Computer Repair Shop: Surprisingly Vast, Incredibly Shallow

The description of Computer Repair Shop on Steam barely scratches the surface of this game. ‘Become a dishonest computer repairman, steal rams. Burn the motherboards!’ It does, however, give you an idea of what you can expect.

That said, Computer Repair Shop is an exercise in contradiction. Even 12 hours of gameplay later, I can’t figure out my feelings for it.

Despite getting tagged as a sim game, this is more of a money management game. You fix computers or break them. Pirate from them, build viruses, and get up to all kinds of good or mischief in your repair shop. Then you spend the money for pleasure or to set up more income sources.

It is repetitive but fun, in the same way that hyper-casual games can be fun and addictive until you get bored of them. It is relatively well made with surprising detail, but it is hard to figure out. I just don’t know if that is bad design or if everything has been made to hook you in.

The Sodden Back Alley

You start this game in a tiny expensive room behind a grocery store whose owner is weirdly obsessed with you. Once you are past that weirdness, it’s off through a cloud of flies into the ever-dark alleys of the game.

You have to get rid of the homeless vagrants that have occupied your shop with the help of a man on steroids and then fix your first computer, which is stolen. It’s a well-developed, atmospheric world illuminated with neon lights and filled with people who are up to no good.

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There is a surprising amount of detail in the world, from a club where you can buy VR dances or play blackjack, to one of the best and most surprising parts of this game, The Backroom. It’s a little horror mini game hidden in this sim where you have to try and take photos of the monsters (which you can then sell) and escape them before you go mad. This is just one random aspect of the world and the web. You can build and fight robots too.

Working The System

You start making money by fixing computers. Every computer comes with a little sticky note where the owner will list any problem they know of.

First, you diagnose the problem using your tablet as a guide. You then fix the part in question or purchase a new one through the Zamazor drone service. After switching the computer on, you remove any viruses and then you go ahead to complete any other requests.

Using your trusty repairman USB, you can also do all your illegal activity. You can make and implant viruses or you can play minigames to steal the owner’s information and hack into their bank. You can also crack into and sell pirated games to supplement your income.

There are a lot of moving parts to fixing and stealing from computers. It’s complex enough to challenge you based on how much time and money you have.

Every single element is a cheeky reference to real-world material. From ZeForce Display cards to the game Dad of Boy (God of War), Haro (Halo), and even a reference to OnlyMans (You know what that is).

The game leans hard into its humor, a solid decision that gives you a chuckle every time you find something new. It also leans into the sleaze, like giving you a baseball bat to beat up thieves, that is until you can hire a bouncer who is more than happy to shoot them. All of these options encourage you to come up with a stratagem on how you will succeed in your playthrough.

And Then The Crash

Then, just as you get into it, you realize there is just one thing to do per activity. There is no depth or difficulty ramp. It was just hidden behind a steep learning curve and a half-baked tutorial.

To figure out how to do everything, you have to manually sift through 4 guides (a tutorial page, a computer wiki, a hacker wiki, and a virus wiki), as well as the internet, and commit to a fair amount of trial and error.

As for upgrading systems to overclock or benchmark them, the game assumes you will know how the parts interact with each other. There is also absolutely no information for some of the more random elements of the game, like the robo-girls and how they play out into a business later.

Unfortunately, outside of making money or a personal goal, there is no overarching mission in the game. Neither are there consequences for mistakes or illegal activity. At most, the customer says ‘the computer doesn’t work’ and won’t pay you.

There is also no feedback. You complete a service by sticking it on a packing terminal to set a price. It is supposed to account for any parts put in, but it once charged $250 for a computer that I upgraded with $500 part. Then there are times when it charges 100s of dollars for repairing one part.

My one rage quit moment was when I upgraded the computer with over $4000 of parts, only for the customer to tell me that it did not work. I did not get paid, leaving me completely broke for the last half of my gameplay. I still have no clue why I failed that ‘order.’

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The game also has a very inconsistent control scheme. For example, to exit the screen where you are looking at the computer parts, you hit escape. However, to exit a computer screen, you hit Q. Picking things up is ‘E,’ putting it down ‘LMB.’ Interacting with the USB or air gun ‘C,’ but the bat is RMB. Even 12 hours later, I kept hitting the wrong inputs.

This confusion is further exacerbated by the saving system. The game only saves when you sleep in the bed, for which you have to pay $50. Also, you can only ‘sleep’ after ‘8 hours’ in the game. Anything more than 12 hours results in the character getting sleepy and beginning to blackout, forcing you to run for your bed before you faint on the street and lose $100 to a pickpocket.

Then… there are the glitches, starting with your standard ‘small space’ collision issues. The game tells you that if you clip through walls, you will end up in The Backroom, but my camera just went nuts.

On the larger end, assets will glitch into the walls and disappear. I lost my bat to a shelf at the start of the game and then had no way to deter thieves. I also ran into the issue where the escape button would stop working to load up the menu, making me force-stop to be able to quit the game.

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If Only It Did Get An Upgrade

I did my research on Cheesecake Dev, the folks who made Computer Repair shop. They seem to make these great entries with limited substance, put out a few updates, and then move on to a new project before the current one can become anything more.

At the end of it all, Computer Repair Shop has 3 gambling games, a fixed process to repair computers, and a business and robot fighting that works by buying upgrades. As I said, it is just money management. The game will get repetitive when you get bored. Until then… it is weirdly hypnotic and fun, enough that half an hour after my rage quit I was back in the game.

This game has some solid ideas and some decent execution, even if it is shallow. I think that with a little more effort and love, and some intentional design (like a difficulty ramp, goals, and feedback), this game could be excellent.

So, Cheesecake Dev, I hope you are listening. Also, while you are at it, you need to clean up your translation so that the files I look for are ‘found’ and not ‘founded.’

GamesHorizon recieved a review copy of Computer Repair Shop for Steam.

5.0 Mediocre

The game has some solid ideas and decent gameplay that is held back in the long run by shallow design. The end result is a repetitive experience with a lot of glitches that gives you no reason to keep playing.

The Good

1. Silly and occasionally sleazy sense of humor
2. Fun graphics that fill an atmospheric world
3. Lot to discover and participate in
4. Many ways to make money in this world
5. Satisfying to fix computers or succeed at challenges like the backroom

The Bad

1. No consequences to failing a task so there is no real push to excel
2. A frustrating save system
3. Inconsistent and weird control scheme
4. Limited depth and lot of repetition
5. No long-term goal or reason to keep playing
6. Bad, lengthy tutorial for such a short game
7. No feedback system so there is no way to know why something fails
8. Pricing for services rendered is arbitrary and can be very frustrating
9. A lot of glitches!

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