Go Your Own Way: RoadCraft
Move logs, build roads, or just go offroading in this fun vehicle sim.
‣ RoadCraft
From: Saber Interactive, Focus Entertainment
Platforms: PC
Release: 20 May, 2025
Genre: Open world exploration, Construction sim
Steam Page • Demo Video • Developer Site
Driving into ditches is optional, but highly recommended.
When an area needs to rise from the ruins of a natural disaster, there's only one crew to call! These guys are pros, piloting heavy machinery to move debris, construct roads, and reconnect power lines.
They also pull each other out of mud and recover vehicles stuck in ditches, because that will happen—especially if you play with friends. Welcome to the excellent, physics-rich world of RoadCraft.
There has been a steady rise in "immersive sims" or "dad games"—a genre of titles where you don't fire guns, explore space, jump platforms, or make friends in a pixel-art farming valley. Instead, you do a job; in this case, drive jeeps, manoeuvre sand trucks, bulldoze dirt, and move junk with cranes.
However, don't confuse RoadCraft with other job simulator games. The experience isn't like driving a truck between cities or powerwashing a barn. You tackle rough terrain brought to life with realistic physics. Trees snag at your equipment. Mud sucks at your wheels. Rain makes grass wet and slippery. Water pools in ruddy tracks. Moving across the terrain is as much part of the experience as chasing the various objectives.
Your job is to complete objectives across a map. These basic tasks become intense as you navigate the demanding terrain. If a road is out, you need to find a way across: a detour, building a temporary bridge, or dumping sand into the gaps you want to cross.
Your options depend on your vehicles: a jeep might get stuck while an earthmover's big wheels have no problem. If something does get stuck, a jeep might winch it out or a crane could lift it. The full game will have over 40 vehicles, though some maps give you limited options with the goal to tackle obstacles creatively.
Sometimes, you combine several vehicles to achieve something. Building a tarred road uses four different vehicles, moving behind one another to drop sand, flatten it, add asphalt, and compress everything with a roller. Some sections need replacement parts, such as pipes. You might find these in the surrounding debris, or you could recycle scrap and create parts.
Play solo or cooperate with other players. Up to four people can work with each other to finish the objectives. It's a lot of fun, but also expect shouting and hysterics. RoadCraft isn't a hard game, but it can require a little patience. Some sections need careful navigating and managing the different drive options so you don't get stuck. Cranes, log cutters, and cable layers all have their quirks, too.
📽 Demo Snapshot: Let’s build a road!
This is the kind of game where you pace yourself. But you can be silly, such as strapping random objects and even other players' cars to your crane transports, or pushing smaller vehicles out of the way with a bulldozer. Fortunately, you can use the map to jump to different vehicles, and recovering a vehicle is simple, though you might spawn away from your destination.
RoadCraft might sound familiar to some readers. While AIIG avoids mentioning other games (because not all readers might know them), RoadCraft is a spiritual successor to the MudRunner titles and from the same developer, though much more focused and player-friendly. If this comparison means nothing to you, RoadCraft is a fitting introduction. If it does, RoadCraft is a refreshing evolution.
There are some concessions, such as no longer managing fuel or damage (though these features might be included at higher difficulties). But RoadCraft wants to be accessible and fun, not frustrating, which it does very well. It also looks stunning, the work of a veteran studio that has made double-A and triple-A games for over two decades.
RoadCraft isn't strictly an indie game. But it's too niche for a major studio release, yet it has the technology and polish to feel like one. Whether you play alone or with friends, doing mundane construction tasks is a lot more exciting than you'd expect. Driving into ditches is optional, but highly recommended.
RoadCraft will release on Steam on 20 May 2025.
Explore The Game with Youtube Chapters:
📽 02:00 (Solo) Let's start by exploring
📽 06:15 Cut some trees
📽 12:10 Mulching some stumps
📽 13:55 Loading logs
📽 23:11 Let's deliver these logs
📽 25:52 Deliver the transformer
📽 28:21 Time to lay cable
📽 41:17 We got lost
📽 43:33 Let's try laying that cable again
📽 48:49 (Multiplayer) Welcome to the desert
📽 51:28 Let's build a road
📽 1:02:58 Moving some obstacles
📽 1:12:29 Confusion, the roller is stuck
📽 1:30:32 Following the convoy
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