RoadCraft review

The narrative, if you can call it that, is less of an epic saga and more of a series of very important ‘to-do’ lists. You’re not unravelling ancient conspiracies or battling intergalactic foes. Instead, you’re the person they ring up when a town looks like it’s gone ten rounds with a particularly grumpy badger. Your job is to clear debris, give faulty equipment a stern talking to (and replace it), and rebuild those vital roads and bridges that have been battered by the elements.

What’s interesting here is the laser focus. There’s no faffing about with vehicle damage, no nail-biting fuel gauge watching, no obsessing over tyre wear or engine management, and forget about pimping your ride with go-faster stripes or a spoiler the size of a picnic table.  Nope, RoadCraft is all about one thing: rebuilding. It’s less about the nitty-gritty of keeping your truck alive (looking at you, SnowRunner) and more about the grand ballet of operations.  It's about the satisfaction of seeing a broken town slowly but surely knit itself back together, all thanks to your tireless efforts.   

Once you’ve swept away the rubble and laid down a carpet of beautiful, fresh tarmac – a sight that would bring a tear to any Mumbaikar’s eye – your role shifts slightly. As the operations manager, you then become the puppet master, plotting routes for your transport trucks on the map, ensuring their journey isn't rudely interrupted by a rogue boulder or a ditch you swore you filled. You’re the advance party, the pathfinder, the one who ensures the worker ants (your construction convoys) can get on with their jobs without a hitch.

The tasks are varied enough to keep you from nodding off at the wheel. One minute you’re fixing a bridge to link a port with a concrete factory (because, you know, priorities), the next you’re laying cables from a power grid to a power plant, presumably so everyone can charge their phones and complain about the disaster on social media. And the rewards? You get a pat on the back (and some in-game currency) when your logistics convoys complete their pilgrimage unscathed and when you finally reconnect a town to the land of the living (and the Wi-Fi). It’s like being a digital warrior ant, paving the way for the colony.

This is where RoadCraft really starts to lay its foundations, and thankfully, they’re more solid than some of the temporary fixes you see after the Mumbai monsoons. The game is a playground for the problem-solver in you. There’s a genuine, almost primal satisfaction that comes from using a road you’ve painstakingly created with sand, tarmac, and a hefty roller.  It’s the kind of simple pleasure that makes you pause and think, "Yeah, I did that." And perhaps, just perhaps, it might make you appreciate the monumental challenges our own municipal corporations face, especially in a city that’s bursting at the seams like Mumbai, where every square inch of road is prime real estate for a new trench.

There’s a lovely sandbox feel to it all. During my review, I roped in a couple of mates, and soon we were a well-oiled (mostly) machine, each in a different vehicle, tackling various tasks for the same overarching mission. It’s surprisingly easy to get completely absorbed in fixing up that first map; before you know it, hours have flown by, and you’re still debating the optimal aggregate mix for a particularly tricky patch of road. If you’re the kind of person who colour-codes their sock drawer or alphabetises their spice rack, this game is your digital nirvana – a micromanaging perfectionist’s dream come true.

Each map throws different objectives and unlocks at you, tempting you with new vehicles to clear the disaster detritus. And the disasters themselves aren't just copy-paste calamities; each one feels distinct, which helps stave off the repetition that can sometimes creep into games like Expeditions. Fans of SnowRunner will also appreciate that the objectives change quite dramatically between maps, offering more than just hauling logs from point A to point B (though, let's be honest, there's a certain zen to log-hauling).

It’s crucial to reiterate, though, that this isn’t SnowRunner or Expeditions with a different hat on. The absence of vehicle damage, gearbox and upgrades shifts the focus entirely. Here, the spotlight is firmly on getting these little towns or industrial hubs back on their feet. One mission might have you meticulously laying down sand, tar, and then compacting it with a roller, feeling every satisfying crunch. Next, you’re suddenly on a scavenger hunt for metal scraps to feed into a recycling facility, all so you can craft new pipes to mend a ruptured gas line.

However, for those who relish a bit of vehicular wrestling, fear not! The complex terrain and tyre physics that Saber Interactive is known for are very much present and correct. Those heart-in-mouth moments navigating narrow paths that cling precariously to steep slopes? They’re here. That soul-sucking, rubber-gulping muck that demands a silent prayer and the perfect set of tyres? Present. The problems might look familiar, but the solutions have evolved. Now, instead of just battling through a mucky road, you can actually fix the blighter with a fresh layer of sand and tarmac. Take that, Mother Nature! That said, some challenges, like impossibly steep slopes or particularly gnarly rocky terrain, didn't seem to have an immediate "fix-it" solution in the early hours of gameplay.

The joyous mechanics of manually loading resources onto your truck will undoubtedly bring a smile to the faces of SnowRunner veterans. And yes, you can still winch yourself out of most sticky situations if you’re in a Scout vehicle. However, if you manage to impersonate a turtle and flip your non-scout vehicle, your options are limited to either calling in a friend with a crane or making the shameful retreat back to base. Oh, and those cheeky shortcuts you might have taken in Expeditions with your nimble scout vehicle? Think again. RoadCraft’s flora is less forgiving; bushes and trees will actively conspire to block your path.

Veterans of Snowrunner, including myself, sorely miss the gearbox function, along with the vehicle upgrades. Now, all vehicles have a 4x4, diff lock, low gear and park brake, which makes navigating the terrain with a vehicle less adventurous than before. Vehicles also don’t have customisations to change loadout. You’re either given vehicles for a particular job, or you buy one from the store for your task. You cannot, for example, retrofit a flatbed or a crane to a truck like you could in Snowrunner or Expeditions.

