Over the last few months I have been sent quite a few Simulator Genre games to play and review. Through December and over my Christmas break from work I was able to sit down and play through a handful of them! Some were good, some were far from it... but check out what I thought below!
SHIP GRAVEYARD SIMULATOR: Visit the largest ship graveyard in the world. A dozen kilometers of beach filled with wrecks. Hundreds of ships wrecked on the coast. Thousands of tons of steel. Choose the most valuable ship for you and start the adventure. Play as one of the workers during the most dangerous work in the world. Cut, hit, weld! Dismantle the whole ship and sell the obtained parts and upgrade your equipment. Explore all decks of the ship for valuable items. Take advantage of the opportunity to explore the mysterious spaces hidden inside these amazing colossi. The job of a worker dismantling ships is one of the most dangerous in the world. Demolition with only basic tools. Contact with toxic substances. You can sell or exchange the acquired items for other items. Be careful, you can have a serious accident or even die at any time!
WHAT I THOUGHT: Ship Graveyard Simulator was a mixed bag. It isn't pretty to look at with pretty crude/basic graphics and the music could send you to sleep at times. It's not the ugliest game I have ever played but things like static NPC's that just look at you and steal your soul with their evil stares, add that to the large barren sections where you feel very much alone and it does take abit away from the game. That said, despite the graphics/audio the gameplay is actually pretty enjoyable. It feels alot less realistic than some simulator games I have played recently and had a more simple, arcade like style to how you played. The basics of scavenging for materials to smelt and sell whilst upgrading your gear and buildings works well and scratches the itch of working in a ship graveyard. I just wish the ships were more interactive. TOTAL SCORE: 6.5/10 Ship Graveyard Simulator is priced at £10.74 on Xbox and can be purchased HERE.
CASTLE RENOVATOR:
Build your own kingdom and customize it to your liking. You start on your own inherited piece of land. Work as a craftsman to clean, repair, build and decorate medieval, renaissance and baroque buildings and castles. Visit beautiful locations, breathe new life into old rooms and as you know - hard work pays off - so maybe one day you will become the King?
Explore new locations - Do you want to see what the castle chambers look like in different locations? By completing quests you will have the opportunity to visit many beautiful lands where in addition to castles you will have the opportunity to clean, clean, build, renovate, repair and decorate sheds, barns, huts, houses, mansions, palaces and even pirate ships!
Become a designer! - Design the surroundings of the castle. Choose and plant trees in the courtyard, place animals in the crofts. Choose the shapes and designs of flags and pennants.
Destroy the walls! - Don't like what you've already managed to build? Don't worry! Destroy the walls and start over!
Manage reconstruction! - It takes a lot of effort to rebuild a conquered castle. Repair shattered walls, bridges or towers. You will have to put a lot of work into the reconstruction of the conquered castle.
The game takes place at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, so in addition to the usual Medieval buildings, you will also find some Baroque and Renaissance elements that add variety to the gameplay and give you more options for interior decoration.
WHAT I THOUGHT: I was really looking forward to playing this game due to the unique setting but unfortunately it was all but unplayable when attempting to play on my Xbox Series X console. The screen was washed out with a red/orange hue with glitched lighting. This appears to be the tip of the ice berg with multiple different glitches posted up from other uses on the Xbox store listing and other online places. The developers have said they are working on a patch but at the time of writing this (early December) this hasn't been applied yet. Wait it out and ensure a patch comes before buying! TOTAL SCORE: 1/10 Castle Renovator is available on the Xbox store for £11.99 and can be purchased HERE.
SHIPS SIMULATOR: Take control over 3 special purpose naval vessels. Complete various missions on dangerous waters of Baltic Sea. Take part in recovery of objects from the bottom of the sea. Transport heavy cargo to its final destination, also including rescue and transport missions. Assemble massive naval installations on open waters.
Take control over the ship crew and their accessories (such as fire extinguishers, fire hoses, water cannons, inflatables and searchlights) in order to defend your ship against pirate attack, to extinguish fire on board or to pick survivors in a special game mode.
Earn money and use it to buy and repair ships such as: - the world's biggest container ship - deepwater construction vessel - semi-submersible transport vessels
Game features: - 3 special purpose vessels - 24 interesting missions - ship renovation system - crew management mode - realistic water thanks to the advanced graphics and physics engine
WHAT I THOUGHT:
Ships Simulator looked decent for a simulator game. It's not going to blow your mind graphically but it had nice environments and animations on offer. The audio isn't great as with most games in this genre, with some standard folksy style BGM looped for your entire playtime. The controls in this game also feel great and like time and care was taken to port them from the PC version. Everything works as it should and the UI is easy to navigate.
The core gameplay was enjoyable enough but there wasn't enough content and depth spread across the 24 missions (which are timed by the way!) - Once you have played them there isn't a huge reason to want to go back and replay them either. This is the main sticking point for me as usually with simulator games there is normally too much depth on offer!
TOTAL SCORE: 7/10
Ships Simulator is available on the Xbox store for £12.49. It can be purchased HERE.
ANIMAL SHELTER SIMULATOR:
Save our four-legged friends! Animal Shelter Simulator grants you the opportunity to tackle the challenging but also highly rewarding task of running a refuge for strays and rescues. Witness firsthand how much effort goes into helping abandoned and injured animals as you handle a number of tasks necessary for your shelter to operate smoothly.
Clean them - Your rescues will need to take plenty of steps on the path to improved health, and good hygiene is the very first one. Get your hands a little dirty so that their paws stay clean and their spirits soar high.
Protect them - There's a bit of a wild side to every critter out there and it'll be your job as a responsible caretaker not to let it break out in any nasty fashion. Manage the animals well and keep the peace among the residents of your refuge.
Take them for a walk - What better way to burn off all that excess energy than a good, old-fashioned trot out in the fresh air? Keep your animals stimulated and entertained. You can be sure they'll be starved for attention!
Extend - As you succeed in your efforts, you will be faced with additional challenges. Make sure to turn them into opportunities as you invest in your facilities and expand according to your growing needs.
Be careful - Animals need a level head just as much as they need a loving heart. Remember that each resident of your shelter has a nature of its own. You don't want them, or yourself, getting hurt.
Convince them - The ultimate purpose of your initiative and the most rewarding conclusion to all of its efforts – when an animal makes its way to a brand new, loving home. Look after your rescues and make sure that they will find new good homes.
WHAT I THOUGHT: Animal Shelter Simulator was my favourite game of the bunch I got to play through. Maybe it was because of the theme and looking after all the animals over things like ships, but I did enjoy my time spent running my animal rescue centre. The interaction with all the cute animals, caring and looking after them is exactly what your would expect, plus with an added building mode that allows you to customise and rearrange the furniture etc in the compound adds extra depth that I wasn't expecting to find in the game.
The game does suffer from a few glitches/bugs but luckily I only suffered some minor ones, unfortunately others haven't been as fortunate and have reported more serious, game breaking issues that the devs have stated they are aware of and are planning to patch. While it is a little rough around the edges, Animal Shelter Simulator is a game that animal lovers will end up spending hours and hours playing without realising. A fun sim with plenty to do to keep you busy!
TOTAL SCORE: 7/10
Animal Shelter Simulator is available on the Xbox store for £12.49. It can be purchased HERE.
A huge thanks to UltimateGames for providing us with codes for all the games above!
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