RoadCraft review: More than just a building sim

Games have long explored the topic of off-road vehicles and off-roading, but it was only Spintires that did so in a fairly realistic way. This is thanks to the innovative VeeEngine, which took into the physics of mud. The terrain was subject to modifications, not only visual ones, but also those affecting the driving.

SnowRunner is the next installment in the game series initiated by Spintires, which was released in 2020 and is still being developed today. Many expansions and new game locations have appeared. The new title introduced some new features, like garages and vehicle modifications, so now we can have a whole fleet of them. The game I'm reviewing, however, is not another part of the series. It must be clearly stated: RoadCraft is not SnowRunner 2.

This game is the result of the studio's idea to add old-school ground physics to a modern graphics engine. In the process, expand and direct the title towards slightly different activities. RoadCraft is the most accurate virtual representation of playing in a real sandbox so far, which is also reflected in the trailer. The gameplay itself can have a realistic character, at least in some aspects.

The visuals

RoadCraft runs on the Swarm engine, but it has been heavily modified compared to previous games about going through difficult terrain. The devs faced many issues, especially with how the terrain behaved and how its modifications were saved. The graphic design also obviously had to be improved, as it has been 5 years since the release of SnowRunner.

My first impressions were positive, although without a "wow" feeling. Objects such as buildings are more detailed, they catche the eye immediately. The vegetation makes the biggest impression; it is much more developed and mobile, reacting to the wind. The grass looks nice, but it's a bit faded due to the African biome of the first areas (which are also heavily woven into the tutorial).

Over time, more and more things start to appeal. The roads are more diverse, full of various small objects, and the lying stones no longer scare with polygons. The tracks left by vehicles are so detailed that you can easily tell which truck ed through here. It's a whole new level of quality. The ruts carved in the mud look much better. The cars have also been further refined, but the differences here are less spectacular.

I can tell because the vehicle models in SnowRunner present a high level of execution, even by today's standards. Especially extra trucks from the latest DLC. There simply wasn't much to fix. The car models look really well-made with a lot of attention to detail, especially in of their realistic appearance (you can see all the scratches and bits of rust).

RoadCraft is missing a day and night cycle, the creators decided to abandon this feature. At first, it's a bit of a shame that it happened like this. But on the other hand - can you imagine building a road, or cutting down trees in the dark? Night could be one of the more annoying features in the game. The lack of the Moon's glow can be compensated for by a much more developed weather system. When the rain is coming, it's not just small droplets that inform about it, as in SnowRunner. The sky is changing, there’s a lighting, the ground is getting wet, and windshield wipers are being turned on in cars.

Gameplay

When I started building roads, I was pleasantly surprised that I had to start my own company. We enter the name, the logo and its background (here we choose from several patterns). Moreover, we can set the leading color of our vehicles. Unlike SnowRunner, we don't choose the color of each machine separately, but we give a paint scheme to our whole fleet. You can change this at any time.

In the game, we will have trucks that stand out from the others, which is connected with a certain mechanic. Some of the 40 cars available (unfortunately, unlicensed) have two versions - a factory one and a rusty one. We buy the first ones in the store and they have our "corporate" colors, while the damaged ones we usually find on the map, or receive during missions. It's not just a matter of appearance, overused vehicles drive worse, have less power, and can't be sold.

Here I'll mention two things that seem most controversial for people looking forward to the second installment of SnowRunner. It's best to get it over with. RoadCraft doesn't have fuel consumption mechanics or vehicle damage. While the above screenshot shows a fuel canister icon, it isn't what it appears to be. In the game, there is a car that serves as a mobile base, to which we can summon all other cars.

Towing anything to its stationing place consumes this resource. So, fuel is just a type of token that helps us move around the map in some situations. Does the lack of fuel somehow interfere with or disrupt the gameplay? I didn't get that impression. This isn't exactly a transport simulator, so I get why the creators went that route. The game is pretty complex, so I think simplifying it is acceptable.

The complexity of the title manifests itself in many things. Starting with roads, the construction of even a small piece of asphalt road is a process that requires the participation of four machines. We need a dump truck to bring in the sand, a bulldozer to level it, and then the asphalt paver comes in to do its thing. It's not over yet, because we have to get to the place with a roller and level the new surface. If we play alone, we should perform all these activities in the right order.

For some tasks, we can automate the process; we provide the vehicle and assign it a section of the road. When AI is in control, we can prepare another vehicle for the next stage of work. I noticed that the result of such a task isn't impressive, a handmade road looks better. However, if time is important to us, we can take advantage of this (automation is an option).

