Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 tasks players with owning and operating their own car repair business. Developer Red Dot Games has been making its car simulator series since 2014, and each iteration of the game strives to add more realism and diversity. Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 doesn't really bring a lot of innovation, but the updated graphics and a few new additions make for a solid update for fans of the series.

Throughout Car Mechanic Simulator 2021, players will be tasked with running their own car garage, taking jobs and fixing up vehicles that slowly get more difficult as time goes by. Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 begins with simple fluid changes but will see players eventually rebuilding entire junk cars from scratch to resell on the open market. As the player progresses they will have the opportunity to upgrade their garage with better workstations, paint shop, car wash station, diagnostics, and even a test drive track to try out their hard work. These extra areas help increase the jobs available and give a nice change of pace to just fixing cars.

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Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 strives for realness in its gameplay, and it is incredibly helpful to have some basic knowledge of how car parts are taken apart and reassembled. The tutorials do a decent job of showing the basic ins and outs of car repair, but once they're over, the player is left on their own to figure out how to achieve each job's goals. Color-coded highlights on each car piece will help differentiate what needs to be pulled off first, but everything is highlighted no matter what the job. Players can easily take apart an entire car just to fix some brake pads.

Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 Engine Close Up

Where Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 suffers is in its repetition. When taking apart sections of cars, players will click highlighted screw after highlighted screw until the piece disappears. Then, they'll navigate into a radial menu to chose the correct piece to replace it with before returning to the screws. This is only broken up by the occasional mini-game while using a specific station, either to repair worn-down pieces, refit a tire, or power wash the car. None of the mini-games are overly complicated and just add to the tediousness of later, more labor-intensive, jobs.

Despite the repetitiveness, Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 really comes off as quite impressive for car enthusiasts. The game boasts 4000-plus unique parts and over 70 cars to work on in the base game. As of time of writing, two DLC packs are also available allowing players to work on electric cars or specific Nissan products. If the past Car Mechanic Simulators are any indication, there will be plenty more DLC packs on the horizon.

Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 Garage White Car

Overall Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 is a solid upgrade to the CMS series. All of the updated items and graphics will be a welcome addition to past players and a perfect place to start for new ones. It certainly isn't a game anyone would want to binge over a weekend, but any car repair fan will enjoy this one for years to come - or until the next instalment in the series, if it continues to evolve and adapt towards more detail-oriented play.

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Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 is available now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, and PC. Screen Rant was provided with a PC code for this review.