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0 Comic Book Store Simulator is a small shop-management game where you step into the shoes of a comic shop owner trying to keep a niche business alive. Developed by Akhir Pekan Studio and published by PlayWay S.A., the game tasks you with organizing your store, dealing with thieves, and juggling the constant flow of sales and restocks. I played it on PC, and overall, the game runs rather smoothly with only a couple of minor wrinkles.
Organizing the Chaos
Running a comic book store might at first sound a bit dull, but as anyone who has spent some considerable amount of time in these nerd dungeons will tell you, it is anything but. As a comic book store crawler myself, I found it intriguing to see the store from the other side of the counter. Let’s explore the magic behind running a geek lair.
Gameplay
Comic Book Store Simulator jumps right into story mode. You inherit a small, shabby, rundown store from your mother. With barely enough cash to buy one shelf and a pack of comic books, you open up that store full of hopes. Hopes that get immediately crushed, literally, by a meteorite that looks like a giant meatball.
Directly after this once-in-a-lifetime event, we get into another one. A Monopoly-man-looking fellow wants to trade your crushed store for a much bigger one. Nothing suspicious about that, of course. So, you get the bigger store, have cash for a couple more bookshelves and some comic books, and hope for the best. And the best does happen when a long line of NPCs looking like Wednesday Addams, the lead singer of Tokio Hotel, and randomized characters from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater rush to buy the first issue of Bed-Men.
I was at first fearing this game would turn out to be just another click here, click there, and stand behind the counter until your work shift ends type of store simulator. I was pleasantly surprised to find out just how much more there is to Comic Book Store Simulator. As you progress, the game does get more complex. Not only do you have to level up your character, but your store as well. You can accomplish both by offering a variety of comics and keeping the store clean. If you don’t keep a minimum of cleanliness, customers will walk out. Also, don’t forget to pay water and power bills to keep the lights on, decorate, expand the store, hire an employee, and most importantly, hit thieves in the head with a broken sandle. Let me explain that last part a bit further.
Nerds, Comics, and… Fight Club?
While scrubbing the floor with a broom, I noticed that I had access to two other tools, a feather duster and a broken sandle. The feather duster was obviously used to clean the dust off the bookshelves. But the old sandle caught my attention. Apparently, it is used to, let’s just say, discourage thieves from coming back to your store. Being the mischievous player that I am, my mind immediately wandered in a different direction. What if, by some strange misfortune, you happen to hit, by total accident, a regular customer, instead of a comic book thief? The game quickly turned into Grand Theft Auto 3. Let me explain!
A police officer showed up as soon as I hit an innocent and precious NPC walking down the street, minding his own business. The police officer then demands that I pay the hefty fine of $100. At that precise moment in the game, I didn’t have the cash on me, as I had spent it all on comic books. A situation many comic book collectors can relate to, I’m sure. The police officer then tells me to pay $200 because I refused to pay the first $100, which I obviously couldn’t.
Woop Woop, it’s the sound of the police
The police officer is very fed up with my lack of cooperation and then proceeds to take me to prison, where I will be shown “the power of the police!” Next thing I know, I am in a cage in a prison patio, fighting the police officer with my old sandal. He then karate kicks me unconscious. I wake up to the message that the authorities have taken all my money. The joke is on them, though. At the time of my arrest, all I had on me was a mere 88 dollars with 53 cents.
Graphics & Audio
As is clearly visible from the screenshots above, the game suffers from some kind of dark filter. It’s as if the glow has been turned off, even when standing outside during bright daylight. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it definitely does not help the game’s visual appeal. Speaking of, the game feels and looks like something from the early 2000s. It’s hard to tell if this was the game developer’s intent or if they couldn’t afford to use fancier and costlier assets to make this game look better.
The music that plays in the background is actually not horrible. But it quickly becomes repetitive and sort of fades away. While, for many players, this might be precisely what they are looking for, just a tune to avoid the silence, for others, it can be a tad annoying. Personally, I preferred to turn it off and play my own 2000s Nu Metal playlist, since that would match the vibe of the game. But to each their own.
Longevity
As of right now, version v1.0.51, the game has two storylines that you can pursue besides running your comic book store. I appreciate the game developers trying to give players something more than just mindlessly selling and restocking comic books in a store. I’m sure we will get to the bottom of the mysterious meteor that fell on our old store and why the rich monopoly man is so interested in it.
The grind in Comic Book Store Simulator is real. You’ve got to earn your broomstick and old sandal upgrades. I’ve greatly enjoyed expanding my store, upgrading my book shelves, and selling more and more comics and manga. The pinboard and work desk in the back office track all your achievements, giving a sense of accomplishment and direction. At this point, it is unclear how long one can play Comic Book Store Simulator. But from what I can tell, once the game is complete, it will deliver a good amount of hours of fun and play.
Final Thoughts
Comic Book Store Simulator surprised me at every turn, from massive meteorites falling from the sky, and fighting cops Street Fighter style, to just paying boring water and power bills. The game kept me on my toes, never knowing what to expect next. I felt there were real consequences to my actions and my inactions. I am therefore very intrigued to keep playing.
Although I had a blast playing, visually, the game is not doing it for me. Everything, from textures to colors, lighting, and assets, has this sort of depressing, dim, grey shadow of minimum effort. You can tell the game was made on a tight budget, but with all the accessible engines and assets developers have these days, that’s not as strong an excuse as it used to be.
I sincerely look forward to the final product. Hopefully, by then, they will have fixed the lighting issue.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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