Construction Simulator: Spaceport Expansion DLC – Review

Construction Simulator has been out just over a year and we haven’t seen many better Simulation games over the last 14 months but while the core game has been fantastic, some of the DLC prices have been a little up and down, as explained in our review of the SANY Pack, But with the Spaceport Expansion, we’re promised dozens of hours of content so let’s jump in to see how it fares.

Loading up Construction Simulator after purchasing the Spaceport Expansion isn’t perfectly straight forward, there’s no menu option, no pop-up to interact with and when you continue an existing game, there’s nothing to be found, but when you select to start a new game, you can take your existing character (and their money) over to South America in a whole new map dedicated to this expansion.
As you might expect, the map is pretty sparse compared to the main maps, but you’ll still find a well set out area, with plenty of detail and enough quality to make it feel just as well made and part of the game as the American and European maps.

Once you’ve got familiar with your new surroundings, you’ll see you’ve arrived with a simple flat-bed truck and a pick-up truck, so you’ll have to have a drive around to discover important locations such as the vehicle dealership so you can pick up some machinery to start on your quest to help build a new space-port and it’s supporting buildings.

There’s still the randomly generated jobs such as repairing roads, which helps keep consistent job flowing, but after the main introductory mission, the bulk of your new work will centralise around two sets of builds. Each has 3 main jobs, built up of sometimes over a dozen tasks, making these advanced jobs, which are definitely better suited for people already familiar with the game.
After already completing the main game, I didn’t have too many issues, but even carrying over a pretty healthy bank-balance, I was still renting machines because there’s such a wide selection of tasks to do.

These sets will include building access roads, a viewing area and the vehicle assembly building but the final job will see you construct the entire launch area, and the large frames to support the rocket itself, before you’re treated to a viewing of all your hard work and seeing it go up in smoke (in a good way) with the launch of the towns rocket.

It really is worth reinstating that we’re not talking simple jobs either, from the 8 main missions, I’d say only one, maybe two would be classed as easier than the last few missions in the main game, so if you haven’t yet completed the main game, you might want to hold off before heading to the tropical peninsula.
But for fans who’ve maybe worked through the core content, it definitely feels like a step in the right direction, offering mostly much longer, more complex and challenging missions that the usual random-jobs available after the main story was complete.

There’s no new machinery or vehicles, so while it does feel like a step forward in content, it’s not laying new foundations or adding anything new or innovative to the game or the experience you’ve had so far, but you will be able to re-buy any existing machinery, including any DLC packs you own.

One area that I was expecting to be an issue was graphics, we know Construction Simulator is already one of the best-looking simulation games available to date, but upon learning that the DLC would be set in it’s on new map, I was expecting the surroundings to be somewhat basic or rushed. Thankfully however, I was completely wrong and the new area provides a new map, new areas (and collectables) to explore and while it’s definitely its own unique setting, it still feels up to the same quality of standards that we got with the American and European maps in the core game.
We could complain about the number of trees to fill space, (and maybe that was partly a reason for the South American / tropical setting.

The audio isn’t quite as impressive, mostly because it just doesn’t feel like there’s been as much added, sure there’s the few conversations you’ll have with the financial advisor who greets you for most tasks, but beyond that, there’s nothing really significant that stands out as feeling anywhere as new or fresh as the aesthetics suggest for the new area.

Finally, it’s value, and Construction Simulator: Spaceport Expansion is definitely great value, coming in at $19.99 (around £16), there’s dozens and dozens of hours (suggested to be around 40 in total) as you work through the new location, I’d personally call around the 20-25 hour mark, but that’s still fantastic value for a DLC pack and is also available for just £10 extra, when purchased as part of the bundle that includes the base game.
It’s fair to say the Spaceport Expansion is out of this world, when it comes to providing us with new missions and a new challenge, but don’t expect any evolution beyond what you’ve already done.

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