Things I learned from a RoadCraft gameplay demo

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Having seen 30 minutes of RoadCraft gameplay, here is everything I have learned so far about the driving and real-time strategy simulator.

While I am not allowed to show you RoadCraft gameplay just yet, which is fine because I accidentally deleted my preview footage like an absolute lettuce, here we are with what I saw and my initial thoughts. So grab your favourite biscuit and hot beverage – it is show time.

Please note: This is the script from my YouTube video, click here to watch.

RoadCraft in action

I should start by stressing that RoadCraft is more of a strategy simulator. While there is still a focus on driving the 40-plus launch vehicles through mud and delivering things like in SnowRunner, you take on more of a leadership role as you repair and rebuild natural disaster-damaged infrastructure.

In the 30 minutes of RoadCraft gameplay Focus Entertainment showed me, I only saw what I assume is a small slice of the overall cake. Focus Entertainment senior brand and creative manager Yann François begins by dumping sand, which is then flattened with the bucket blade of a bulldozer.

Though SnowRunner is not the worst at physics, it appears many limitations – such as tracked vehicles – have been left behind as I watch the sand particles fall realistically from the back of a dump truck and pile-up into mounds. Yes, you get to control the rate of flow and drive.

A run or two of the bulldozer irons out the now sandy-mud mix on the ground. Yann then swaps to a road paver. You can practically smell the steaming asphalt/tarmac (delete as appropriate) being carefully laid out across a once tricky stretch of land.

Having tucked the now not-so-clean bulldozer away nearby, it is time to finish the job with a steamroller. Taking it steady, Yann compacts each granular ingredient into a smooth pathway. A far cry from the boggy, unforgiving trail seen before.

A digital sandbox

My first reaction as I watch someone else play RoadCraft, apart from noticing the much improved visuals but more on that in a second, is that it feels like a digital sandbox. One filled with those chunky Tonka toys we had when younger. But without the surprise animal excrement.

Suffice to say, the whole process of building a road looks deeply satisfying. The new Swarm engine, also used in Space Marine 2, is clearly far more advanced in the terrain manipulation department than in SnowRunner and Expeditions: A MudRunner Game.

Not only that, map deformation (accidental or not) does not reset when you go to another map and return. Meaning, your progress overcoming the tornado damage in this particular tropical map is both consistent and constant.

As Yann approaches a water crossing in need of a bridge, I ask whether you can dump enough sand to fill a river. Well, apparently a play-tester gave this a go – and it is possible. Providing you want to be old and grey by the time you are done.

Does RoadCraft look better?

Even watching the RoadCraft gameplay demo as a not-so-flattering YouTube livestream for me, myself and I, it is hard not to appreciate the much fancier visuals than in SnowRunner. In terms of the detail, weather effects, flora, fauna and sandier vistas – it is more akin to the pretty, ill-fated Dakar Desert Rally from Saber Porto.

RoadCraft looks like an upgrade, make no mistake. And thankfully, there is also a user-interface that looks much less amateurish and cluttered than in Expeditions. If anything, it reminds me of SnowRunner but with modifications to account for the new strategy elements. Speaking of which…

Things take an unusual turn in the RoadCraft gameplay, as Yann begins to demonstrate a different side of RoadCraft. Progress is blocked by multiple large shipping containers at a harbour port, so it is your job to use the big harbourside industrial cranes to move them.

In doing so, the camera jumps to a real-time strategy-esque top-down, further-out view. One where it is easier to move the containers. Rather like those arcade machines where you have to grab a toy to win. Except here there is no cuddly reward and winning means not crushing anyone.

From on high

Really cool (unless you hate heights) is that the crane operation can be done in a first-person view. As if you really are the crane operator, enhancing that sandbox vibe. Just don’t forget to bring your sandwiches.

With the cumbersome containers out the way, Yann begins the next phase of the RoadCraft gameplay demo. Having made a wet, water-logged pathway dry, flat and smooth he begins demonstrating a key RoadCraft strategy element. Specifically, the AI trucks.

Yes, unlike in lonely SnowRunner where it is just you and the environment unless playing in co-op (of which RoadCraft supports up to four players), certain trucks on each map are part of your fleet but only the AI can drive them and you can only watch them cruise about from a fixed camera.

Side note: If my memory is correct, there will be three or four maps to start with. For a total of around 80 hours of gameplay if you know what you are doing and more if not. However, I did read elsewhere that there will be eight maps so maybe I was just high or things have changed since Gamescom.

No, you drive

I digress. In the specific route-planning mode, the camera zooms out high above the ground and you can start putting down waypoints that these AI trucks will follow religiously. Hence why ensuring a route is passable is so important. These trucks will tip over or will get stuck if you are not careful.

Yann shows that each waypoint can be edited without having to recreate the entire route, saving more time and energy for tipping over. As you drive around performing tasks, these AI trucks and truckers help you accumulate resources used to further repair the area.

Replayability and the endgame experience are not immediately clear during the demo. I can say, however, that resources accumulate even when an area is ‘completed’. But that said accumulation stops when visiting other maps. So no real-time element here.

Despite the addition of an AI fleet, garages are still a thing in RoadCraft. Here you can store your collection of vehicles, of which I saw a few familiar SnowRunner/Expeditions faces. Plus a lot more not-so-familiar ones, which is rather cool. A focus on plant machinery is apparent.

Bridging expectations

There is certainly more depth in what you can do in RoadCraft, as opposed to just delivering cargo and some light farming in SnowRunner. Or building a base in Expeditions. With that said, certain tasks that I personally would like to savour, such as constructing a bridge, seem too streamlined.

Turn up with the components, dump them and voila! A giant bridge is now constructed with minimal effort and time. Just like in previous Saber Interactive and Focus Entertainment titles. Except in those, the whole point is the driving challenge and not a digital sandbox.

Even the delivery of sand can be done without having to physically collect the material on the map. This might appease more causal players, but it did seem a little out of place in a game where the focus is more on taming the environment and less about driving through mud.

How complete was RoadCraft when I saw it in action? Unfortunately, Yann is unable to answer. Nor can he give me a more specific release date other than the ‘2025’ seen in the announcement trailer.

Yann was also unable to tell me if windscreen wipers are a thing in RoadCraft, seen working beautifully in Dakar Desert Rally – not that I am obsessed or anything. Which I suspect is code for it not being a feature, though I would love to be wrong given the fancier weather effects.

As for SnowRunner 2, the sequel, if that is a thing, obviously I ask Yann about it. As expected and as a former journalist himself, he just laughs. “I cannot share anything at this time,” he explains. Better than a flat-out no, then.

My RoadCraft gameplay first impressions

So what are my RoadCraft gameplay first impressions? Honestly, I wish I had not accidentally deleted my preview footage as there were some subtle nuances I wanted to cover. However, I do remember coming away thinking that I like the direction of travel.

With enough freedom to manipulate the world, enough wheeled and tracked toys to perform a wide variety of tasks and enough visually interesting areas that react to your efforts, I really can see RoadCraft being a tasty side dish to SnowRunner and Expeditions.

Different, yet enough familiar overlap for those who just enjoy driving big, chunky machines, the road ahead sure looks tempting. Not to mention, a whole lot more sandy.