Game: Electrician Simulator
Genre: Action, Simulator
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam (Windows), PS4 & Xbox)
Developer|Publisher: Take IT Studio! | Gaming Factory
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US Everyone
Price: US $19.99 | UK £14.99 | EU €19,99
Release Date: January 5th, 2024
Review code provided with many thanks to Press Engine.
Electrician Simulator: A Good Start to 2024
A new year has arrived, and that means another year to experience some new games and review them for this lovely website. I begin my first 2024 review with a bang, another game in the simulator genre. If you’re a regular to my reviews, you may know my experience with this genre is quite split. Some simulators turn regular jobs into surprising, entertaining experiences. And then there are those other ones which are just awful. Making me want to do the actual job rather than play it in video game form.
Electrician Simulator falls into the former positive category. Though it suffers from some familiar issues I have with the genre, I can’t deny this is a well-put-together game. A look into an entry-level electrician that teaches you about the career and also provides that enjoyable, busybody experience simulator games are known for. Considering a career change this year? Maybe this will get you started.
Starting From Scratch
Electrician Simulator follows a familiar template for the genre. You are new to the career, taking after your dear old dad. The goal is to take on a variety of jobs from your laptop and gain more experience in the field, as well as earn some money. The game does a very good job of easing you into the experience. VR training missions break down the steps of each task, such as taking appliances apart, fitting a new light bulb, and then more complex tasks like wiring sockets to various electrical appliances.
Once you finish a training level, it’s often followed by an actual mission to help reinforce what you learned. Missions can require you to purchase extra parts like bulbs, sockets and wires, all of which are suggested to avoid unnecessary stress. During missions themselves, your objectives are highlighted by a clear checklist, making it fairly easy to figure out what you need to do next. Before you know it, you’re wiring sockets, changing bulbs, and re-wiring a house like a pro.
To add a bit of flavour, each mission has an amusing description. You’ll hear from an old man about his difficulty coping with modern-day technology to a client possibly dealing with a ghost in the basement. It just adds a bit of personality to the missions as opposed to ‘come fix the thing.’ Another touch I liked is you’ll often hear from the same clients again and find out what happened to the previous work you performed. One of my favourite arcs to this was one client who wanted all the lights removed and disconnected from various rooms only for a follow-up mission to have you correct all this by a disgruntled partner. It’s quite a clever way of justifying your revisiting the same locations.
Spot of Repairs
As well as visiting houses and construction sites, you will also take on small missions in your workshop, where you repair electrical items like game consoles and toasters. This is a nice change of pace from the out-and-about missions, but after extended play times, the overall formula did become quite repetitive, which is pretty par the course for this genre. The general tone is quite relaxing. You can take your time with missions and go at your own pace. I never really felt a sense of failure.
You can electrocute yourself if you’re stupid and don’t follow the cardinal rule of switching the power off before you do any work. This is a rule that’s often reminded on the loading screen. I guess you have to do it at least once for some giggles. The game does emphasize not messing around with electricity in real life, a good lesson for the younglings that may pick this up.
Controls
You control from the first-person perspective with the ability to jump and crouch to get to those awkwardly located sockets. Controls do feel fiddly at times. It can be tough to move your character in just the right spot to interact with an object of interest. The process of placing new wiring around the house can sometimes feel difficult. In moments like this, that Electrician Simulator feels like it’s more tailored towards PC mouse and keyboard controls. To the developer’s credit, they have attempted to add touch controls in handheld mode. I found I couldn’t rely on these entirely, but they worked well as a hybrid experience with the controller.
Menu navigation is comfortable, which is often uncommon in simulator games, in my experience. You can bring up a wheel to choose to take an appliance apart, move it or store it away, with each step clearly highlighted to the player. This is particularly useful to people new to the genre. If you are struggling to find what you can interact with, you can tap a ‘tip’ button to help highlight objects of interest. This is especially helpful when repairing small appliances. A feature I really liked is the ability to save absolutely anywhere, even during a mission. The game appears to autosave quite regularly. I had one instance where it crashed, but fortunately, on a reload, it picked up where I left off, with all progress intact.
Familiar Graphics
It’s a simulator game, so the graphics are, of course, a realistic design devoid of life and a unique touch. You will walk around a variety of houses in both new and rather dishevelled conditions. But they all feel kinda bland and lifeless, made all the more notable if you look out a window and witness an empty neighbourhood. It’s actually fine, and more of a niggle I have with the genre in general. It’s just a look that feels a bit overdone when there is no reason you could create a simulator game but add a unique artistic touch to it. To be expected, music is kind of an afterthought. So this was definitely a title to play with your favourite podcast in the background or music of your choice. Electrician Simulator ran very well in TV and handheld modes.
Conclusion: a Bright Idea
Electrician Simulator is a good entry in the ever-expanding genre. It is an intriguing look into a career that educates as well as entertains at the same time. The game is absolutely suited to all audiences, possibly the younglings (or oldlings) who are curious about the career or folk who love their simulator games. I found I enjoyed it best in small doses, taking on a few missions at a time. Like all simulator games, I did hit a point where I found rewiring just got a bit boring, which was more notable in the larger missions. But that is often what is the draw for many players.
Electrician Simulator also plays it very safe in terms of its design. Many simulator games follow the same template of taking on missions and earning money and not much else. Electrician Simulator does what it does well but also doesn’t take any risks or add much new to the simulator genre. If you’re looking for something relaxing to start the year off or fancy a new virtual career change, I still recommend Electrician Simulator.
Final Verdict: I Like it
