[dropcap size=big]I[/dropcap]’m going to start this review off by getting something off of my chest: I’m not much of a car buff. I’m not even a little bit of a car buff, in fact I’m probably as from a car buff as can be. Before I first launched Car Mechanic Simulator 2015, the sum of my knowledge about how cars operate was based off of the assumption that they’re actually metal monsters with drinking problems; monsters that refuse to operate unless their fix is sated. Turns out they’re actually metal monsters full of little bits and bobs that break constantly.
Because of my utter lack of knowledge, the first few hours I spent playing Car Mechanic Simulator 2015 felt more like I was playing a puzzle game than a simulator. Simple jobs that would have taken the game’s average player five or so minutes to finish took me forty, as I spent most of my time disassembling everything element of the car to try to find the broken part(s). At one point, too stubborn to just Google where a front link bar was located (hint: it’s definitely not in the back), I began taking out all of the…underside bits…in a mad dash to find it. By the time I finally realized I had already removed it, I had completely disassembled the underbelly of the car. Oops.
But after a while, I began to understand. What was what connected to what, where parts were located, their names, and when I finally began to accept jobs that involved fixing the same problems as before I had them finished much faster. But it was only a while after that a larger, more serious problem reared its ugly head: monotony. There are only so many times you can replace brake pads before it becomes extraordinarly dull. Just by going off of this game, I have to assume that brake pads are fragile enough that they break mere hours after being replaced. Car Mechanic Simulator 2015 began to feel more like a tedious grind than a fun puzzler, and even the large variety of cars to repair didn’t help reduce the feeling for me.
If you’re into cars and don’t mind repetitive gameplay, I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy Car Simulator 2015. The game’s developers, Red Dot Games, have been supporting it since its launch with patches and free content updates. Car Mechanic Simulator 2015 is available on Steam, and costs $19.99.