Roadcraft: building roads in an empty world
19.5.2025
Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson
In Roadcraft, you help rebuild disaster zones. The mix of exploring, constructing roads and maintaining forests is slow-paced, which makes it really relaxing. Only the empty world feels strange.
A few years ago, there was a trend going round on social media that reminds me a lot of Roadcraft. Liminal spaces are transitional spaces that seem familiar but are usually completely empty. Think cleared-out office spaces, empty supermarkets or playgrounds minus the kids. These areas feel both accessible and surreal, like a threshold to a dream world.
This is exactly how Roadcraft often feels. Why? Because you’re the only person going round on a four square kilometre map. The outset is always the same: a natural disaster has devastated an area and you need to restore the infrastructure using a selection of big machines.
From pioneer to foreman
The first step is to get an overview with a small off-road vehicle. My client, who’s connected by radio, makes several suggestions on how to tackle the rebuilding. Your job is to build roads and bridges, get factories up and running again and to repair gas pipelines or lay power cables. You do all this from the driver’s cab of various vehicles. And there are plenty to unlock to up your construction efficiency: lorries, cranes, bulldozers or road rollers.
Roadcraft strikes a balance between realism and motivating gameplay. In the video above, I’m building a road with my buddy Jerry. For English subtitles, click the gear icon, «Subtitles/CC» and «Auto-translate». The job involves laying a foundation of sand with the tipper truck and spreading the sand with a bulldozer. Then it’s time to roll out the paving with an asphalting machine and press it onto the road with a roller. It’s all pretty easy to do and usually means driving up and down the same route.
The big void
The roads you construct link factories to village centres that have been destroyed by storms or earthquakes. Places that are completely deserted. There’s nobody around, not even factory workers. Only once you’ve connected two places can you dispatch unstaffed vehicles to drive down routes you’ve mapped out. This way you can collect money or other resources. The machines show zero human behaviour and only follow a predefined route. If it’s blocked by a tipper truck, for example, the head of the convoy will honk aggressively. If I fail to move out of the way, the convoy abandons its mission.
Still, working in this liminal space is fun, it’s incredibly relaxing to work your way through the list of tasks. Listening to a podcast or audiobook (the game’s soundtrack isn’t worth mentioning) and finishing one job after another is seriously satisfying. And there’s not much that can go wrong. Sometimes the crane truck will tip over or you’ll get stuck with the tipper. When that happens, you can simply teleport the vehicle back to the garage and start all over again. Once you’ve completed all the tasks, you unlock additional maps. Thanks to some side missions, maps you’ve already completed are worth revisiting. A total of eight maps are available, and two more will follow in a DLC (Downloadable Content).
More lives thanks to co-op mode
By the way, thanks to cooperative mode, you can start reconstructing as a team of four people max. This greatly speeds up road construction if you go about it in a coordinated way. You can also carry certain tasks out automatically. For example, tell a truck to lay the foundations of a road. All you have to do is roll out the paving at the end.
Visually, Roadcraft is stunning. Mud warps realistically, puddles make waves when you drive through them. The dense forests, barren deserts or dilapidated villages look beautiful and realistic. All the more surprising there are no people around. No sign of any animals either. It’s as if we’re the only survivors in a post-apocalyptic world. A road construction Robinson Crusoe on a desert island. The last of our species.
Roadcraft was released on 20 May and is available on PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation. The PC version was provided to me by Saber Interactive.
In a nutshell
Lots to do in an empty world
The combination of off-road exploring, road building and logging makes Roadcraft a very relaxing and potentially addictive experience. I often caught myself wanting to lay the foundations of a road «for just a bit», only to have paved an entire road two hours later. However, the fact that the world’s an incredibly empty place is a little confusing at first. The odd person would’ve been nice.
Pro
- Lots of content for little cash
- Motivating gameplay
- Co-op mode for up to four people
- Visually beautiful levels
- Large fleet of vehicles
Contra
- Empty game world
- Gameplay very slow at times
Simon Balissat
Teamleader Editorial
Simon.Balissat@digitecgalaxus.chWhen I flew the family nest over 15 years ago, I suddenly had to cook for myself. But it wasn’t long until this necessity became a virtue. Today, rattling those pots and pans is a fundamental part of my life. I’m a true foodie and devour everything from junk food to star-awarded cuisine. Literally. I eat way too fast.
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