PC Building Simulator: All the Magic and None of the Anxiety

For some strange reason I am oddly drawn to simulation games.  I've played and enjoyed EuroTruck Simulator 2, American Truck Simulator, Farm Simulator 17, and Viscera Cleanup Detail.  As a result of my vast simulator experience, I've picked up a number of virtual skills--I'm pretty good at driving semi's (just don't ask me to back them up), planting and harvesting crops, and cleaning up human and alien body parts.  It's really no surprise that when I saw a new simulation game popping up on the Steam bestseller's chart, that I jumped at the chance to expand my virtual resumé.  PC Building Simulator has given me the fake skills to diagnose and repair a wide range of computers.  Playing it has given me a completely false sense of feeling that I could actually build my own PC--something that I know is well beyond my level of technical expertise.

PC Building Simulator gives players the chance to build PC's and to run their own PC repair shop.  After a brief tutorial that teaches players all the parts that go into a working PC and how to assemble them into a working fashion, players can choose between two modes; free build, which gives players access to a wide range of various parts to build their own dream PC's; or career mode where they are in charge of running a PC repair business.

In career mode, players start by checking their e-mail to open up new jobs.  Each day poor, unwitting souls seek out your professional help in repairing or upgrading their PC's.  If you choose to accept a job, the PC's are delivered to your shop.  After they've been delivered, you can use your workstation to diagnose and fix them--this is usually a straightforward issue of hooking up cables, attempting to boot the computer and then seeing what errors pop up.  Once you've figured out the cause of the problems, you order the correct parts from your PC and wait for them to arrive (usually the next day if you're willing to pay the extra shipping).  Then, it's usually a simple matter of removing the broken piece of hardware and replacing it with the new one, booting it up, and then collecting the reward.

It sounds fairly easy, but there is some attention to detail required.  Several times I failed to pay attention to the type of motherboard when ordering new CPU's and ended up wasting time and money.  Or I ordered the wrong type of RAM, or not enough RAM, and had to go back and re-order.  These issues aren't a big deal, but as you gain levels some jobs are time sensitive and must be completed within a certain number of days.  Messing up can cost you entire jobs!

As you complete jobs you earn experience and gain levels.  Each job you complete will unlock new, improved parts.  As gain levels, the jobs you are asked to complete get more complicated--customers want you to benchmark their PC's at a certain score or, at around level 4-5, they want you to build them a completely new PC that falls within their given specifications.  Completing these more complicated jobs will earn more money and allow you to unlock new workstations and storage areas.

Completing jobs, especially builds from scratch, is oddly satisfying.  It's fun to start off with just an empty case and end with a PC that can perform the tasks that the customer wants.  There are several jobs where you build a PC and then the customer wants you to upgrade or has a string of problems and you get to see that same PC back in the shop and can make it even better.

Since PC Building Simulator is in early access there are some minor (possibly) bugs that need to be worked out.  I'm not sure if this is intentional, but every once in awhile you get a job where someone wants you to benchmark their PC and the cost of the improvements are more than the amount they are willing to pay you.  Maybe this situation is designed to make you be more business savvy?  The nice part is that you can simply quit the job and take a new one.

There is an aspect of management as you have certain bills that must be paid.  Rent and electricity payments roll around once a month and require budgeting enough to make sure that both can be covered and that you will still have enough left over to buy parts for any jobs.  You also have to manage an inventory of parts that are amassed from repairing and upgrading various PC's.  Why buy a new part if you can utilize a used one?

In my own experience, repairing and upgrading PC's is much, much more difficult.  This is especially true when you have a low level of technical expertise.  Once, the hard drive on my computer went kaput--I booted it up, heard a strange popping noise, and couldn't get anything to happen.  I bought a brand new HDD, managed to do all the requisite installation tasks, and it actually worked.  My next experience wasn't so great--I tried to upgrade the graphics card and failed miserably (it turned out that my motherboard was so old that it couldn't support the card I bought--replacing a motherboard is well beyond me).  My last success was installing new RAM--something that requires simply removing and popping in the new sticks.  This is the full extent of my real life PC repair and upgrade abilities and they were all anxiety filled affairs that cost a lot of time and money.

PC Building Simulator lets you experience these same moments in a much more engaging and less anxiety filled format.  I've been surprised at how much I've enjoy the simple repetition of diagnosing, fixing, ordering, and building that is the core of the game.  One of the best features of the game in its current state is the number of actual component companies that have allowed their licensed parts to be used.  Companies like Corsair, MSI, Intel, AMD, and many others!  I'm not sure that everyone will find it as enjoyable as I have and would caution anyone who isn't a fan of simulation games.

I'm excited to see how PC Building Simulator improves through early access and to see the number of licensed component companies increase.