Review: Car Mechanic Simulator 2014
If you’re like me, and demographics suggests that you are, your version of work is either a service oriented position where you hand out lattes, merchandise, or government grants, or you have a variation on a job where you sit at a desk and use a magic box to make things appear on a flickering screen. If you are very unlucky your job might involve both of these. You have probably, at some point during a staff meeting or excruciating phone call, turned your head to look out the window and imagined how your grandparents earned their living, working with their brains and muscles, hands and hearts. And maybe you closed your eyes, and imagined…. what if?
Videogames have developed to fulfill every type of fantasy. This week you could be a sneak thief, a mech pilot, or any one of hundred heroes. Next week you’ll be able to live the fantasy of being stuck in Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s brains. But finally, videogames are starting to cater to THE WORKING-MAN fantasy, and it’s one of these proud specimens I present for you today.
Hint: This isn’t a carriage.
These simulations of mundane, blue-collar jobs are not a new phenomena, but they have been popping up like mushrooms on Steam of late. Some of them appear to be legitimate garbage, but if you’ve ever wanted to run a lumber-mill, drive a forklift, or move cargo across Europe there are a variety of simulations that have you covered. I was drawn to Car Mechanic Simulator 2014 because it looked like the most non-traditional, and because it looked like something you could build a cool puzzle game around. Also, I like to open up computers and tinker with their interlocking systems, and cars are basically smelly noisy computers, right?
First impressions of the game are good. The soundtrack gets the job done and the menus, while plagued frustrating design choices, are pretty. The game puts you into the ‘action’ immediately, telling you to take apart some wheels, replace the brake pads, and inspect the disks. You are shown how to buy parts, disassemble the car, and put it back together. I don’t know what any of these parts really are, but I know what the wheel is. I happily stamp the repair form, and wait for the game to send in the next car.
It does, and asks me to replace ‘all the filters’. I open the hood…
Bwuh?!
… and I close the hood. I have no idea what these things are. I open my inventory to see if my avatar is carrying around a text-book. No such luck. I do, however, happen to be carrying the four nearly destroyed brake pads I took out of the last car. Bonus! In the tradition of mechanics everywhere, I open up the new car’s wheels and swap its good-as-new brake pads with my crappy ones, thus guaranteeing future business. I hope. The games does not acknowledge this chicanery, and I wander around my digital garage contemplating that they should make a mini-game where you have to chase after screws.
Finally, after a trip to the digital parts shop and few minutes on Google (“what does a fuel filter look like?”; Dad would be so proud), I start to rip into the engine in a fury of disassembling and inspecting until I find everything that isn’t the fuel filter. I finally find that little gem hiding near the fuel tank. Devious! Finally, feeling prouder than I should, I stamp the repair complete form and send the driver on his way, belatedly he will probably last only until the next time he uses the brakes. I do a few more more repairs, only needing to consult Wikipedia an embarrassing number of times.
It was at that point that I realized something. This game is good! I know, shocking. The graphics are adequate if not outstanding, it doesn’t crash, everything is authentic (as far as I can tell), and the sound design is superb. The interface and the controls could use some work, but if these were the only issues in an epic RPG or kill-slaughter-gore fest I’d be over the moon. Someone spent some real love and attention on this game, and it shows. Of course, this left me wondering who this love and attention was being shown for?
I screw a doohickey, and the customer.
The title screen gives a clue, providing the name of the person who did the English localization. The game is not bad, it is the product of another culture. Like Bollywood or Hong Kong cinema, it is only laughable when taken out of its cultural context. This game, from the Polish developer PlayWay S.A., is an indication of how international games development is coming. I came to this game for cheap laughs, and I got them, but I also came away with a realization about the changing shape of the games industry.
Car Mechanic Simluator 2014 is available on Steam. It has a demo, and I urge you to check it out. Laugh at it, but bear in mind that what you laugh at today will be appreciated by art snobs tomorrow.
