Ever since Powerwash Simulator showed that niche simulation games could be more than just a straight-up simulation, there has been an explosion of similar games in the genre, with Electrician Simulator coming along to ride that wave. Originally released in 2021 on the PC, Electrician Simulator has now made the move to consoles, bringing with it the highs and lows of porting such a game.
I, myself, have never picked up any of these simulation games since Theme Park (does that even count?) So I was fresh-faced going into Electrician Simulator, with a vague feeling of apprehension that it was going to be to straight with being an electrician. And in some ways, I was right, with being able to wire in sockets and light switches, fixing broken electrical items, rewiring houses, and randomly dressing Christmas trees with lights and baubles, but thankfully there was more to be found within the game.
The basic premise is that you are a fledgling electrician, following in the footsteps of your dad and setting out into the world in the family business. Your base is the garage of your new home, fitted out with a workbench and your trusty laptop. I say trusty, as this is how you receive potential clients through email. Each has a story to tell and why they need your help; you need to approve the job and check if you have the right equipment (which can be done by pressing a handy button in the job email) before setting out in your truck.
Before all this, though, you need to gain some kind of qualification, which is the game’s way of giving you training missions; these are presented in VR sessions where you have to complete certain tasks to gain your accreditation. These teach you the basic ways in which to wire sockets, switches, and other game-related mechanics. As you progress, you receive more of these training missions, giving you higher qualifications, which show you are able to take on more complex jobs. Once you pass these, you start gaining more clients through your email and are given the chance to take on more intricate work. The more jobs you complete, the more XP you earn, which fills up your reputation gauge. A higher reputation means more jobs and more cash!
Like I said, not having played any recent simulation games, I was pleasantly surprised by the detail and care the developers had put into not only the emails but the little back story too. I’m not sure what I was expecting—maybe something more without a personality or something with just a list of jobs you need to complete and you just work your way through. Even some thought was put into the tutorial missions where you have to put VR goggles on that are sitting next to your laptop to start the level. This kind of personality continues through the game, giving it some charm and warmth that would otherwise be missing from a game in this genre.
When I first fired up the game, I was instantly worried by one thing, and that was the UI. It was tiny and almost unreadable, especially as I was playing this handheld on a Nintendo Switch. I thought I would have to dig out my son’s magnifying glass to be able to read the text on screen, but thankfully there was a slider in the options, which made it possible to change the size. Panic over! I was finally able to see the tasks I needed to complete the job and other useful information shown, like the time taken and the map bar at the top, giving you an idea of where everything you needed was in the house, and the inventory grid at the bottom, showing you what you had in your hands at the time.
I enjoyed the mix of jobs given throughout the game. With the ones already mentioned, there were also ones where you have to take all the sockets and switches out of an old house; this was more difficult than you may think, as some were placed in hard-to-see areas. Another saw you having to rewire a whole house, connecting every light and switch to a power source, and one other saw you literally just having to change some bulbs! The game gives you everything you need to complete these tasks within easy reach. With your inventory just a button press away, you just need to take what you need and place it in the inventory grid to start using it.
But its not just you visiting properties; a lot of the game is spent dismantling and fixing electrical equipment sent to you by clients on your aforementioned workbench. These items range from a video game controller to a toy robot to a hairdryer. Each item has been replicated with great detail, giving you a real eye-opener on what is actually inside these items and how it all works. I spent a while on a few of these, as you have to explore every nook and cranny to either find a screw hiding somewhere or a small wire that needed unclipping or soldering off a circuit board. Once the item has been dismantled, you have to examine each piece to determine what it is that is broken. Once found and replaced, you can go about assembling it and sending it back to your happy customer.
It was in this segment that I was most frustrated, with the frustration mostly aimed at, yep, you probably guessed right, the camera. I think I spent most of my time battling with the camera, trying to get it at the right angle to see what I was trying to do. One missing element which i think would of improved this massively would of been the ability to pan around the item while zoomed instead of having to zoom out, swivelling the item until the desired angle and then zooming back in. This problem spills out into the jobs where you visit homes. Laying wires was also an issue, as was once again battling with the camera to get the right angles and zoom level to be able to control what I was trying to do. One of the worst areas was trying to select small parts, where I spent a tonne of time swinging left to right and right to left trying to get the cursor on the part I wanted too. Its not game-breaking; it’s something that you can live with, and there are settings to control the sensitivity, but its a problem that all these types of PC games suffer from when ported to consoles. You can tell this game was made for a keyboard and a mouse.
Along with the camera issues, I found a few of the tasks slightly strange, with one thread where, at the end, you have to break into a neighbour’s house to unwire all of their lights as they have been stealing electricity. The setting of the game is in the Christmas period. Christmas decorations line your garage, Christmas cookies sit on your workbench, and its constantly snowing outside. A lot of the jobs that come in are also Christmas-related. I never would of put the game down for it to be in this setting, and I was slightly muddled about it being so. A DLC or expansion pack based on the festive season makes more sense to me than in the main game. One other small gripe I had, which some will class me as finicky, was one particular level where they had car horns and dogs barking as ambience, which wouldn’t normally be to bad if it wasn’t for those noises repeating every ten to fifteen seconds. I gotta tell you, after a couple of minutes, that was grating on me so much that I had to mute the Switch! Please, developers, I am all for ambiance, but please not like this.
Overall, I had a great time with Electrician Simulator. Its mostly well thought out and will actually teach you some basics that you could carry into your real life, and this is a game I will be encouraging my children to play for that very reason. The various mix of jobs and scenarios kept it interesting, and I enjoyed the later levels where you rewire a whole house or are setting up TV’s in a sports bar. I found myself looking forward to returning to the game, and normally I wouldn’t end until the job I was doing was done, which I think speaks highly of the game. If you have any kind of interest in playing this game, the camera battle is worth it, and although it’s very playable on consoles,, I would recommend playing it on a PC if you can.
Electrician Simulator
Release Date: Out Now!
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5 & Xbox Series S/X
Price: £17.99