Saber Interactive and Focus Entertainment are back with another title. For all the four-wheel-driving fans out there, this game is much like the others in that aspect but has all new objectives, adding awesome immersive value. You are the leader of a company that specialises in restoring sites devastated by natural disasters that have occurred. Roadcraft is a great game for 4×4 lovers, machinery lovers, and people who want to get down and dirty. 

Saber Interactive is well known for titles like Mudrunner and Snowrunner, and most four-wheel-driving fans have played these games as they have realistic views of what it’s like on the tracks. Roadcraft adds another layer as you need to fix events caused by natural disasters. You could use anything from a cable laying machine to a padfoot roller to repair roads or run electricity from one area to another.

I thought it was quite cool that you could automate the road creation, or if you wanted to do the work, you could do it, which was more fun than automating and watching someone else having the fun. We got a sneak peek of two of the maps in the demo, which looked stunning and had completely different environments, so it made the wheeling a little bit more fun. Still, I needed to remember to go back and do the objectives for the preview write-up.

This didn’t surprise me much, which was more disappointing than anything, but like previous titles, the sound remained fairly generic overall. You had two options with the vehicles, either full revs or no revs, which means that not all cars need to be full noise to get through bog, holes, or cruise down the main highway.

There was some light at the end of the tunnel with the vehicle’s audio sounds, with the machinery sounding a little more detailed and different whilst under load, which was a cool addition. While you are cruising around finishing the objectives to fix the remains of disaster, there is some nice acoustic guitar in the background, which was nice at the start but got a little old quickly, which ended up being turned off, and Spotify started. 

A couple of times, I just stopped and soaked in the scenery. Everything looked finished with the stunning visuals, from the lighting down to the shadows. It’s built on another level compared to previous games. The different vehicles and machinery you drive around were all highly detailed inside and outside, which was a pleasant surprise.

I was disappointed that the taillights were not working. They lit up without a brake light, and the headlights were pointless. Despite those minor letdowns with the overall finish, it presented well and using their own engine, “Swarm Engine”, Saber did a good job. I want to see the full release and what else can be ironed out. 

There was a lack of optimisation with the keyboard and mouse, which came across as incredibly clunky with super noticeable input delay or sometimes flat-out not working. You would be driving and going to steer, and nothing would happen, and you would need to stop and then turn the wheel, which made the jobs more time-consuming.

I also hooked the racing simulator up again to test out the wheel, which, like previous titles, lacked force feedback and had a weird dead zone in the middle, which pulled away from the immersive feeling of four-wheel driving. I was surprised that the Xbox controller felt optimised and the controls were much more responsive, but being a simulation and four-wheel driving-based game, it took away from sitting behind the wheel and doing some wheeling. 

Saber Interactive has the groundwork laid for an incredible title that will suck you in for hours with different objectives and wanting to make sure you complete each section on each map to the best of your company’s abilities. I’m hoping those minor things I commented about in this write-up are polished out before full release, as this is something I can see myself hooking right into and lifting tyres. Roadcraft will be released on the 21st of May in 2025. 

Written by: Hayden Nelson