Construction Simulator 2015 Dig, build and run your own site

The fleet is the heart of the game: 16 machines from LIEBHERR, MAN and STILL, from excavators and wheel loaders to a mobile crane that swings gigantic roof trusses into place. The controls lean into the real thing. Excavators support SAE controls, the kind real machines use, and you can steer with two joysticks. The sounds are recorded from the original machines, so the excavator growls like the real one. If that sounds like too much on a Tuesday evening, switch to arcade controls; pros can keep pro mode on. One concrete moment: you lower the boom, curl the bucket and feel the teeth bite into the foundation of a house that was flat ground an hour ago.

The map is freely navigable, with towns, fields and even a highway to drive across, and dealers and suppliers to visit along the way. Work comes from a non-linear mission system: over 150 missions and 200 working stages, from digging a pit to pouring concrete into factory wall panels with an enormous concrete pump. You will not run out quickly, and an experience system with levels unlocks special missions as you go. A detailed tutorial gets you started, so the first job does not assume you already know what a concrete pump does.

If 200 stages are not enough, the game ships with the developer's own Construction Kit, which lets you shape your own worlds and add your own vehicles and construction sites. Finished something? Share it through Steamworks or fan sites, where a large community passes user-created vehicles and missions around. The fleet can grow long past the 16 machines that come in the box.

This is a business as much as a sandbox. You take jobs, grow your motor pool, and if you do well, larger and more lucrative contracts come calling, along with new office locations that open up more possibilities. In an advanced game you can juggle up to three construction sites at once and watch the money actually pile up. The pace stays calm: no timers breathing down your neck, just work to do at your own speed, which makes it a good fit when you want to unwind while still feeling productive.

Construction goes better with company, and up to four players can share one site. You can split a job sensibly: several excavators dig a pit together while another player hauls the excavated material off to the gravel plant. Or ignore the missions entirely and just mess around in the open world with friends, which is a perfectly valid use of a 30-ton crane.