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This page includes some jargon that hasn't been added to the site's glossary yet. I'll be around to fix this later, but sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime.

Review: Car Mechanic Simulator 2015

At a Glance

ESRB Rating: NR - Not Rated
My Rating: Everyone
Genre: Simulation
License: Commercial
Fun-O-Meter:
Release Year: 2015
Review Published On: April 23rd, 2016
Played on: Thaddeus

Available on:

Windows
MacOS

Available from:

Gamers Gate
Humble Store
Steam

Areas of Concern:
  • Nothing of note


How to Save and Pause:

This game doesnt save your progress automatically. Instead, you need to save manually from the games menu. You can either save the game and continue playing, or save when you quit.

Of course, you can also quit without saving your game if you really want to undo everything since the last time you saved.

Time needed per session:

It takes a while to complete work orders, so expect to play this game for at least half an hour.

Does this game pose issues for Christian players?

No - this is a great game for Christians
This game doesnt contain anything to be concerned about, unless you frequently lose track of how long youve been playing. In which case, plan to quit at a given time and stick to it.

Screenshots

[view screenshot]
A busy garage

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Around and around go the bolts

[view screenshot]
Cars on auction are often rust buckets



Game Overview

Car Mechanic Simulator 2014 was an extremely fun game for what it was. I didnt expect a game about taking things apart and putting them back together again to be much fun at all, but it turned out to be pretty addictive and a great game. That said, there were some things that could have been done better. Car Mechanic Simulator 2015 not only fixes the majority of these details, but it also adds some new concepts that make things even more fun. Also, while the base game lacks some of the features that made the 2014 version interesting, these are being added as optional DLC, enabling you to decide for yourself if you want these features.

The biggest change is that youre not progressing through garage after garage in a career anymore. Here youve clearly reached the big leagues, owning a nice, spacious garage all to yourself. As you progress, you can expand the garage with new areas, and even customize the place to feel more like a home away from home.

One of the more welcome changes from the predecessor is that you dont need to do test drives or run suspension tests unless you actually want to do so. Personally, I didnt care for either in the original, so this is a good change in my opinion.

Another difference is that you can purchase junked cars from the local auction house, then fix them up and resell them for a major profit. Alternatively, you can just collect them. In my opinion, this is by far the funnest part of the game.

Put simply, this game is great way to spend a relaxing evening. Just tinkering with the innards of different cars is a great way to unwind, making this game clearly worth the price. The DLCs add new car types for you to fix, including some cars made by real life car manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz, DeLorian, Masarati, and Bently.

Points of Interest

More about repairs than diagnostics

You dont need to worry about test drives or repetitive suspension tests anymore. Just follow the details on the work sheet and you can solve anything the game throws at you. Perhaps one of the best new features is that your work sheets provide a list of parts that need replacing and the minimum part status required for a replacement to be accepted. If you havent found a part, its listed as missing part rather than its actual name. This way, you know how many parts youll need to replace, even if you dont yet know which parts they are.

Upgrade tools and the garage with experience

As you work on cars and complete jobs, youll earn experience. Every 1,000 experience points, you can upgrade your tools or customize the garage a little more. Unlike the earlier game, theres only one upgrade to remove bolts faster, and Id recommend getting that upgrade first. Other upgrades improve your ability to repair parts or give you new diagnostic tools.

You can now choose which jobs to do

To get new jobs, you check the phone on your desk. The phone can hold up to four new jobs at any time, and if you dont want to do a specific job, you can decline it freely. Additionally, you can be working on as many jobs as you want, provided you have room in your garage. You have three places (two lifts and the garage floor) where you can hold and work on cars, but you can also juggle them in the test path room and the paint room if your garage has these features.

There is also an underground parking lot, but that is strictly for storing cars you own.

More detailed than CMS2014

There are a lot more parts to deal with, which can be a blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at it. Its more realistic for there to be more parts, but youre going to need to remember to replace even the tiniest clips before the car can be turned back over to its owner. Additionally, since there are more car models this time around, there are more possible part configurations to work with. Theres also the ability to do bodywork and repaint the car; two options that were not available in the earlier game.

Greatly improved user interface

There have been a lot of changes to the way the game is controlled, and all of these are for the better. Now you use the keyboard to switch between assembly/disassembly/examine modes, and you can move around the car by selecting different parts. This means youre not limited to working on a hub-based model anymore; you just start working on one spot and can maneuver around the car by clicking on different parts. Lastly, the mouse no longer fishtails like a its controlled by someone whos been drinking too much, making it far easier to move around.

Expert mode

For those of you that want to make things a little more interesting, theres an expert mode available that changes the gameplay in ways that makes everything harder. A few examples would be the fact that bolts dont light up, rust is calculated differently, and theres no tutorial. Expert mode isnt my cup of tea, but people clearly like the challenge its bringing.

No career or alternate modes

Unfortunately, theres always a little bad with the good. The only mode available is what equates to the Endless mode from the first game. There are no comments from your customers, so theres no story behind the cars youre working on. Its simply an exercise in grinding your way through car repairs until you dont want to continue.

Endless loading bug

In the past, there was a serious bug that was being reported fairly often. When switching between areas (such as going from the Auction House to your garage), the game could freeze on the loading screen. This seemed to happen randomly, though the developers seem to have fixed it by now. If youre concerned about losing progress to this bug today, just bring up the games menu by hitting ESC and save quickly before you travel away from your garage.

Concerns and Issues

Clean and wholesome fun

Theres nothing offensive about this game, unless you count the possibility of losing track of time while you zone out making virtual repairs. Of course, attempting to use any of the skills learned playing this game on a real car is also bad idea. Fixing virtual cars does not a mechanic make!