What have you been playing lately? Any new discoveries on the market that are worth being purchased?
I didn't have too much gaming in the past few days since my parents visited me so I spent more family time vs technology time, but after my previous review for Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 I thought there is no better moment than now to also try out the version of the game for cars and compare them, hopefully having more pros for Car Mechanic Simulator series.
I will say from the beginning that I don't have the 2021 version of the game as it happened at Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator, but only the games from 2014 and 2018. However, as I'll assume that the newer versions come with more updates and better set up, I'll base my review on the 2018 version only, because just as you might have already figured out, we are talking about that kind of games where a new version is being released yearly as it happens with FIFA, NBA, PGA, WWE or other games.
To be honest, I never understood this kind of series of games and I'd never see myself investing money yearly for the same game which only comes with better graphics and a few more things in plus than the previous version but I guess this is more for the real fans of the series who would invest every penny for a new update to the game.
Anyway, a first PRO for Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 comes from the first time I open up the game because the in motorcycle version of the game there was no intro or short movie at the beginning which I'd really like to see. However, Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 comes with a short movie with a garage and a man repairing cars which has pretty cool video and audio effects so we can consider this a decent start for the game.
The next thing I wanted to check out almost right away was if this game comes with video settings because we all know that Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 didn't have these and made me really pissed off to see a game in 2022 not having video settings which I consider some of the most essential settings a game can come with.
Happily, we can talk about another "+" for Car Mechanic Simulator because it seems like the settings are sort of complete on this series even though I wasn't needed to adjust them too much because the game was running decently on my old PC. š
I know the "tutorial" was not missing in Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 but this one sort of had some cons because I considered it more of a walkthrough on dismantling a bike and then putting everything back together without really teaching you what the machines from the workshop do or come with some sort of a notepad where it's written where you can find every piece of the vehicle.
In Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 the things look a little bit more professional done with 4 options to pick from before starting a new game. Anyway, since I don't have any mechanics knowledge, I still felt like it would be better to start with the normal mode which should have the tutorial included. And it did.
So I started my journey in Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 still in the garage but where this time every time I was approaching a machine there was a little message popping up on my screen with details about that thing.
However, while in the Motorcycle version of the series this thing was missing but there was the practical part presented, in the Car version of the game, we had the opposite with the presentation of the tools available but the practical part missing. š
I'll repeat that this is the 2018 version of the game and not the 2021 so maybe (hopefully) that one comes with both game theory and practice, but since my review is based on an older version I can't hide my disappointment again.
I like the thing that you are able to travel from one garage to another, from shops to auctions, from races to junkyard, but I don't know if this is funny or not to talk about a car game which presents all kind of vehicles with a different brand than the real one. For example the Audi from the attached image which even though is very obvious what car is presented, it comes with 3 diamonds as a logo instead of the 4 circles we all know Audi has.
I do know that getting brand licenses for cars is not one of the cheapest things you can do while creating a game with vehicles in it but considering that we are talking about a series of games that comes with a new release every year, I'm pretty sure they are making enough money to afford obtaining some brand licenses and make the gaming experience more accurate.
Anyway, while everything looks quite decent from the outside, not the same thing happens when checking out a car from the inside. Which is another "-" for the game because we are talking about a mechanic simulator game so I'd expect to see more attention on details on the parts themselves rather than how the car is presented on the outside.
However, this is not too important for me because I've never put an accent on playing games only with cool graphics, so I can make an exception in this situation and don't take it too hard.
Though, a thing that I can't ignore is the lack of presentation on how to discover the main buttons you should use for this game, such as checking the orders and picking a new client to work for.
While in the Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 you could use the tablet for that by simply pressing "TAB" button, this time the same button wasn't working anymore even though we are talking about a pretty similar game. So I was needed to go back to menu and check the settings where I discovered that the button used for that is "T".
I said, ok, cool, now let's get back in game and take one of these jobs and see if everything is set up better than the motorcycle series. But guess what, the "T" button was still not working.
Here's where I've spent quite a while to figure out why the button was not working thinking that maybe it's my keyboard acting weird again. So I added a different button for the same setting but when using it in game there was still nothing happening.
Long story short, I figured out that you have to use the right click of the mouse to open a wheel with more settings where there is also this section of jobs but which I still consider you should be able to open it only by pressing a button. Otherwise, I really don't understand why this is added on the game controls? Huh... š
So I went a little bit forward with taking the first order in Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 which seemed like coming with a minor problem at first.
The thing I really appreciate is this overview setting which from what I figured out it highlights with red the parts you should work on so it's a big "+" than the other game. However, the things got a little bit complicated again pretty fast because there was no sort of indications like if you should lift the car or not, if you should dismantle the front side of the car or not, and such things.
So I started dismantling quite a few things because I wasn't able to do anything at the wheel/break, but I lost my patience pretty fast because everything felt again very technical and not a friendly game for all the players, everything being accentuated by my motion sickness thing which I felt again even if the FPS weren't a problem anymore.
Conclusions š¤
Since I tried both the Motorcycle and Car Mechanic Simulator games, I think I can easily say that this series is better optimized than the first one but there are still lots of things missing and which developers should pay more attention to.
I'm totally fine with games being created for a specific category of players and not being friendly with everyone who wants to try them out, but I still think this is not the right way to do it.
I liked that, at least, this one came with an entire menu of settings, but on the tutorial part everything is far from being considered completed so in my opinion, it's still early to talk about a good game.
Did you try it? š
What are your thoughts tho? Have you played this one before? It was easy for you to figure out how to play the game or you already had some technical knowledge that made your journey a lot more enjoyable?
For me, as much as I love simulator games, it seemed like a huge barrier that I couldn't pass on both Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator and Car Mechanic Simulator games so right now I can't understand if it's just me or the games are very technical and not playable by everyone. Though, I do appreciate their concept. š
NOTE:
- all the pictures attached are in-game screenshots taken by me (unless if other stated). šø
- this article is trying to stay away from revealing spoilers. ā ļø
- this is a personal review and should not be taken as a real advice of either playing the game or not because the opinion might be subjective. šÆ
A list with some other games that I wrote a review about and you might like:
- Strange Brigade š - 3/5
- TREE š³ - 5/5
- Lost Ember šŗ - 5/5
- Professional Fishing š” - 4/5
- Food Truck Simulator š - 2/5
- Don't Starve (Together) š„ - 4/5
- Late Shift ā³ - 4/5
- A Way Out š - 5/5
- Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 šµ - 1/5
- Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 š - 2/5
- Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice š - 5/5
- Life is Strange šŖ - 5/5
- Metin 2 ā - 4/5
- Euro Truck Simulator 2 š - 2/5
- Tell Me Why š³ļøāš - 5/5
| Game | Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 |
|---|---|
| Release Date | 28 Jul 2017 |
| Played On | Steam |
| Price | 19,99ā¬ |
| Genre | Simulation, Automobile Sim, Driving |
| Completed | Main |
| My Rating | ā ā āāā |
| Hours Played | 2.9 hrs |
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