Roadcraft "Reclaim" Expansion Review - It's Clobberin' Time!

 

Take that, Hill End Camp!

I've already written a little bit about the new expansion for Roadcraft. Now I'm going to write a little bit more, because after playing through all the previous maps again (and finding one real annoyance with a map that couldn't be completed because of a missing object bug, cah!) I'm now properly neck-deep in the new "Reclaim" expansion pack and boy howdy did Kelly return with some serious challenges...!

Unlike most Roadcraft maps, the new "Reclaim" stuff throws you right in at the deep end, giving you very little to go on other than you can now build buildings, and you can also smash down certain buildings using the new crane-based wrecking ball at your disposal. 

I started out on the "Autumn Collapse" map using a scout vehicle to mooch about, and very quickly discovered the abandoned wrecking crane, and the first base. But from there each and every challenge was a toughie, requiring some real 'out of the box' thinking, and also respect for the game wanting you to play things in a very specific order (which - if you're like me - you'll totally fail to do!) So I also very quickly discovered a couple of roads that needed building, and a weird old abandoned Faux-Medieval castle perched atop a hill, but completely and utterly cut off by a rockslide that I had no means to clear (I had a go with the wrecking ball, and I think the developers missed a trick by not allowing you to use that method to clear the rockslide, personally - but as you'll very quickly discover, the wrecking ball is only usable on properly abandoned buildings - the sandbox, as great as it is - ain't able to cope with you going around trashing everything you see with that sucker, what a pity!)

So begins a war of attrition, a scrounging scrutiny of the map to see if there are any hidden bits and bobs that you can 'reclaim' and use to get your first steel beams facility up and running. Eagle-eyed scouts will very quickly find lost beams, pipes and of course an abundance of logs to be had, but it's using those wisely - and often using them in the correct order of unlocking facilities that becomes key to success with the new expansion. You can't just drop all your resources on the first building you're prompted to set up (the massive oil refinery) otherwise you'll have nothing for the others that are more vital, so be warned, there's a real order to things now!

Scouting is even more important than ever so if you've got yourself a nice batch of scout vehicles, and don't fall foul of the multitude of hazards that await, you'll get a feel for what the level designers want you to do, and how they want you to do it. Make a real business of paying attention to both main and side quests (previously I've been the kind of Roadcraft player who just polishes off all the main quests before embarking on the side stuff) - you will need to achieve a balance between them and you will definitely need to polish off all those power line requests and road building requests in short order so your vehicles can roam around the map more freely. The "Fog of War" in this expansion is really dense so there's very little you can achieve by way of short cuts but most routes are attainable from the get go and there were only a couple of instances where I had to resort to building bridges in weird places in order to progress a bit more smoothly. 

The new Wrecking Ball is OK, hideously underpowered and even more prone to getting stuck on tiny little pebbles than the Asphalt layer (so again make sure you clear your routes - or just do what I did and stick the thing on the back of a low-loader and tote it around the landscape that way - half the time you don't even need to take the thing off the truck to use it!). Bashing down old houses is immensely satisfying and will net you some meagre but valuable resources to use elsewhere but it feels a little bit like window dressing tbh. 

The other new vehicle of note - a massive mincing machine on wheels that can clear stumps and trees and cut huge swathes through forests is also quite a nice addition but again feels horribly underpowered, and with the size and weight of the thing you'd expect it not to get stuck as much as it does. But it DOES come in handy more than I thought it would, I just wish it could do more than just clear trees and stumps (like squishing rocks, that would be great!)

All in all the two Reclaim maps are huge, satisfying and well worth the price of the DLC. Fiendish designs, unforgiving and brutal, probably the most difficult two maps to date, but they've got me horribly hooked, and I am seriously hoping Saber Interactive have more planned or even a proper out-and-out sequel, which would be a day one purchase for sure.