However, the task at hand changes up the variety in vehicles used, and that extends to some truly impressive machinery. You’ll be operating cranes in shipyards with a level of engagement I haven’t seen in many other titles. Familiar mechanical beasts from the SnowRunner stables make an appearance, alongside some brand-new, equally awe-inspiring workhorses. Whether you’re delicately plucking shipping containers with a Newton & Steig 700/R rail tower crane or laying down that sweet blacktop with a DS 135A Bunker, the visuals, objectives, and sheer variety of vehicles kept me grinning from ear to ear.

Some of these heavy-duty vehicles are, quite frankly, things of beauty. You probably need to be a certain type of nerd to truly appreciate it, but when the Vostok TK-53 Krot cable layer (a beast based on the real-life BTM-3 trenching machine) unfurled its rear apparatus to lay cables in the first mission area, it was a moment of pure, unadulterated awe. It sparked the same kind of childlike excitement I felt watching Optimus Prime transform for the first time on the big screen. There was a genuine roar of cheer and surprise from my co-op partners – a moment of shared nerdy joy.

Now, for those of us who prefer the tactile feedback of a good steering wheel, there’s a slight bump in the road. My trusty Logitech G29, while functional, wasn't fully compatible out of the box. The crane controls, in particular, proved to be a bit of a wrestling match with the wheel, often lacking the finesse needed for delicate operations. More often than not, especially when trying to position a steel pipe or a beam onto another truck with pinpoint accuracy, I found myself reluctantly switching back to the keyboard and mouse for that crucial precision.  It’s not a deal-breaker, but it’s certainly an area that could do with a bit more polish to make the experience smoother for wheel aficionados.

If there’s one piece of advice I can give you for RoadCraft, it’s this: bring friends. This game absolutely sings in multiplayer. The simple joy of using your winch to haul a mate’s Scout from the gooey embrace of a six-foot mud pit is still present and as satisfying as ever. But RoadCraft adds new layers to the co-operative (and sometimes mischievous) fun. Picking up an unsuspecting friend’s little scout car with a massive shipyard crane and dangling them precariously? That’s a level of hilarity that even SnowRunner couldn’t quite reach. Cue maniacal laughter and frantic pleas over voice chat.

Up to four friends can team up and tackle the rebuilding efforts together, and the good news is that the multiplayer experience feels significantly more robust than the somewhat buggy servers we encountered in Expeditions. A particularly neat feature is the ability to sync multiplayer saves with your own game and with other party members, ensuring everyone is always on the same page, quite literally. No more arguments about whose progression is the ‘canon’ one.

While you might not all share the same bank balance (capitalism finds a way, even in disaster zones), not all vehicles need to be purchased from the store. Many are just sitting there on the map, waiting for you to hop in and take control, allowing for seamless switching between vehicles, much like in SnowRunner or Expeditions.

Route rewards, interestingly, are player-based rather than server-based.  This means as long as you’re in the server with your buddies and the routes you’ve painstakingly built are actually functioning (which, let’s be honest, is a constant battle against unforeseen ditches or rogue rocks), you’ll keep earning that sweet XP and cash. However, if you decide to pop off for a quick cuppa while your mates are hard at it, any rewards generated from the routes during your absence will only go to the active members in the game.

Saber Interactive hasn’t skimped on the eye candy. RoadCraft is, to put it mildly, a looker.  Raindrops realistically splatter and bead on your vehicle’s bonnet, puddles ripple and disperse as your chunky tyres plough through them, trees sway convincingly in the wind, and mud deforms with a satisfying squelch under the immense weight of your Voron 3327 as it hauls hefty steel pipes for that critical gas line repair. This is a genuinely gorgeous game, especially if you’ve got the hardware to crank it up to 4K. The developers have clearly put a lot of effort into making you feel like you’re right there in the thick of a disaster-struck environment, battling the elements and the terrain.

While the first of the eight maps serves as a gentle introduction, a taster of what’s to come, it’s the subsequent maps where the game really opens up and showcases its potential.  Navigating to areas ravaged by floods or shaken by earthquakes provides a compelling visual carrot for fans who enjoyed the exploration aspects of SnowRunner and Expeditions.  Each new environment feels distinct and presents its own set of challenges and visual rewards.

So, after a good few hours getting my virtual hands dirty, what’s the initial takeaway on RoadCraft? It’s shaping up to be a thoroughly engaging and deeply satisfying experience, especially for those who get a kick out of bringing order to chaos. The shift in focus from vehicle management to pure operational rebuilding is a refreshing one, offering a different flavour of logistical challenge that rewards patience, planning, and a touch of perfectionism.

There's a tangible sense of accomplishment with every road paved, every bridge mended, and every convoy that successfully reaches its destination. The vehicle variety is a treat, with some truly awesome pieces of heavy machinery that are a joy to operate.

Graphically, it’s a stunner, creating immersive and believable environments that really sell the disaster recovery fantasy. And the multiplayer? It’s where the game truly shines, transforming challenging tasks into laugh-out-loud co-operative adventures. Being able to share those "aha!" moments when a complex plan comes together, or those "oops!" moments when it all goes hilariously wrong, elevates the entire experience.

However, it’s not all smooth tarmac. The wheel support could certainly use some fine-tuning to make those precise crane operations less of a faff. And while the focus on operations over vehicle survival is a deliberate design choice, some players migrating from the more punishing survival aspects of SnowRunner might miss that element of constant peril for their beloved trucks.

But these are relatively minor potholes in what is otherwise shaping up to be a very well-constructed road. RoadCraft understands its niche and leans into it hard. It’s a game for the thinkers, the planners, the meticulous fixers, and anyone who’s ever looked at a badly maintained road (hello again, Mumbai!) and thought, "I could do a better job than that."

Is it going to change the world? Probably not. Is it going to provide hours of engaging, satisfying, and often hilarious construction-based fun, especially with friends? Absolutely.