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There are certain tasks that only trained individuals should attempt. As such, for many of us, these jobs will always be unobtainable. That is, however, overcome if you love the simulation genre. No longer will you need to waste time and money on learning a new skill. Instead, invest 30 minutes or so to complete a tutorial, and you are good to go. This is pretty much what happens in Electrician Simulator. It is a game that warns you of the dangers of playing with electrical circuits and then lets you run amuck.
Developed by Take IT Studios and published by Ultimate Games S.A, this is a real to life simulation title. What’s more, there are some elements of business management and some minor educational points. But it is mainly a relaxed time sink that allows you to run a business, help out the locals, and get rich at the same time.
Electrician Simulator wasn’t intuitive enough.
My love of simulation games stems from their ultra-realism and intuitive ways. In fact, this was a key highlight of Construction Simulator. However, Electrician Simulator wasn’t as in tune with this element. Consequently, its action felt more clunky and cumbersome. Now, I’m not saying I disliked it because that’s not accurate. Instead, I desired something that flowed better with a more intertwined story and events.
In Electrician Simulator, you play the role of a rookie electrician. Your business is fresh and your client list is small. As such, you must work your way up the ranks and accept whatever jobs you are given. As you become more adept, the jobs become larger, the pay higher, and you’ll be required to juggle more tasks at once.
One electrician, two businesses.
I admit that my knowledge of an electrician’s role is limited. Yet, I’m pretty sure you’re either a gadget repair person or a fully-fledged electrician. Now, in Electrician Simulator, you must tackle both roles. This is all well and good, and it actually adds some variety to the action, but it is detrimental to realism. The dev team should have focussed on one area to enhance the levels of detail and the complexity of every task.
However, they didn’t, so multi-job Joe you must be. The gadget portion of the game focuses on an array of items that are broken. Armed with a screwdriver, rust spray, multimeter, tweezers, and a soldering iron, you disassemble, inspect, repair, and reassemble every item. Other than the repetitive and fiddly nature of each task, it was quite fun and rewarding to complete. Sadly, though, the pricing system was unrealistic, and this was annoying.
So, the gadget element was flawed, but how about the house electrics? Well, this section fared much better, though the cable running elements were just ridiculous. Every house I wired was a death trap, as I could run cables as I wished. As such, you’d be decapitated, or lose your legs in every house I touched. Now, this isn’t game-breaking, but it also isn’t realistic. Consequently, this is a massive shortcoming that must be addressed.
Stock management and training.
As tasks are completed, you earn XP that levels you up. The higher your level, the more complex the items that you can buy. In turn, this makes your job much trickier, and you must balance cost over profit. Alongside this, you’ll need to brush up on new skills, remember old ones, and learn to repair, replace, and fit new equipment. Therefore, there is no rest for the wicked.
The training for new skills is set bizarrely in a VR world. Here, you’ll learn every technique you’ll need to maximise your potential. However, though this was great, the protagonist owns a flat and it would have made more sense to improve that across the course of the game. As you can tell, there are some weird gameplay choices that seriously impact the realism of the game. It was a shame, as otherwise; it is a fun and methodical title that ticks many of the simulation tropes.
Electrician Simulator looks nice, but it doesn’t run perfectly.
Electrician Simulator isn’t a power-heavy game, nor does it require a particularly modern PC/laptop to play it. However, I ran it on a moderate setting, nonetheless. Yet, even with my scaled-back approach, it looked nice and its style was bright, simple, and to the point. Moreover, there is some variety in the areas you visit and this alleviates some of the tedium. But I stumbled across many performance issues that ruin the gameplay. The frame rate was terrible, and the movement lacked fluidity as a result. This was particularly painful when wiring sockets or moving in tight spaces. Subsequently, you’d crash into walls or connect the wrong cables. Accordingly, it was frustrating, horrible to experience, and unexpected from a modern title.
The audio fared better because of its balanced style. With some high-energy (pun intended) music and realistic tool noises, it sucks you into the action. Sadly, though, it wasn’t enough to smooth over the unforgivable layers of unrealistic action.
Great controls.
Unlike some sim games, this one is easy to play and quick to master. The excellent sub-menu and responsive controls are easy to navigate and fun to work with. Moreover, a helpful checklist ensures you have the right tools for every job. Thankfully, the mouse and keyboard are accurate, otherwise, the fiddly nature of each job would have been unbearable.
The genre is usually tough to put down, but Electrician Simulator didn’t grab me. No matter how much I tried, I always found a reason to quit. With many repetitive tasks and a smattering of unrealistic actions, it’s not as impressive as its peers.
Electrician Simulator misses the mark.
Maybe I didn’t get it, but for me, Electrician Simulator has missed the mark. It tried to include too many elements and this waters down its quality. Furthermore, a lack of realism holds it back. I found much of it to be interesting, but it didn’t inspire me like other sim titles. Accordingly, I’m on the fence and tentatively recommend that you buy it here! Learn to become a master electrician as you repair, rewire, and help out a bunch of unskilled adults with their electrical mishaps.
