SnowRunner Phase 6 Maine review: Is it any good?

In my SnowRunner Phase 6: Haul & Hustle review, I talk about whether the Maine-based DLC is worth taking for a spin and what it includes.

When it comes to places that Trip Advisor recommends visiting in the US, Maine is not exactly highest on the list. And yet that is where SnowRunner Phase 6: Haul & Hustle of the Year 2 Pass takes place.

Let’s not assume the developers were fixated on realism when designing the maps though. For one thing, the SnowRunner interpretation of the northmost state in New England has roads so bad that it makes remote Africa look positively futuristic.

SnowRunner Phase 6 review: Paving the way

Some stretches are beautifully smooth and would please any highway truck. It’s just that most tarmac is marooned – surrounded and imprisoned by truck-eating mud. Or a few feet underwater. SnowRunner’s Michigan region is far more civilised by comparison.

There is also more than a whiff of familiarity when you start Phase 6 Maine. Graphical assets used in all DLCs and the main game are starting to catch up to us. And yet as you explore the Lowland and Yellowrock National Forest you start to see thoughtful touches.

Whether it is the lonely fisherman, boats bobbing by seaside piers like in a picturesque postcard or a spooky church with a sign out front that suggests “God has answers”, there is a strong incentive to explore.

Garage-less beginnings

The difficulty curve seems steep when you first start out because the garage is broken. That means no refuelling, repairs, addon adjustments or trailer purchases. You must drive to remote warehouses and other supply areas to bring back the necessary cargo.

That sizable boggy, snowy area outside the garage and the annoying unrepairable bridge at the other exit do frustrate initially. However, with time you soon learn to navigate around them in a way that is relatively fast and painless.

This is partly because a lot of Maine is paved with mud and snow that is mostly pleasantly passable. The river crossings are much less dangerous than in Yukon, while the areas of Imandra and Amur-esque gatherings of deep snow are few and far between.

Crossing wide expanses of flooded plains while pulling a fuel trailer in the new ANK MK38 Civilian is just pleasant trucking. Watching the engine do its thing as you make slow but assured progress is, after all, what makes SnowRunner great.

Maine-ly pleasant

And that is why Maine is particularly satisfying. You rarely grind to a halt. Deadly tree logs do not lie in wait at the most opportune moments to make you tip, get stuck or undertake a nightmare detour. Nor do you have to endure hellishly thin forest paths once you fix the local landslides.

As for the areas away from water, Maine’s muddy trails require careful steering to avoid tipping over. The mounds, moguls and mini-mountains can catch you out yet driving over them carefully and watching the suspension rise and fall is strangely hypnotic.

Then there are the moments of rock crawling, which can frustrate. Overall though, they make scouts more useful and give mod trucks more of a playground.

What about the bad stuff?

Maine is not some perfect slice of trucking nirvana though. Why is it you can run over large healthy trees with deep subterranean routes, but not those whispy twigs with no leaves that flex with invincible strength. These can make forest drives a chore for anything larger than a Don 71.

Why, also, do we still see the odd lying down tree that is barely noticeable for trucks with big wheels but like a giant sticky spider web covered in honey and superglue for anything smaller?

By now we should be able to crane them out the way or chop them up. Their constant, unavoidable existence harms the realism. Especially in a game so fixated on logging.

You could also pick fault at the fact that there is relatively little in the way of sizable cargo to lug around. Why not at least a giant tree log or some deployable mobile base thing? Or maybe a mobile doner kebab restaurant.

It is also odd that the main aim of the map is to fix the garage, which you do first. Bit backwards. And then that a large portion of the later tasks are logging-heavy. Not so bad now that we have medium and short logging addons, plus the Aramatsu Forester, but still somewhat repetitive.

As for the lack of a garage in the second map, Yellowrock National Forest, it seems annoying at first but it actually serves to add strategic depth as it did in Taymyr. To be fair, any excuse to position the 745C in the wild for impromptu rescues makes me a happy chap.

Compared with that awful fourth Amur map, Northern Aegis Installation, Yellowrock is a breath of fresh air. There is complexity to the challenges it presents and the routes take some getting used to, but it just feels like the right amount of tough and unforgiving if you know what you are doing.

New trucks any good?

As for the three trucks added, the Tayga 6455B takes so long to get you have basically finished Maine. But it does work well, like its Tayga 6436 sibling.

The Aramatsu Forester, meanwhile, is a satisfying articulated beast that favours a low gear and Diff Lock engaged to really go anywhere with meaningful traction. Particularly when unladened.

And we have the ANK MK38 Civilian, which gets four addons instead of the old sideboard bed-only non-Civilian version. That makes it both useful and satisfying. Plus you get bags of torque, decent pace and is not so tippy these days thanks to some weight adjustment.

There are also some worthwhile upgrades to gather, such as a more powerful engine for the Derry Longhorn 4520 and Active Suspension for the slow and steady DAN 96320. International Transtar 4070A fans may also like the Raised Suspension.

The Tribe verdict

I will bring this review to a close by saying that SnowRunner Phase 6 Maine is better than Phase 5 in the Don region. The pacing and exploration elements, coupled with a more friendly difficulty curve, do a good job of masking environmental familiarity and logging repetition.

It may not offer as much stuff to do as Phase 4 Amur, for example, nor is the ending as climactic. However, I have spent enough enjoyable hours in Maine to help justify that Year 2 Pass expenditure.

Of course, it is possible to buy each DLC separately too. Just remember to save a few quid for a beer and a doner kebab. To support local businesses, obviously.