RoadCraft Review (PS5) – Drive Aid

You have to give Saber Interactive credit for perseverance. After the success of Mudrunner, which itself was borne of the one-man team behind Spintires, they carved a muddy niche with Snowrunner, which expanded on the large plant delivery theme. They then branched out to the sightseeing fest that was Expeditions, and are now taking on the humanitarian aid front with RoadCraft.

Moving away from the vehicular management focus, RoadCraft instead puts players at the helm of their own disaster relief company. What this means is that besides the rambling over treacherous terrain, we’re now tasked with building bridges, fixing storm walls… you name it.

Is this another notch to Saber Interactive’s all-terrain belt, or should RoadCraft be swept away in the floods? Let’s find out…

It Definitely Rains Down In Africa

The ‘Runner series, as I’m going to refer to them from now on, have always been pretty thin on story/narrative. That’s not to say that there isn’t one, they just haven’t been great at explaining then. Yet since Expeditions (which I reviewed here), there’s been attempts to flesh them out a bit, give the players some motivation and urge them forward.

Through calls from Kelly, a somewhat passive-aggressive dispatcher, players are sent to varying parts of an industrial area in Africa to fix what needs fixing. It starts off easy enough (well, sort of, we’ll get to that), clearing some routes for deliveries and fixing a broken sea wall.

But once your operation is in full flow, the scope of what you’ll be doing gets much bigger, as do the vehicles. From using sand and dozers to fill small road repairs, it evolves to actually laying roads themselves, building bridges… the works, basically.

You have to give Saber the credit they’re due, they do their homework. If you’ve ever gotten stuck into Mud or SnowRunner (pun intended), you’ll know that the craft on display is a honed one. But it’s not a smooth run, as you can imagine.

The Beauty Of Disaster

Yet whilst it seems like a daunting task, RoadCraft breaks this up into manageable chunks. What I mean by this is that there are eight “missions”, if you will, to tackle. Each one of these is a themed level, like a Crystal Maze of natural disaster scenarios. The first two are pretty straightforward: the first is seawall repair, whilst the second is restoring gas and power to a region. It’s then that players can split off and choose what they want to improve next.

Do you want to work on the sunken mine area, or restore communications? I mean, they’ll both need doing before the next missions are unlocked, but it allows some choice. I went for the sunken mines first, which involved bridge restoration, road repairs, pipeline repairs… basically the whole nine yards. Bear in mind that whilst they are mission-based “hubs”, these maps are still quite impressive. They’re also full of the same obstacles you’d expect from any ‘Runner title, so be prepared.

Each level usually holds about ten main objectives, which sounds daunting but don’t worry. They more often follow along sequentially, so one can compartmentalise it as “one big story objective” if that’s easier. There are also side missions too, which more often tie in with the main objective. There’s no punishment for not doing them, and some are fiddly as hell, but if you can help then why not. When I say fiddly, I mean having to haul a lot of road repairing machinery across a map just for one supply route. Again, the game doesn’t make you, it’s down to your own patience.

Micro-Managing Machines

Whilst it may seem like a daunting task to restore these areas yourself, there is help at hand. Intertwined in both main and side missions, supply routes are a neat feature to ensure more resources and funding. “What is a supply route?”, you may wonder, if the picture above doesn’t really give it away. In short, they are point-to-point routes that you, the player, will plot out. Don’t overthink it, the game is very generous with marker points.

Imagine an industrial BigTrak (ask your parents), or that old turtle Logos program we played around with in school: you manage every input. So, players will have a start and end point, and it’s up to them to figure out the path of least resistance. Which, frankly, is easier than it sounds because there is potentially a lot of resistance in the way. Fortunately, the game will tell players if a corner’s angle is too steep, or that something is in the way.

A word of warning, though: the AI along these routes is very literal. You cannot just wing it and hope they’ll sort themselves out. But then, that’s why they give you almost two hundred markers, so that you ensure it’s as smooth as possible. If a truck gets stuck on a corner, that’s on you. Luckily, pinch points can be repositioned and trialed again, rather than scrap the whole thing. Which is also an option, by the way.

When it works, it works well. One can have several routes running like a well oiled… er, trade route. But like all things in RoadCraft, they will need keeping an eye on. Don’t leave any of your trucks in the way, because the AI will not think to go around them.

And trust me, you’re going to want to assemble as big a fleet of giant Tonka toys as possible.

Mine’s Bigger Than Yours

If there’s one thing that Saber do well in this “series”, besides lush graphics and dirt physics, is their homework when it comes to machinery. In that regard, RoadCraft is no slouch, boasting nearly eighty vehicles to play around with. Now, much like SnowRunner (to use the example as I’ve played that the most), that doesn’t mean eighty unique vehicles. Oh, they’re different brands and models, but I mean more of purpose in-game. Like scout vehicles, there’s a few that do the same thing, it’s all preference.

