Car Mechanic Simulator 2015

From the studio Red Dot Games we have ourselves a rather unique gem in the myriad of simulator games that have been released in recent years. This is the company’s second venture into creating a mechanic simulator; this time around they had received 20,000 USD from Kickstarter to help them in creating a sequel.

The general mechanics and principles of Car Mechanic Sim have remained the same when looking at its predecessor. You start out as a garage owner with calls waiting on your phone that will give you a variety of different jobs. Your objective is to build up your reputation by repairing various cars and also buying broken down vehicles, fixing them up, and reselling them for profit.

The jobs you receive are randomized, however as you progress through the game you will notice that you are provided with less information about what is wrong with the car. In other words, when you first start the game up you are given a list of parts that need to be placed, however as you progress you will end up with less and less hints as to what’s actually causing the problem. You will have to use the knowledge you have gained from doing previous repairs as the game will not hold your hand through the more difficult repairs. Instead you will have a customer come in who simply wrote that their steering pulls to the left or feels a bit wonky. All of these repairs and the sales of vehicles will allow you to build up your business and beat out the competition.

Unfortunately what the game fails to do is tell you what controls will allow you to inspect the car, which is a key part of the game. Another thing the tutorial completely skipped over was the fact that a job that lists parts that need replacing will actually have a star that you can click next to them that will in fact show where on the car that part is located. Without these helpful hints in the tutorial you will more than likely end up doing exactly what I did; tearing apart the entire car until you find out where the part is located. This may be a bit harsh for some newcomers to car repairs, however it forces you to think for yourself rather than be spoon fed

The game also features a ghost-assembly mode in which you can see exactly where you have removed parts. Unfortunately this almost makes the game a little too easy. It makes accidentally attaching the wrong part impossible and also makes it so you immediately know whether you forgot to put a part back on. It wasn’t until I got to the point where I had to diagnose the cars myself that the actual difficulty began with the game. At one point I had a customer tell me that the car sounded funny, which left it up to me to figure out what the source of the problem was.

The graphics for this game actually surprised me as I have it stuck in my head that sim games have sub-par graphics. Contrary to that belief Car Mechanic Simulator 2015 had some very pleasant visuals. With the settings turned to max I was greeted with an awesome looking garage filled with some great looking textures that actually made me feel like I was in a brand new garage.

If I could have anything changed in the game it would be having an option to remove the ghost assembly mode for more of a challenge, or a feature in which the more you work on cars, the dirtier your garage gets. In this game regardless of how many cars you work on, your garage stays immaculately clean. It’s not a significant problem, however I think an oil spill on occasion or grease on some of your parts would add just a bit more realism to the game.

I cannot walk away from this game saying that I am now an expert in car mechanics and could take apart an entire engine, however I can say that I learned an immense amount about cars and had fun at the same time. You will definitely sink a significant amount of hours into this sim because even with the helpful ghost-assembly you will still find yourself being challenged when it comes to diagnosing a car by yourself. If you are someone looking to learn more about fixing cars, or taking things apart then I can definitely say that this game is for you! It is surprisingly fun, very relaxing, easy to learn, and receives updates periodically. Other than the easiness of re-assembling a car, the only complaint I have about this game is that it can start to get a bit repetitive if you keep at it for a few hours. I did, however, notice that after taking a day off from the game that feeling of repetitiveness was gone. I can truly say that I did enjoy Car Mechanic Simulator as it revved my engine with its addictive gameplay.