At the same time I picked it up, I also bought a cheap copy of "Expeditions" by the same team, and try as I might, I cannot get my head into how tedious the game is in comparison to Roadcraft.
It uses the same game mechanics as the "Snowrunner / Mudrunner" games, ie you take part in a bunch of missions to drive a vehicle from objective to objective over quite often inhospitable terrain. It's a "Slow" game (like Roadcraft, incidentally) where progress is measured by your capacity to put up with your vehicle slipping in mud, tipping over and requiring recovery, or some absolutely terrible waypointing / map-handling. Coupled with a UX that's hideous from start to finish, "Expeditions" isn't fit to lick the boots of Roadcraft and I reached the point of ultimate frustration with it last night, quit and went straight back to RC for a fourth play through.
While we Roadcrafters face a seemingly endless wait for the DLC to drop (come ON you lot, get your finger out!) the only option is to go back through the maps again, and play the same missions again but this time thinking about new and different ways to complete each objective.
I got into the idea of looking around the map for 'off the beaten track' methods of achieving the goals. The game does signpost a lot of tracks and trails through the ruined landscapes, but I prefer to try and figure out ways to use bridges or roadbuilding to navigate parts of the map that probably aren't even supposed to be seen, let along driven across.
One example is building a colossal bridge from the port on one map, right across to the other side of a gorge. Usually setting up an infrastructure route between those two points involves almost running out of mapping points, but with this short-cut I could just send my trucks up the steep bridge I'd built, and cut almost half the map out, making a huge difference to completion.
The developers have been exceedingly generous but also extremely clever in the way the can put a random rock or an obstacle in the optimum position to scupper your plans, which is great because then your brain tries to think of a way to counter their cleverness. In the three previous runs-through of the game I took on different tactics every time. Some of the 'search and recovery' missions are achingly tedious but after you've completed them three times you get a feel for where things are, and also remember the mistakes of last time, so that also means you can quickly whip through the game.
I daren't look at the number of hours of play I've sunk into this game. My wife and daughter have their smartphones and social media feeds that they're addicted to. Me, I usually boot up Roadcraft and play through again, just to chip another mission off the seemingly endless list dished up by the gorgeous Kelly, your controller and dispatcher (who is a Canuck redhead, so yeah just my type!)
I'm now genuinely worried that I'm never going to find a game to replace this. I am hoping the DLC keeps me busy for a while (and I could see me playing that through numerous times) but if a sequel is announced, it'll be an insta-buy. Meanwhile the rest of my game collection goes unplayed, even the latest acquisitions like TH 3 and 4 remastered, which was fantastic but not enough to drag me away from this.
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