- Joined
- May 23, 2007
- Location
- Avondale, AZ
So I recently upgraded to PS+ premium, cuz my renewal is in July, and it was only like $25 to upgrade for the remainder of my subscription, so I thought i'd check out and see what games became available to me. Car mechanic simulator was one of them (the original 2018 i think? version) and after playing that for an entire night, I looked up what improvements/additions were made to the 2021 version, and promptly purchased that.
For the uninitiated, in CMS21 you are as the title states, a car mechanic. when you start the game, you are presented with a ratty shop in which to perform your craft, a small amount of starting capital, and that is it. This is your palace.
And here's what you get to start. It's humble beginnings for sure. Why is there a creepy abandoned bus in here? No one knows. But you cant work on it, you cant drive it, and you can't sell it, so just enjoy looking at it for now.
Here is the back lot. It's not much to look at now, but as you level up and build up your bank account, you are going to have the ability to transform all of this with the addition of a dyno, car wash booth, and paint shop and test path facility for diagnosing pesky suspension/brake issues as well as performing suspension and headlight alignments. You can also eventually upgrade your shop as well, add a 2nd lift, and a complete add on workshop where you can refurbish used parts and body panels and make them new again, and you can also put an engine stand in there so you can completely remove engines to repair them (which comes in very handy), and you can also add a storage warehouse for storing parts! But you're gonna need to put in a lotta work to get there.
Initially to earn your keep you'll take on randomly generated customer jobs, which start out fairly simple, but soon increase in their complexity, and there are also story missions you can progress through, but those are always more involved than normal jobs, and you better look at the description very carefully to make sure you understand what the customer is going to want before you take the job (more on that in a bit ) Once you do level up enough, you open up other areas you can explore, like a HUGE junkyard where you can pick out loads of parts from countless piles of junk to bring back to your shop to refurbish and keep for future jobs, or to sell for some extra cash, plus you can find junked cars that you can buy so you can restore them and either keep them for yourself, or sell them for (hopefully) a profit. This is where the game really starts to open up
Similar to that, you also eventually unlock the ability to visit old barns that are randomly generated each time you go to one, and similar to the junkyard you can find parts and cars here as well. The quality of the parts and cars you find in here will be better than you find at the junkyard, and once you're financially stable enough (i cant stress that part enough ) flipping barn cars is a way better way to make money than actually doing customer jobs. Most of them anyways.
So as I mentioned before, in the beginning, the only way to make money is by completing jobs. If you get overambitious with shop upgrades too early or taking on jobs that are more complicated (or both), you can get into......trouble How do I know this? I took on a story job, and..............
Welp now I've done it. completely run out of money in car mechanic simulator right in the middle of a job I knew I shouldnt have purchased that car wash booth, but this asshole brings me a car that looks like he took it thru the eye of a sandstorm and I just couldn't work on it like that. I didn't even know the car was blue until I washed it. But now I'm fucked. This job was way bigger than I thought it was gonna be. I'm gonna have to take another job and sell parts off that persons car just to finish this job, then shove that car in a corner and hope I can get back on my feet and maybe eventually get everything back for that car
*2025 UPDATE* - The game is now available on all platforms, Playstation, Xbox, Steam, and there is even a VR version and a phone version, but.....eh. Also as of this time of typing, it should be available to play free on xbox game pass (*subject to change*)
For the uninitiated, in CMS21 you are as the title states, a car mechanic. when you start the game, you are presented with a ratty shop in which to perform your craft, a small amount of starting capital, and that is it. This is your palace.
And here's what you get to start. It's humble beginnings for sure. Why is there a creepy abandoned bus in here? No one knows. But you cant work on it, you cant drive it, and you can't sell it, so just enjoy looking at it for now.
Here is the back lot. It's not much to look at now, but as you level up and build up your bank account, you are going to have the ability to transform all of this with the addition of a dyno, car wash booth, and paint shop and test path facility for diagnosing pesky suspension/brake issues as well as performing suspension and headlight alignments. You can also eventually upgrade your shop as well, add a 2nd lift, and a complete add on workshop where you can refurbish used parts and body panels and make them new again, and you can also put an engine stand in there so you can completely remove engines to repair them (which comes in very handy), and you can also add a storage warehouse for storing parts! But you're gonna need to put in a lotta work to get there.
Initially to earn your keep you'll take on randomly generated customer jobs, which start out fairly simple, but soon increase in their complexity, and there are also story missions you can progress through, but those are always more involved than normal jobs, and you better look at the description very carefully to make sure you understand what the customer is going to want before you take the job (more on that in a bit
) Once you do level up enough, you open up other areas you can explore, like a HUGE junkyard where you can pick out loads of parts from countless piles of junk to bring back to your shop to refurbish and keep for future jobs, or to sell for some extra cash, plus you can find junked cars that you can buy so you can restore them and either keep them for yourself, or sell them for (hopefully) a profit. This is where the game really starts to open upSimilar to that, you also eventually unlock the ability to visit old barns that are randomly generated each time you go to one, and similar to the junkyard you can find parts and cars here as well. The quality of the parts and cars you find in here will be better than you find at the junkyard, and once you're financially stable enough (i cant stress that part enough
) flipping barn cars is a way better way to make money than actually doing customer jobs. Most of them anyways. So as I mentioned before, in the beginning, the only way to make money is by completing jobs. If you get overambitious with shop upgrades too early or taking on jobs that are more complicated (or both), you can get into......trouble
How do I know this? I took on a story job, and.............. Welp now I've done it. completely run out of money in car mechanic simulator right in the middle of a job
I knew I shouldnt have purchased that car wash booth, but this asshole brings me a car that looks like he took it thru the eye of a sandstorm and I just couldn't work on it like that. I didn't even know the car was blue until I washed it. But now I'm fucked. This job was way bigger than I thought it was gonna be. I'm gonna have to take another job and sell parts off that persons car just to finish this job, then shove that car in a corner and hope I can get back on my feet and maybe eventually get everything back for that car *2025 UPDATE* - The game is now available on all platforms, Playstation, Xbox, Steam, and there is even a VR version and a phone version, but.....eh. Also as of this time of typing, it should be available to play free on xbox game pass (*subject to change*)
