Key Highlights
- RoadCraft, created by Saber Interactive, integrates natural disaster recovery with simulation gaming, offering a blend of construction and off-roading.
- Features include advanced physics simulation, various reconstruction materials, and tackling operations across diverse regions.
- Players use transport trucks and bulldozers to repair faulty equipment, clear debris, and reconstruct roads and bridges.
- The AI routing system for logistics convoys adds complexity but has frustrating limitations.
- Multiplayer co-op and cross-platform compatibility enhance the gameplay experience for social and team-oriented gameplay sessions.
Introduction
RoadCraft by Saber Interactive, published by Focus Entertainment, is a game that tries to combine managing natural disasters with building roads. The game uses a new physics engine. You play as a disaster recovery company. The goal is to rebuild damaged roads and buildings. Many times, you face rough terrain and deal with broken machines.
The game wants to make off-road travel and construction work simple, but it does not do this well. For example, you often have to make roads through solar fields, or fix problems with a robust tracked heavy dump truck. But the game does not meet the big promises made. It can be frustrating when you try to use these features and they just don’t work as well as you hope. This is why, even with a new engine and some new ideas, the game misses what most people want from it.
Exploring the Basics of RoadCraft
RoadCraft brings together parts of logistics, reconstruction, and disaster recovery in one simple game. You start by setting up your own company, picking a design for it, and choosing your first vehicle. You get to clear debris and build a new itinerary through roads, which puts you right into the world of recovering after disasters. But, the mechanics feel too simple, and some design choices are hard to use, which can take away from the fun.
The game lets you and other people work together in multiplayer mode to rebuild things. But in single-player mode, the work feels slow and the vehicles do not work well. There is no fuel management, and you cannot change many things in the game, which takes away from some of the excitement. The direction taken by Saber Interactive, the creators of MudRunner and SnowRunner, feels not as strong here. This is surprising, given their past games that are good at clearing and rebuilding.
What is RoadCraft?
RoadCraft puts players into the action of disaster recovery. You need to do tasks like fixing bridges and sending logistics convoys over rough land. But the game has some big problems that break the feel of being there. The AI trucks do not show much thought. Even a small piece of debris will stop them completely. You end up spending most of your time watching over these robotic vehicles. It feels less like you help, and more like you wait for them to mess up.
When it comes to vehicles, like the strong tracked heavy dump trucks, they let people down, too. These trucks are not very flexible. They do not have many upgrade choices. This makes it look like the creators either rushed or made things too simple for logistics. You cannot really work with different land types or use special tools in a good way. The game even gives people faulty equipment at times, which spoils the fun and can make you feel upset.
Things like solar fields and changing scenes are meant to add some visual interest, but they cannot make up for the tired main setup. RoadCraft wants to show new ideas with its mechanic loop, but in the end, it does not get things right.
Key Features of RoadCraft
RoadCraft is meant to have big plans, but it falls short in how it works. The advanced physics simulation is not well made, so when you play, the routes do not make sense. AI supply trucks crash a lot when they hit sharp turns, which makes the game’s automation hard to use and not fun.
- Faulty equipment management: The game makes you use only a few types of vehicles, and they do not work well. It does not give good ways to upgrade or fix them.
- Limited customisation: Other than picking the paint job, you cannot do much to change your transport trucks to fit the tough world you drive in.
- Local industry rebuilding: You are supposed to help fix the local industry and infrastructure. But the same tasks keep coming back, so it stops feeling like you’ve made real progress.
- Multiplayer functionality: Playing with friends is supposed to make things better. But this mode does not solve the game’s big problems with vehicle controls or delivery planning.
The many problems hold back what Saber Interactive wanted the game to be. Instead of enjoying a post-disaster sandbox, people have to deal with too many problems and mechanics that are not finished.
Conclusion
To sum up, RoadCraft at first looks like a fun way to play with friends and build roads. But it often does not give a very good time as a game. The gameplay can be the same again and again, and there are not many features. Because of this, the fun goes away fast, and you may want something with more to do and new things. As you try the game, think about if it gives you and your friends the kind of experience you want to have together. Before you start another session, you may want to look at other games that give you more ways to play and have fun. If you feel a certain way about your time in RoadCraft, do not be afraid to talk about your thoughts and problems with other people.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you start a game in RoadCraft?
Starting RoadCraft means you need to make your own company first. After that, you pick a vehicle. You can choose the strong Land Rover Defender clone or a pickup truck. Then, you select a design for your truck. This game is available on console, specifically the Xbox Series X. You can play missions by using things like Xbox Game Pass Core. The game feels a lot like Train Sim World and Frontier Pilot Simulator.