was by design though - it does reflect the environment the game is inspired from.
I kinda wonder why some people expect a game to be as colourful as a Disneyland movies all the times.

[Emaulligu]

Snowrunner might be a bit on the excessive side but I do believe Spintires had the colors right and I personally find Mudrunner a little too drab. Can't be helped anyway.

[TheOrangeBox]

Originally posted by Emaulligu:

Snowrunner might be a bit on the excessive side but I do believe Spintires had the colors right and I personally find Mudrunner a little too drab. Can't be helped anyway.

There's an option to use Reshade to change the post-processing to players taste which is a great tools if people want to adjust those low saturation vibes in the game.