If you haven't played MudRunner or SnowRunner, it might be difficult to convey the appeal of what could best be described as a vehicular survival game - one where you work your way across vast stretches of off-road landscape and try not to get stuck in the most gloriously viscous mud you'll ever see in a video game.
The Steam Next Fest demo for RoadCraft, developer Saber Interactive's next follow-up, is suffering "mixed" reviews from series fans who think it's not hardcore enough, but my 40 minutes with the demo were absolutely harrowing.
RoadCraft deliberately dispenses with some elements of the formula from previous games, like vehicle damage and fuel, but you're still going to be driving through a whole lot of indescribably muddy roads.
The demo's first objective simply asks you to drive an SUV across the map, and it took all of five minutes for me to get that car flipped upside down in about 10 feet of mud.
Luckily, you can always "recover" your vehicle to its spawn point. Once you reach that destination, you've got to cut down a few trees with a tree processor - a type of machinery I did not realize the existence of until today.