I never imagined I'd ever spend over 450 hours playing a single Playstation 5 game, but Roadcraft is like therapy, a 'slow game' that has ticked all the boxes I need right now, providing a fantastic set of challenges that - on a fourth playthrough (yes you read that right, FOURTH) continues to provide a heck of a lot of enjoyment for the modest buy-in price.
Roadcraft has just seen the launch of its first DLC, the "Rebuild Expansion" which I actually paid for ages ago, and have waited for quite some time to see actually show up. The fact that it launched on the same day as the digital-store-wrecking "Hollow Knight Silksong" was unfortunate, but eventually I got to download the thing and take the new stuff for a spin.
Though I'm midway through my completion of existing levels, I couldn't help sneaking a look at what's new, and using some of the new DLC vehicles to help with existing challenges.
First up is the new awesome "Ant" bridgelaying tank. I mean look at this thing:
In some maps you're faced with these annoying gaps, with no concrete plants or timber-harvesting capabilities to allow you to build a bridge, so with this vehicle you can just roll up, drop a portable bridge down, and cross those gaps with ease (even retrieving the bridge later on if you want to, once you can build proper bridges).
Some of the existing vehicles have also been beefed up, like the ever-reliable Mule, which has had some botox in the wheel department:
It comes with improved stats as well as those beefy tyres so can cope with some hefty loads. Hilariously though, it's still as likely to tip over at the most inopportune moment, just like its skinny-wheeled predecessor.
The Armiger Thunder (or "Land Rover" as we call it in my culture) has also had some wheel pumping, and now looks properly rugged (and can cope with mud like a mudskipper):
Lara Croft would probably go moist at the prospect of this thing, which comes with a load of useless roof decoration, but sure looks the part.
There are a couple of other vehicles including another bridgelayer (built on an existing truck chassis this time with a shorter bridge span) but it's not just vehicles that have been enhanced - there are two new sprawling maps chock full of new challenges, infrastructure stuff and goodies to keep you playing for another 450 hours or more.
"Contamination" is the first of the new maps, and it's a punishing slog from the very beginning. With the usual 'get here in a scout' missions first, you're thrown right in at the deep end, and will need all the skills, all the sneaky shortcuts and strategies, and will need to get the very best use out of the vehicles in the game - nearly all of them in fact.
Sadly, one of the best bits of the game is missing from the DLC. The delectable Kelly, no longer entertaining us with her dulcet Canadian tones and incessant moaning about her crappy coffee, lack of holidays and her terrible office chair. If there's one thing that made the DLC feel slightly hollow it was that all the missions and updates are delivered without her sparkling red haired visage. OK I admit it. I had a crush on her, weird as it sounds. I've always had a thing about redheads.
In just a few hours I could only scavenge about 10% completion on "Contamination" so I haven't even dug into "Washout" yet. It's like the map designers knew exactly how to have me screaming at the screen as I realised there would be no short cuts to completing the missions, they are all extremely punishing and resources are scarce (for example you only get the most useless wooden bridges, the two skinny ones, and they are no good for most of the gaps you'll encounter in this level, so it's kinda fortunate you've got bridgelayers in the game, right?)
Lasst but not least the DLC introduces the new promised 'difficulty' modes, giving you extra menus to tweak if you're the sort of sadist who likes to make games harder. You can tweak everything from recovery costs to fuel consumption (Yep, you can set vehicles to run out of fuel at inopportune moments, though why you'd want to do that is beyond me, even for bragging rights).
Saber has also tweaked a few UX bits and pieces. Sadly not all the improvements are good, the new pathfinding for infrastructure route-building missions is horrible and seems to have some serious jaggies / lag to it, which makes building effective routes even trickier than before (and it wasn't exactly easy before the tweaks). I also don't like that you can't seem to cancel these once they're completed, they either run their course or continue running indefinitely, which means you have to get a bit more canny about your pathbuilding and planning if several routes clash with each other.
Overall though it's well worth the extra £12 just to get those two extra maps and all those vehicle enhancements (and the bridge tank is a lot of fun, admittedly, I mean who ISN'T going to lay a bridge from a road to the roof of a building just for shits and giggles). Some of the level missions introduce new game mechanics (such as 'fragile' cargo which, when damaged, robs you of a bonus amount of money). The levels are really well designed, and do bring even more gameplay into what is already a very long and rewarding game experience.
Roadcraft is far and away my game of the year, and though Saber don't often hit the mark with some of the updates and changes, there's more on the way and it seems they're committed to making Roadcraft even cooler in future, so stay tuned and see what else they come up with.
Comments
Post a Comment