I can change lightbulbs and that’s about as far as I can go with household electrics. But can a game teach me to become an actual electrician?
Probably not. But Electrician Simulator tries to give it a good go. Those who have played house/job simulation-type games like House Flipper will feel immediately at home here. With a first-person design, you must select jobs from your computer, buy the appropriate tools and equipment, and then head out to the ‘site’ to do the required work.
But whereas things like House Flipper require you just to hit buttons and repeat, Electrician Simulator quickly becomes a bit more than this as thinking is required. The first assignments are basic stuff, like replacing light bulbs and changing plugs. This gives you a sample of what there is to do here – changing a plug requires unscrewing the panel, pulling it off and connecting or reconnecting cables. It’s all done through a sort of exploded design view of what you’re working on, selecting the appropriate element and clicking what you want and where you want it. Simple.
Complexity seeps in though when you start to deal with multi-switch sockets, multi-plug sockets, and earthing things. The real-world mechanics of electrics seep into the game, which is a fair point, and if you get it wrong…. Well, you get electrocuted.
But unlike real life, there isn’t a penalty for this. You just carry on until you stop getting electrocuted by making whatever you are doing, work. It feels like this should be the guiding principle of something as serious as a simulator being an electrician – sure, it has to be fun to be a game, but there’s no issue with frying your brains out. As such, levels can turn into a bit of a trial-and-error exercise.
Once done, there’s not much reason to replay, and it’s a short title (about 4/5 hours). There is some nice variety, such as ‘small things’ to work on, such as fixing a game controller, Principally it’s the same sort of thing, just in a different environment but I quite liked the hobby-fixing side of things.
Ultimately, Electrician Simulator gives you a little bit of a feel of being a real electrician. It’s simplified, obviously, and doesn’t punish you, so probably not a great deal of help if you’re training for the real thing. As far as the ‘simulator’ games go though, it’s reasonably fun.
Reviewed on PS5
