Used Cars Simulator - PC Preview

The background of the image is a blurred view of a dock and a large ship. Infront of this are two cars; the left one is a sun-bleached reddish orange, and the hood is up, and appears to be broken down. The right car is a bright red sports car. In the center is the text Used Cars Simulator in white with a red background. Three symbols are above the text; car keys, a money sack, and a hammer.

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Used Cars Simulator is (you guessed it!) a simulator game developed by DreamWay Games and published by none other than (you guessed it again!) PlayWay S.A. The game features an open world and is available on Steam in Early Access.

Hit or Miss, you decide!

A large shed with miscoloured doors. A large sign on the top says the name of the shed/business. It reads "Restoration Station". The sign is coloured a darkish purple with lime green text. A text box on the left has a list of objectives for the player to follow. — Open for business!

Gameplay

Used Cars Simulator drops you right into a seedy bar, and your objective is to speak to a woman in a red dress named Mercedes. She asks you to perform a stunt in her car, which, after the case, turns out to be her boyfriend’s. After her angry boyfriend demands that you fix his car, an onlooker offers you the opportunity to fix up cars for profit.

There are two ways to get used cars: illegally and legally. The legal way is to either find someone selling via your computer, or people with their parked shabby cars out in the world, and you can negotiate. Make sure you inspect the car before negotiating a price, as finding faults in the car can lower its price for you. Illegally, you can steal cars, but it’s not as simple as snatching and grabbing. In the Swamp, you’ll need to buy hot-wire kits (each for specific car types) and license plates. Then you need to hot-wire a car, break off its license plate and replace it with the new one.

A white car with rust patches. There is a box to the left which shows a 3D model with yellow highlighted areas. These area show what problems the car has. — Let’s see what’s wrong with her.

Fix’em – Up

Now you have your not-so-new car, it’s time to get it in (as close to) tip-top shape. This will include fixing the car and painting it. A 3D model of the car appears in the upper right corner, along with bars and percentages of how damaged parts are. The various parts of the car are colour coded from red, yellow and green, ranging from bad, okay and good, respectively. If parts need replacing, you can filter them on your computer and order the part you need. This will take time, and you can sleep to pass the time.

Painting is pretty straightforward, and you have colour sliders which give you the freedom to pick almost any colour you’d like. Just like fixing, the 3D model and bars will tell you how much of certain car parts need painting.

I'm painitng the car green for to make it look more presentable. A box on the left highlights where I need to spray to reach a 100% of the new coat. — A fresh coat of paint never hurts.

Selling Cars & Skills

Once you’ve put a fresh coat of paint and dreams on your car, it’s time to sell. You’ll need to take some photos and then post an advert on your computer. After some time, you will receive a range of offers and you’ll have to deliver the car to the buyer of your choosing. Be careful, though, as damaging it along the way will lower the price the customer will pay for it. Later on in the game, you unlock skill points towards three skill trees, which include haggling skills when buying and selling cars, among other useful skills in other areas of gameplay.

A more detailed menu of what the car is worth and what might be missing from it. There are several check boxes which show how to improve the price when selling it. Below that is the parts and what condition they're in as well as how clean.

Graphics & Audio

Used Cars Simulator isn’t exactly a visual feast, but it has some good audio attributes. Voice acting and general sound effects are decent, and the in-car radio features a range of genres in music, which was a welcome change to the usual silence or three songs on loop.

The colour-coded 3D car model that helps you to identify where to clean, paint, fix and inspect a car is very helpful. Character models don’t look the best, and textures are poor-looking, and the environment sort of loads in as you drive. However, since its early access and a simulator, none of these things are glaringly horrific or impact the gameplay at all.

Final Thoughts

My impressions of Used Cars Simulator are positive, since sim games are lately hit or miss. I’ve had no issues besides a black floating square, but I’ve struggled to get a screenshot of it. There’s a decent amount of freedom in how you make money in the game. The current selection of cars to do up and sell isn’t bad ,and the devs are looking to add more through the early access. The hunger, thirst, and bladder meters feature, I feel Used Cars Simulator could do without. I know it adds a little depth, but in the end they don’t fit well into the game.

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this preview.

About Author

Kyle McGrath

I’ve enjoyed video games for as long as I remember and I don’t think there isn’t a game I wouldn’t play. For reviews, I try my best to make them simple and easy to understand. With so many games released daily, I attempt to play them all.

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Used Cars Simulator – PC Preview