Construction Simulator: SANY pack – DLC Review

The 2022 reboot of the Construction Simulator franchise is now a year old and the final piece of year one arrives with the SANY pack, 15 new vehicles to help you construct your way to success.

I’ve invested a decent amount of time into Construction Simulator, well over 40 hours relaying roads, building houses and making my city a safer and more aesthetically pleasing place to live, but while I’ve invested plenty of time into the core content, I’ve never invested in the DLC due to a few odd prices and the SANY pack tops the list as the most expensive DLC available to date.

As well as a few cosmetic packs, the first year of content has now seen 3 vehicles packs, and a scenario extension. First late in 2022, came the Kramer pack, charging £5.99 for 3 vehicles felt a little steep especially when two are a small and larger variation of a Wheel loader, but the pack at least offered something fresh with the first telescopic loader.
Spring 23 and JCB’s appeared on the forecourt with six new vehicles as part of another pack costing £7.99, which made the Airfield Expansion, at £8.39 a few months later feel like quite a bargain, rather than offering new vehicles which do the same as vehicles you’ve already purchased, it offered a new Scenario with 5 new main contracts as well as sub-contracts which actually provided well over a dozen extra hours of gameplay, so now we have the SANY pack at £12.99 it’s by far the most expensive DLC, but it comes with a staggering 15 new vehicles.

• SANY STR130C-8S – Vibratory Asphalt Compactor
• SANY SSR120C-8 – Vibratory Single Drum Soil Compactor
• SANY SY305C LC – Medium Hydraulic Excavator
• SANY SY500H (Tier 4F) – Large Hydraulic Excavator
• SANY SY155W – Wheeled Hydraulic Excavator
• SANY SYL956H5 – Wheel Loader
• SANY SMG200C-8 – Motor Grader
• SANY SAP60C-8 – Asphalt Paver
• SANY SRT45 – Articulated Dump Truck
• SANY SAC1300T2 – Small Mobile Crane
• SANY SAC4500 – Large Mobile Crane
• SANY SCM2000C-8 – Cold Planer
• SANY SR155 – Rotary Drilling Rig
• SANY SY35U (Tier 4i) – Compact Excavator
• SANY SFT100 – Tower Crane

While 15 is definitely a sizeable addition to the game, you’ll notices there’s a few duplicate areas with one standing and two portable cranes and four excavators, while machines like the Drilling rig and Cold planer won’t get much use.
I personally found the two compactors, dump truck and excavator or two and a crane, you’re mostly left with about 6, maybe 7 vehicles which you’re likely to use often.
It’s good to see various machines we haven’t got with previous vehicle packs, but I often returned to using the CAT machines I’d spent so much time and money collecting.
The downside with releasing such a large pack of new machines a year after release is most people will already have alternatives of quite a few of them, and if like me you spend over a million dollars on picking up the new SANY vehicles, you’re likely to feel short-changed when many aren’t anything really new or exciting.

There’s never anything bad about having choice though and with 15 new machines to acquire, there’s certainly plenty of choice.

One positive is the work that’s gone into recreating each machine, with every single one looking, feeling and sounding realistic and while I haven’t been screaming around the cul-de-sac on a SANY excavator this week, they seem to be as authentic as any other vehicle in the game, they each have the usual options to turn on the worker lights, headlights and switching to work mode, such as planting the supports for the crane or controlling the excavator bucket rather than the camera is the same actions (X or clicking the left thumb stick).
My only real complaint comes back to each addition feeling like there’s already something similar and in many occasions two or three very similar options, so apart from anyone who knows a lot about these machines, to the untrained eye an excavator is going to look, feel and perform very similar to another.

A little repetition and familiarity aren’t too bad when you consider the overall value in comparison with other packs, the Kramer pack works out at around £2 per vehicle, with the JCB pack, averaging £1.33 for each vehicle, so the SANY pack bringing us a much lower 87p per vehicle, which more than makes up for having a few similar options. Even if you think you might only use 10 vehicles, it’s still better value than any of the other vehicle packs.
It’s also worth noting that while there’s similarities, each machine is definitely different, those four excavators will each find a use for the purists, and while I’d personally only use the largest when possible and the compact when necessary, I’m sure some people would find a use for each.

The problem for me is no vehicle pack would ever be my first choice, the core game gives you 4 major questlines, so the Airfield expansion is extending your game by about 20-30% for only £8.39 tops them all, but if you’re looking to add to your construction armory to work through those jobs, the SANY pack is well worth considering. But I’d personally be looking towards the seasonpass, which gives various cosmetics, all three vehicle packs and the airfield expansion for only £27.99, that’s less than it would cost to buy just the Airfield, SANY and JCB packs separately.

The Construction Simulator SANY Pack, isn’t a bad addition to the game, but at £12.99 it’s quite a steep price of entry, while with 15 vehicles, it does offer the best bang for your buck compared to other vehcile packs, the smart money would be on the Season pass, which gives you the expansion and all three vehicle packs and cosmetics for £27.99 which is less than £8 more than the Airfield expansion and SANY pack would cost.

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