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I don't get the hate. I prefer this to SnowRunner, and here's why.

SnowRunner is about hauling cargo from A to B, and you do this over and over again. There's limited routes to take, and very specific, more efficient routes that you will always choose to take over the more awkard routes, even if the awkward routes are slightly faster. It's a mini Euro Truck Simulator, with mud and a tiny amount of off-roading.

This is different. It's about exploring, fully off-road, rock climbing and navigating through awkward climbs to reach your goals. You're rewarded for exploring and taking different routes and you never feel punished for being adventurous. Finding things like "climbs" or "fords" will reward you with cash for upgrades, you'll also unlock extra missions by exploring the map.

The game plays out in "Expeditions", these are essentially main missions. You select the one you want to do from the main menu, it gives you the mission requirements, you choose your vehicles and their loadout and off you go. Now, each mission has limitations and often has different set starting locations, you're expected to kit out your chosen vehicle in a way that will allow you to complete the mission, if you don't, well, that's on you. This helps avoid the monotony that SnowRunner suffers from, where you're constantly running from the same lumber yard to other points on the map. There's also sometimes vehicle limitations too and sometimes it forces you to take specific inventory items, limiting your loadout choices.

Each Expedition also has bonus missions in them that reward points for cosmetics, they're completely optional, but add an extra challenge. They'll challenge you to things like not taking damage, or only using one type of vehicle or only taking one vehicle. Things that make the mission a little more challenging. I've thoroughly enjoyed doing them so far.

Then there's also a free roam mode, where you can freely explore the map and pick up and complete all the extra side missions. You can complete side missions whilst on an Expedition, but doing so can sometimes be awkward due to the Expeditions limitation. Free roam is very much standard SnowRunner mode, go to mission point, grab it, complete it, move on. So you get a little bit of everything here.

Graphically, it does look a little nicer than SnowRunner but also, the physics seem to be better for off-roading too. The rock climbing is one of my favourite parts and is significantly more fun than SnowRunners mud laden roads, which tends to just be a mind-numbing slog of "stick it in Low and wait it out". Rock climbing takes a little pre-planning and a fair bit of skill to succeed at. It's great fun and more engaging than anything I've done in SnowRunner.

You're also equipped with various gadgets such as binoculars for scoping out points of interest, drones for getting a view of the land from above, anchor points that act as deployable winching points (these are great for experimenting with and allow you to cross some pretty gnarly terrain) and lots of other little things that do all sorts. They add a great bit of entertainment to an already fun experience.

To sum it up, if your favourite part of SnowRunner was going off-road and finding the watchtowers and exploring to find the upgrade points, then you'll probably like this game. If you prefer the logistics side of moving cargo from A to B, over boring slow muddy roads, then you'll probably want to skip this one.

Personally, I love it.