The sequel to PC Constructing Simulator feels prefer it’s nonetheless below building
I used to be unreasonably excited to play the follow-up to PC Constructing Simulator. The unique recreation taught me the finer factors of constructing a PC and married the technical facets with all of the logistical drudgery of working your individual enterprise. Sadly, PC Constructing Simulator 2 doubles down on among the extra bothersome facets whereas solely including a small handful of shallow options.
As with many simulator video games, PCBS2 is about appreciating the mundane. Strange individuals don’t obsess over the variations between an NVMe SSD or a 2.5-inch exhausting drive or fine-tuning the voltage on a GPU, however these are the main points that PC-building fans crave.
Like the unique recreation, PCBS2 has you taking cost of a run-down pc restore store. You begin with a small sum of cash and a handful of jobs delivered by way of e mail. If you happen to haven’t performed the unique recreation, PCBS2 might sound a bit surreal, as you must stroll your character over to an in-game pc to entry your e mail and different purposes. Fortunately a useful tutorial walks you thru the method step-by-step.
Every tutorial explains the finer factors of working your online business by slowly doling out extra sophisticated jobs as you achieve extra expertise. The tutorial will stroll you thru what to do everytime you encounter a particular job for the primary time. Sadly, there’s no approach to simply revisit these tutorials when you’ve forgotten find out how to do one thing.
The roles you tackle vary from cleansing the mud out of previous PCs to overclocking CPUs or constructing desktops from scratch whereas holding inside your consumer’s funds. Ultimately, identical to the unique recreation, the roles quickly grow to be a apply in studying comprehension. Buried in every e mail, you’ll discover elective requests that, when glad, internet you entry to higher-tier jobs. It’s simply unlucky that there isn’t extra selection within the goals, that are similar to what we noticed within the authentic PCBS. Some further goals are connected to customizing a consumer’s PCs with completely different decals and paint jobs or using new parts, however PCBS2 doesn’t add too many new wrinkles to the roles seen within the authentic.
Customization is maybe the largest addition to PCBS2, letting you remodel any desktop into an aesthetically offensive gaming icon. You’ll be able to apply layered combos of vinyl skins, particular person stickers, and spray paint to any PC. The customization instruments are clumsy, and when you’ll unlock new vinyl wraps and decals as you stage up, there’s at present no method to make use of any customized property, which is disappointing.
The customization options additionally lengthen to your workshop. The unique recreation allowed you to personalize your workplace house, however you may get extra granular this time, with the flexibility to swap out desk designs, decor, partitions, and flooring. There aren’t many personalization choices, however this characteristic is a pleasant contact. Whilst you can’t intestine renovate your workplace, you may have way more flexibility together with your workspace this time round, functionally and aesthetically.
When you’ve arrange your workspace, you naturally should construct some PCs. Fortunately, PCBS2 ships with a powerful checklist of latest PC parts starting from GPUs to water cooling blocks and circumstances. Many of the parts are from standard producers and are nearly similar to the real-world counterparts made by NZXT, MSI, and Cooler Grasp. Previously, PCBS has accomplished a wonderful job holding elements lists updated with free updates, which isn’t a easy job, contemplating we’ve seen a bunch of recent {hardware} from Nvidia and AMD, to not point out Intel’s new ARC graphics playing cards.
One of many different standout options that modifications the way you work together with {hardware} is the introduction of becoming customized water-cooling blocks to your motherboard, RAM or GPU. Stepping into among the extra technical facets is the appropriate transfer for PCBS2, and de-lidding CPUs is a characteristic that’s apparently on the roadmap.
It’s clear that the builders are taking steps to streamline the general expertise of PCBS2. A number of the quality-of-life options instituted with the unique recreation make a welcome return, specifically the pill system, which helps you to entry a lot of the capabilities that initially required you to run again to your workplace PC. Another intelligent additions embody linking bought elements together with your in-progress jobs, which is useful when juggling a number of open tasks. Some new options particular to PCBS2 embody a thermal imaging app that means that you can troubleshoot explicit parts and an in-game RAM voltage calculator for overclocking reminiscence.
Nevertheless, contemplating how a lot time you spend in menus with PCBS2, they need to be extra intuitive. It’s a bit of complicated as a result of lots of the in-game apps you utilize mirror their real-world counterparts however lack any of the usability options you’d anticipate. Think about navigating your desktop with out the flexibility to resize home windows or use any of the shortcuts you’re accustomed to; that’s what it seems like in PCBS2.
None of that is helped by the truth that PCBS2 is remarkably buggy. On a number of events, I encountered jobs that I couldn’t full. Graphical glitches are much less widespread, however I did run into situations of levitating {hardware} or parts clipping by means of objects. Essentially the most irritating, nonetheless, was a bug that made it inconceivable to work together with the sport’s on-screen GUI. A superb portion of your jobs require putting in apps or modifying the BIOS on a given machine, which is inconceivable when you can’t work together with the display screen.
Even with its myriad of bugs, PCBS2 shares the identical addictive qualities as its predecessor that had me saying, “only one extra job”. Nevertheless, there at present isn’t sufficient content material to maintain me coming again. There’s a rudimentary achievement system in place, however there isn’t sufficient of a metagame to maintain you invested for very lengthy. The unique recreation had a modest endgame purpose of cultivating sufficient capital to safe possession of your store. Proper now, there isn’t a lot to maintain you taking part in over the long run aside from leveling as much as unlock new elements by finishing progressively extra sophisticated jobs.
Proper now, the sport doesn’t add sufficient or do issues in a different way sufficient to warrant a “2” Nevertheless, given how a lot the unique PCBS has modified since its launch, I’m excited to see the place PCBS might be in a yr or so. However now, PCBS2 appears extra excited by testing the waters with a handful of shallow options slightly than diving headfirst right into a single one.
PCBS2 didn’t get its hooks in me the identical method as the unique, however regardless of its bugs and general lack of content material, I can’t overlook the sport’s potential as a wonderful academic device. Earlier than taking part in the unique PCBS, I’d by no means constructed a pc. However taking part in over time gave me the arrogance to construct a number of real-world desktops. And whereas I’m not going to be water-cooling my GPU or motherboard any time quickly, PCBS2 has actually piqued my curiosity.
PC Constructing Simulator 2 launched on October twelfth on PC by means of the Epic Video games Retailer.