The way vehicular progression works here is impressive, too. Whenever a new vehicle is unlocked (usually found), like the cable laying beastie above, it’ll be the rusty version of it. Think pre-loved, or like a barn find in Forza Horizon, if you will. These are fine, and work as intended and should you want to, you can use only that one forever, if you’re frugal.

But once unlocked, players can buy the new version of it in the in-game shop. Yet rather than just the same with less rust and your company’s livery plastered on, it has better stats than its found counterpart. It may not seem like much, but having a dump truck that can hold more sand can really help on road-laying missions.

It’s not as daunting as it sounds. Money is fairly plentiful, just not instantaneous. For me, my first purchase was a cargo truck with a crane, which made it easier than needing a truck and crane when it came to finding scrap and resources. And trust me, you’ll be thanking me for that when it comes to resource finding…

Not Very Resourceful

So we’ve got the trucks, we’ve got the automated supply routes, what else do we need for some kindhearted disaster relief? Ah, yes, building materials. Now, being ravaged by the elements has left oodles of potential scrap just lying around. The only problem is having to fetch the damn stuff, and it is a slog at times.

Say you’ve restored the steel manufacturing plant, as is usually par for the course in most missions. Now me, in my naivety, thought it might go all Command & Conquer and start producing pipes and whatnot on request. No, no it does not. Players will have to manually traverse the level to find colour-coded debris, manually load it on their chosen truck, drive back to said plant and process it there.

It sounds like an unneccessary whinge but honestly, having to do it en masse to build a few pipes for a few missions becomes a right chore. Some supply routes do drop off some resources, but the rest is on the player. What would have been an awesome feature is, let’s say, some kind of automated scrap-retrieval feature, so I can focus on my own missions.

Which leads me to a few other gripes I have with RoadCraft…

One Man Salvation Army

First off, I will say that RoadCraft does have multiplayer, which may negate a few of the following quibbles. However, I stand by the fact that a game that can be played standalone should have to rely on its multiplayer mode to make it more enjoyable. You might have already figured out what the main issues are, but let’s get into it regardless.

What this game seriously lacks is an “auto mode”. Hear me out, I’m not just trying to be lazy. Having to resource hunt is fun… the first time. Laying a road in sequential order of sand, smoothing it, asphalt laying and then steamrolling it is fun… the first time. But having to manually pick up every bit of scrap with controls that aren’t aren’t exactly controller-friendly is so time-consuming. As is having to lug all four different vehicles to the next road-making area every time.

What would be a nice option, and by that I mean optional for those that like the repetition, is one that would automate it. As I said above, be able to send a truck on a scrap hunt so I can continue the story. Be able to send all four vehicles on an automated convoy to build a road, letting me chip in if I want to. Yes, I know what I’m getting into when I play these, but like my patience, my time is limited.

Outside of gameplay grumbles, I don’t really have much else to nitpick about. Oh, besides some really egregious pop-in that happens when you drive. Not in the distance, like hills appearing or whatever. More in the foreground, like branches and debris magically appearing before a truck, like the game’s just remembered to chuck them in.

It’s not a total immersion-breaker, but it is a little disconcerting to see things suddenly popping in before you. Makes me feel like something large and cumbersome will spawn in, I’ll tip my truck and have to be recovered at a time expense.

What A Relief

That being said, I am actually going to heartily recommend RoadCraft. The thing is, I know what I’m getting myself into, being a fan of the series. On one hand, these games can be seen as boring, languid and other detractory, Death Stranding-associated buzzwords. On the other, if you like that kind of methodical, slower paced title like this and Hardspace: Shipbreaker then you’ll be in your element. I gave Expeditions a positive review, but in retrospect, the sightseeing got a bit boring after a while.

Fortunately for Roadcraft’s sake, it redeems that by actually having content. Those eight maps aren’t going to be finished any time soon, I’ll tell you that. As I said before, it doesn’t depend on its multiplayer, but if it’s any bit as fun as SnowRunner was when it works, it’ll be a laugh. Whilst I’ve gone into detail about some of the things you can do in here, I don’t feel I’ve dug deep enough. Not for lack of trying, there’s just a lot to do.

Saber Interactive have proven again that they know their… road craft. I will say that if you haven’t liked any of the others, I wouldn’t expect this to immediately change your mind. It is the same style of gameplay, just with a different purpose: less fuel and vehicle maintenance, more large scale support. Yes, the pacing is so slow that even the royalty-free session music sounds bored. But then, in a world of whizzbangs and shite like Fortnite for the zoomies, I like something slower paced.

So yes, RoadCraft won’t convince you if you’re not into peaceful, off-road plodders. But if you are looking for something for value, with lovely visuals, occasionally wonky controls and a sense of accomplishment, you’ll certainly find it here. Just watch where you’re driving, cowboy.

RoadCraft is available now on PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox Series S|X and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Developer: Saber Interactive
Publisher: Focus Entertainment

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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