Construction Simulator 2014 brings some heavy duty equipment to your screen. Using Liebherr, MAN, or Still construction equipment you deliver garbage containers, load soil in the dumper truck, or pour foundations. Completed jobs bring money, prestige, and larger machines until you end up in charge of a major building site.

Excavators and tractor rides on the touch screen

In Construction Simulator 2014 players take on the role of the building contractor. To begin you complete small transport contracts and excavation work for money. You invest the money earned in various vehicles and machines including wheel loaders, a truck crane, pick-up, concrete pump, excavator, compactor, or a cement mixer.

The new machines also bring new tasks with them, and consequently more money. In addition, the player earns experience through completing bigger tasks. From starting out as an apprentice you can end up as building contractor. As a contractor you also take care of completed building sites.

If you have taken on a job or lost enthusiasm for it, you can pass the work on to a laborer. However, you will then only be paid for the parts of tasks that you yourself have completed. This is convenient and also practical: it saves long drives and you can easily deliver the vehicle to the job site for cash. On the site itself you go into build mode and control the machine yourself, for example a backhoe or dump truck.

A tutorial makes it easy for beginners to get started.

Solid control and interesting machines

The vehicles used in Construction Simulator 2014 are controlled via buttons on the touch screen. Alternatively, the vehicle can also be steered by tilting your device left or right. These methods didn't always work well in our test.

Signs or reflector posts often become insurmountable obstacles, but they don't harm the vehicle itself. If the vehicle gets stuck, the handy reset button gets the player back on to the road. 

In Construction Simulator 2014 load times are also slow.

Average graphics and sparing use of sound

From the player's viewpoint Construction Simulator 2014 offers solid standard fare. Construction vehicles and buildings are neither ugly nor designed to look particularly appealing. A weak point in Construction Simulator 2014 is the trees that consist of precisely four sides.

Acoustically, the hobby site manager has to make do with noises around the vehicles. Construction Simulator 2014 doesn't have music or even a radio station.

Bottom line: Solid, like concrete foundations

Construction Simulator 2014 is like a strong concrete foundation: basically the simulation works well. The many vehicles look realistic, the various tasks and the construction equipment offer different challenges. What's more, there are helpful, practical functions, such as the reset button or the vehicle delivery. 

However, the controls spoil the fun of the construction business. If you're not familiar with several cars and how house walls look then you'll rarely make it on the building site.