Building roads is not an end in itself, as rebuilt paths serve the cars moving on them. Some tasks in the game involve creating ways for convoys. To fix the muddy spots and prevent the vehicles from getting stuck, we need to add some sand or build an asphalt road in those areas. Sometimes we will also build a bridge over the river. The transports move regularly along set routes, and each time they add a certain amount of cash to our . This is an interesting aspect of the game, which provides a steady source of income.

Besides these objectives, the game also involves cutting down trees to get logs, one of the four main resources. Special vehicles, called forestry harvesters and transport trucks, are used for this purpose. On the other side, the cranes will be used to fix infrastructure, like filling in missing parts of pipes or walls, and for collecting scrap. RoadCraft allows you to take control of even stationary cranes and gantries, if they are available on the map.

I was able to test the multiplayer quite briefly, due to the pre-release period. The game has a built-in voice chat, so you can communicate without using additional programs. When playing with a few people (up to four), one of them is the host, and the game takes place on their game state. We can take over any car, as long as it is not currently occupied by a player. Cooperating with friends can help us get through all stages of tasks more quickly.

Impressions and final thoughts

I started playing the game with the mindset that it's something new, where the only connection to SnowRunner is the realistically depicted, deformable terrain. Such an approach is the right one here. RoadCraft is closer to building simulators than to being the successor of transporting goods through difficult terrain. Perhaps thanks to this I really enjoyed playing.

After a few hours, I noticed how much the aspect of plotting routes for transports changes. Vehicles move along the roads from time to time, so we can speak of the beginnings of road traffic. When we're driving alone, like in a dump truck with sand, we need to consider the possibility of encountering other vehicles on the road. Even in single-player mode, we're not alone on the forest road, as in SnowRunner, and driving in the middle of the road can risk a collision (because, for now, the AI is quite poor and can't avoid it).

Cars how meticulously we have taken care of the surface. Sometimes it's good to take a break from what you're doing and bring in some sand, because the message reminds us that the convoy got stuck in a pretty unexpected place, and we're not making any money. When such a thing happens, the traffic stops. This brings some life to the areas we're currently exploring; there's often something happening here, and it's not always related to what we're doing.

The driving model is quite unique. Vehicles move a bit faster than in SnowRunner, but they still fall short of real maximum speeds. The driving feels a bit different than in the mentioned game, I think you can really feel the weight of the vehicles, which is cool. And there are tracked machines, which are a fantastic novelty (you can turn in place).

Unfortunately, the time has come to point out a few cons. I will start with the blockades of differential mechanisms, because it's an interesting topic. I failed to notice any clear differences in handling between locked and unlocked bridges. The car reaches a similar speed, although it may have a larger turning radius then. In the field, of course, engaging the locks helps to get out of heavy mud, it works as it should. However, since there is no damage in the game (except for the possibility of drowning the engine in water), why turn them off at all? Maybe the ability to switch this element is added only for the atmosphere?

Unfortunately, we can't find the gearbox control, but it seems like there's some kind of automatic system in place because the vehicles seem to accelerate gradually, and you can also hear it in the engine sound. In this aspect, there's a small downside - the engines can sound a bit monotonous at times, and you can't hear the full range of revs. The sounds are of good quality, the rusty versions of trucks squeak with worn-out mechanisms, but there is a bit of dissatisfaction. Why can't the engine be turned off? The group of trucks left on the side of the road, still smoking from their exhausts, looks pretty strange.

The graphic design is a definite step forward, but there are things that probably still need to be enhanced. Just look at the texture of the sand in the dump truck, it looks more like butter. The textures of some roads don't appear very detailed (even on Ultra setting), though they can be deemed acceptable. This may be the result of some compromise. Let's that in this game, we have the freedom to modify the terrain on an unprecedented scale. Besides, a 4K texture pack is now available.

The cabins are very well-made, however, in the FPS view, we won't see the driver's hand movements. Moreover, such activity is not visible when we look through the window inside. The driver is there, yet appears to be steering the vehicle with his mind, since his hands remain on his knees the entire time.

I pointed out a few minor issues that don't really affect the fact that RoadCraft is still a fun game to play. It's worth ing how SnowRunner was like right after it was released, it was easy to point out its flaws, maybe there were even more of them. The game has a lot of potential and some really unique ideas, but the devs still have some work to do to polish this pretty good product. As of today, I could recommend the game, although you have to keep in mind those few shortcomings.