Pure Rock Crawling is about driving off-road vehicles over rocky terrain. It’s all about pressing the accelerator and turning the steering wheel so that you lurch forward and over the obstacles, instead of tumbling backwards. It’s MudRunner without the mud, with an overwhelming simplicity, presumably due to the seemingly one-man development team. It launched last October, but I had never heard of it until today when a new map was added, and now I want to play it.
The Steam page has the features you need: the tires have a soft body, a suspension that you can adjust like you know what you’re doing, and a range of different types of terrain for you to roam freely. The newest bit of terrain is a map called Ghost Mine, based on photogrammetry assets taken by the game’s creator after a trip to Death Valley.
It appears that Pure Rock Crawling was released into Early Access in April 2018 and hit version 1.0 in October 2024. I really don’t know how I’ve never heard of it, but it seems that the release of 1.0 hasn’t stopped with a trickle of new updates in the months since.
I liked Spintires when it came out about ten years ago, but lost track of it when it got mired in the mire of controversy and was succeeded by MudRunners. There’s something extremely satisfying about getting up and over an obstacle, whether you’re driving a large vehicle or even a dirt bike in a game like Trials. I have no interest in high scores or improving my times, but I will definitely try to pull myself up a mountain.
Pure Rock Crawling is 50% off to coincide with the release of the new card, making it £6.39/$7.49/€7.39 at the time of writing.