Ah, now here’s a game that I could talk about for hours on end. PC Building Simulator, developed and published by The Irregular Corporation, does exactly what it says on the tin: It’s a simulator game in which you’re tasked with building, maintaining, and repairing computers. I’ve talked before about how I used to enjoy building computers before my disability made that unpleasantly difficult. PC Building Simulator allows me to relive those days and puts me in a virtual environment where I feel right at home. I’ll try to restrain myself as I share my thoughts on PC Building Simulator.

PC Building Simulator has up to five playable modes, depending on whether or not you own a certain DLC pack: Campaign Mode, Free Build Mode, Esports Mode, IT Expansion Mode, and the “How to Build a PC” tutorial mode. If the mere concept of trying to build a functional computer sounds overwhelming to you, PC Building Simulator aims to help you with that. Its interactive tutorial will show you what each PC component does and how they’re all supposed to fit together. This is a massively helpful resource for newcomers looking to try their hand at PC building.

That being said, I have a few gripes about PC Building Simulator’s tutorial mode. However, I’m sure my complaints will likely only matter to seasoned PC builders who don’t need a tutorial anyway. While the tutorial briefly explains what thermal paste does, it doesn’t go into much detail about how to apply the proper amount of thermal paste and what could go wrong if you use too much or too little of it. PC Building Simulator’s tutorial also doesn’t acknowledge the myriad of ways you might have to troubleshoot a PC that isn’t working properly, beyond “you forgot to plug something in.”

Granted, forgetting to plug something in is among the most common mistakes among rookie PC builders. As I said, I understand why The Irregular Corporation didn’t include topics like these in PC Building Simulator’s tutorial. Complaints like those I’ve just mentioned aren’t terribly common, and it’s for the best to avoid overloading novice PC builders with more information than they absolutely need to get their systems up and running. Still, perhaps “intermediate” and “advanced” sections of the tutorial would have been nice to see. That brings me to PC Building Simulator’s original campaign mode, which actually helps supplement the tutorial in certain ways.

In campaign mode, you take over a failing PC repair shop from your underqualified Uncle Tim. If Uncle Tim knew as much about properly building and repairing computers as he knows about gloating at you from exotic vacation destinations because you were foolish enough to take over his shop and let him retire, the shop would be in much better shape. You’ll have to use your skills to turn the shop’s poor reputation around and make a tidy profit while you’re at it. You’ll initially only have access to the most basic jobs, like removing viruses and replacing broken PC parts.

Once you’ve proven you can competently handle menial jobs like those, you can take on more complex service requests. Right around the point you become able to accept more detailed jobs, you’ll also gain the ability to track and improve your shop’s reputation. Each customer of yours will post a review of your shop online once you’ve done a job for them. As you might expect, the faster and more completely you fulfill all their requests and requirements, the better reviews customers will write. That’s where one potentially tricky aspect of all PC Building Simulator’s campaign modes comes into play.

Customers aren’t always totally straightforward in their emails in terms of exactly what they want you to do. They might not know how to diagnose or properly describe the problems they’re having with their computer, or they might mention additional issues as afterthoughts. You’ll have to carefully read each job request email, and often read between the lines of said emails, to make sure you can do everything each customer wants. I’m absolutely convinced that this lack of directness in communication would make this job basically unbearable for me in particular, but that’s not PC Building Sim’s fault.

For example, if a customer says something like, “My computer is booting slower than it used to,” or, “I think I clicked on something bad,” that’s usually a hint that their computer is infected with viruses they’ll need you to remove. Hints like these can appear in job request emails whose main objectives could be entirely different than removing viruses. That’s why I’m so glad PC Building Simulator has an option that will spell out these “hidden” additional requests if you have trouble detecting your customers’ insinuations. The inclusion of that option is a massive point in PC Building Sim’s favor for me.

Another aspect of PC Building Sim that I quite like is the clever way it gets around one of the biggest things for which I often condemn games: Errors in in-game text, whether they’re oversights in spelling, grammar, or punctuation. These mistakes do appear in PC Building Sim, but (almost) only in emails you get from customers in any of the campaign modes. As we all know, not everyone on the Internet types with impeccable spelling and grammar. Kudos to PC Building Sim for making the experience of running a PC repair shop more realistic in that respect, I suppose.

