Construction Simulator – Review

It could be said that the same about Farming Simulator. As an alternative, you could play Train World Sim. Or any of the other countless “sim” games that have flooded the market in recent years.

But just as the developers of Train Sim World and the Farming Simulator series went to great lengths to give us the chance to prove ourselves as the best of train drivers, so too could the developers of Construction Simulator have us ploughing in hundreds of seed sowing hours. Despite its lack of excitement, it is incredibly detailed and, oddly enough, mildly addicting. But perhaps not always for the best of intentions.

Inspired by the Saints Row remake, astragon Entertainment and the development team at weltenbaur software have thrown out everything from the previous games in the series and started from scratch to create the best Construction Simulator yet.

As you might expect from a game with the name “Construction Simulator,” the focus is on building-related occupations. You’ll be whisked away to one of two different maps, one set in Europe and the other in the United States, and tasked with working your way up from a lowly construction want tobe to that of the big dog, one dealing with the largest of builds, fixing things up, and making them look sharp.

You’ll start at the bottom and work your way up using a wide variety of construction vehicles, each with their own set of tools and abilities to accomplish a series of goals, all while being guided through a detailed tutorial that may be too detailed and too lengthy.

Thus, Construction Simulator serves its intended purpose. The game is extremely detailed and allows you to operate a wide variety of heavy machinery, such as excavators, trucks, cranes, and just about anything else you might associate with the construction industry. Vehicles are readily available for purchase or rental, and drivers and operators can choose from a wide variety of vehicles, each with its own set of quirks and controls. It’s fun, for the most part, to use them because you can select the vehicle that’s ideal for the task at hand.

However, Construction Simulator’s level of detail means that it occasionally veers into niche categories, and some features are simply too finicky for their own good. For example, it might be a pain to run over freshly laid tarmac, or it might feel like too much of an ordeal to hop in a crane and try to move heavy objects around. Given that each vehicle has a unique set of controls, Construction Simulator has some difficulty accommodating them all.

There are graphical issues as well. We haven’t been particularly impressed by the visuals of any simulation game except for Microsoft Flight Simulator. It’s true that some can look nice, and there’s no denying that Train Sim World nails some seriously well-designed trains, but outside the focus — in this case, the construction vehicles — the rest of the time it’s a graphical nightmare, with merging elements, blocky basic graphics, and more failing to ignite.

And that’s not exaggerated by the fact that Construction Simulator’s environments are dull and lifeless, looking like something that could have come from the scene a decade ago. Construction Simulator’s visuals and soundtrack both fall short of expectations.

The sheer volume of material here, however, more than makes up for any shortcomings. Just. The two worlds, whilst not massive by any means, are just the right size to allow for exploration, helped along by fast travel points and secret collectibles should you be looking for something away from the humdrum of the construction. Those universes feature numerous contracts and lengthy campaigns, as well as upgradeable components, a need to monitor finances, the completion of a variety of challenging milestones, and much more. Strangely like many other games in this genre, Construction Simulator is constantly tapping you on the shoulder to keep you playing, working, and earning cash in the hopes of finding construction success.

Due to this, Construction Simulator turns out to be more fun than we anticipated. Granted, it doesn’t look or sound great, and there are some serious quirks that you’ll need to learn to put up with, but there’s plenty of content and tonnes of detail included; enough to give you a boost as you seek to expand your construction company and attempt to rule the world. You can do this alone, or with a friend if you both shell out the game’s rather high price for the multiplayer mode.

You could do a lot worse than climbing into the driver’s seat of Construction Simulator if you’re the simulation game type and you enjoy operating heavy machinery like dump trucks, excavators, and cranes.