2 Fast, 2 Furious (Car Mechanic Simulator)

Game: Car Mechanic Simulator
Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation, Windows, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS
Played On: Xbox One
Price: £24.99
Available on Xbox Game Pass: No

Yup... this is my new obsession, this game about being a car mechanic... yeah I’m happy with my life choices. So what we have here is Car Mechanic Simulator, or more specifically and console port of Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 and given a generic title. Made in 2017 and developed by Red Dot Games, published by PlayWay, the games is what it says, you simulate being a car mechanic.

Now this is an incredibly niche title, but that comes with the territory. Simulation games have had a huge boom over the past few years and if you look hard enough you’ll find a simulator for anything. There’s even Esports events for farming simulator with various accessories to enhance your farming experience. Have I put the word simulator in here enough yet??

So what about about this automotive offering, is it any good?? Well let’s find out, the game is detailed, and relatively realistic, I mean they can’t exactly give the greasy feel of an auto shop through the screen but it gives it a decent go. So we’ve hit play and we enter what I can loosely call a tutorial. Your aim is to ‘complete the test track’. Only problem is you have no idea how to get there or how to do anything. You’re given 2 cars (one old, one new) but they're not working. There are no button prompts, nothing to guide you and you are left to fend for yourself, I believe I accidentally took off a door and then spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to put it on again.

The other issue is the controls aren’t exactly pristine, this is a game for a PC remember and can be a bit awkward figuring out which tab you need to open or where to aim without some difficulty on a controller. And some of the button mapping is a touch confusing and even now I’m still clicking the wrong thing. Eventually you’ll figure out what you’re doing and where you’re going, and what needs fixing and you’ll be on your way to the next part, driving. It’s not overly important but the cars run okay but feels like your handling a paper airplane. But follow the track and you’ll be done. Also if you change the camera you’ll notice no driver in the car which is odd but anyway... Tutorial over.

So we start our career and if I’m honest this was a lot more helpful than the tutorial. There is a levelling system and every level has a ‘special order’ along with the odd jobs you can choose, these early ones really settle you into the game and do a lot more to help you figure out what you need to do to progress. The first few mission are for different parts of the car before they link it all together.

The other part of the game is of course picking up a beat up, down and out car and making it shine again. This can be done by visiting barns, going to a junkyard or heading to an auction. The barns are in the game from the start and here you can find worn parts and cars (which you won’t be able to buy until you’ve got some decent cash). The junkyard opens up around level 12 which is fairly deep into the game, and this has the same premise as the barn. The auctions open up at level 18 and at this point the levels are taking longer to go up, but this is like an auction, you bid against the AI to get cars and they do not mess about I’ll tell you that for free.

So let’s get into the levelling, it’s pretty gruelling, levels are 1-10 aren’t bad but after that it takes quite a few jobs after the level specific job to gain levels. Every level you get a perk point to spend in your toolbox for upgrades, but to upgrade the shop it’s hard, I’m at level 25 and I still haven’t unlocked a way to paint the cars. So that can be quite frustrating.

As I said before the gameplay is fiddly, it’s hard to aim accurately and can get quite annoying, along with this it’s quite slow and takes a while to remove and replace parts and because of this the gameplay becomes repetitive and quite mind numbing. But I will say when you’re done with a car it can be quite satisfying.

Now I know I’ve been quite down in this game but I still can’t stop playing it, if you like cars and simulators then you will have a fun time this and probably like me will find it addictive. So I have to give it credit on that regard. Another reason why someone might pick this up is for achievements and I’ll tell you this, it’s not worth it, it’s an easy list but it will take hours and hours and at the time of writing only 2 people have got that perfect 1000.

So where do we stand, as a simulator for fixing cars it’s very good and highly addictive, if you have an interest in this then you’ll love it and would easily get an 8/10, but I have to be fair and look at this  as a game in general and as a game in general it’s not the best I can’t lie, it might be better on a PC or a phone but if you picked up this game out of curiosity you’d probably get over the novelty quite quickly. So if you want to play a game about building cars this is it but I’d avoid it if you have no interest.

3/10

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