I said earlier that PC Building Sim’s original campaign mode helps to supplement what the tutorial can teach. Once you’ve learned how to fit each of the components of computers together properly, the tutorial pretty much stops. The campaign builds on that basic knowledge by teaching you new things at an appropriate pace. Early on, you’ll learn things like how to plan for future upgrades by making sure all the new parts you plan to buy are compatible with the components you already have. PC Building Sim subtly introduces these concepts as on-the-job training.

You’ll also learn things like how to make sure a computer’s installed parts can run games and productivity software at their respective minimum and recommended specs, and what to upgrade to get there. That’s in addition to becoming familiar with both fictitious and real-world software like 3DMark to stress-test systems you’ve just repaired or built. PC Building Sim explains not just how to run stress-tests, but what they do, why they’re important and useful, how they work, and how to interpret their results. Stuff like this is highly valuable knowledge among PC building newcomers and veterans alike.

What I’m getting at is, if you’re anything like me, playing through all of PC Building Sim’s different campaign modes will likely teach you new things without you even realizing you’re learning. I absolutely love it when games can pull that off. Move over, Oregon Trail, because PC Building Simulator is modern-day edutainment done right. I’d almost go so far as to say “you forgot to apply thermal paste” could become the new “you have died of dysentery,” though I know that’s probably just wishful thinking from an experienced computer geek. Let’s move on to PC Building Sim’s IT expansion campaign.

In the IT expansion campaign, you’re the newest employee of the information technology (IT) department at IrraTech. Or, put simply, you’re the new tech support person. Based on interactions with your fellow employees and even the executives at IrraTech, you’ll find that even at an intermediate skill level, you’re probably more qualified to run the company than all your co-workers combined. This is one way PC Building Sim takes jabs at modern technology companies and executives in general. You folks know how much I love that kind of satire, so it’s no surprise that I adore the humor in PC Building Sim.

PC Building Simulator’s humor doesn’t stop at just satirizing modern tech companies and executives, though. You’ll also find a ton of tongue-in-cheek parodies and references to real-world games and office software, such as “SocCar” as a nod to Rocket League. These are let down a bit by the fact that The Irregular Corporation apparently (eventually) acquired the rights to use the actual names of the programs it references in many cases, like “Heart of Stone” and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft being simultaneously present. The same is true for the jabs at Adobe’s subscription practices since actual Adobe products also appear in-game.

Speaking of licensed, real-world products that appear in PC Building Simulator, I’m amazed at how many prominent PC component manufacturing companies partnered with The Irregular Corporation to allow their products to be added into the game. At a bare minimum, I’d say the licensing rights from AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel were necessary so as not to confuse newbie PC builders with brand names of parts that don’t actually exist. The list is quite a lot longer than just those three big-name corporations, to my pleasant surprise. I guess I shouldn’t be too shocked given PC Building Sim’s popularity, though.

I’ve gotten distracted for a bit, but something tells me you would do the same thing if you worked at a tech support job as portrayed within PC Building Simulator. Since I suspect some among our audience really want to know, PC Building Sim’s IT Expansion mode does have jobs where you’ll fix something by turning it off and on again. You’ll also repair the office printer by either doing that or “applying percussive maintenance,” i.e., hitting the printer until it works. The Irregular Corporation likely knew they’d be expected to throw those jokes in somewhere, and I’m glad they did.

Come to think of it, playing PC Building Simulator always makes me think of the song “It’s All About the Pentiums” by “Weird Al” Yankovic. I assure you, any game that even tangentially reminds me of a “Weird Al” song is likely to quickly win my favor. Will PC Building Simulator teach you how to build a computer so powerful that (to quote “Weird Al”), “it does all [your] work without [you] even asking”? Probably not, but that’s primarily because technology that powerful doesn’t exist yet. If you want to be prepared when that day comes, however, I can categorically recommend PC Building Simulator.

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PC Building Simulator

$19.99

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• Players of all experience levels are accommodated quite well.
• Great sense of humor.
• Highly engaging and educational core gameplay loop.
• Very helpful accessibility options.

Cons

• Doesn't necessarily provide the "full" experience of building computers.
• Gameplay might give some players "information overload."