If you’ve always dreamt of having your own business then here is your chance. Repair This! is the newest game from HgiSoft. The developer used his extensive 20 years experience in the repair service business as inspiration to add some real life situations into his game. Repair This! Is a humorous point & click simulation. This game is meant to be a satire on an issue that is especially relevant in today’s world, privacy and data safety.

The protagonist in this game works as a cell phone repairman. He is ambitious and his goal is to one day own a successful business. It’s hard work, but he is not afraid of getting his hands dirty even if it means spying on his customers and selling their secrets. The premise is super simple, but as you play along you will uncover several side narratives. You will also learn a bit about the protagonist himself and maybe he will even meet the love of his life.

The game plays as a first person view, with a 2D cartoon visual style. The style, the cartoonish aesthetic and the gameplay are all reminiscent of Papers, Please. It’s obvious that the creator drew inspiration from this classic. The gameplay is simple. You help one customer after another until the day ends. Taking cues from what the customers tell you and their looks, you will have to decide how long it will take you to repair their phone and how much you can charge them. If you ask too much or take too long the customer may choose to go elsewhere. You may also choose to work for a nameless government agency for extra money. You have the option of snooping in your customer’s phone after you fix them. Additionally at the end of each day you can look at the business cards you collected that day and choose what to do: get a new sign for your store, visit that beautiful girl that left you her phone number, or even visit the bar across the street. This adds another layer to the narrative.

There is also a simulation aspect to this game. You have to save money to pay the rent or your greedy landlord might just kick you out. You also have to pay electricity and taxes… or do you? It was actually fun to poke around the customer’s phones and see their pictures and text messages. The game is packed full of pop culture references. You never knew who was about to walk in. Are you brave enough to snoop through Walter White’s phone?

A great feature of Repair This! is that your choices do matter. What you do can potentially impact the whole city. You have to pay attention to everything you learn from all sources because what you decide truly does have an impact. In the shop there is a TV and you will have to look at it periodically for news. There are several small side stories you can unlock depending of your choices. I like these as they helped kept me entertained throughout. The game is repetitive as is the nature of simulation game, but these side stories help to keep it fresh. It also means that you really have to pay attention to everything, because you have to take it all into account when making your choices.

I liked all the little interesting details the developer added into his game. The tutorial is accessed through a “for dummies book” that is sitting on a shelf in your store. You can always click on it if you need to review the tutorial. Another fun little detail is that the music comes from a boombox in your shop. You can click on it to change the tape, stop the music, or fast forward to the next track. There are a few cassette tapes to choose from with each having a different style and containing several songs. I loved the choice of music and the fact that you can access it in-game without having to go through the settings.

The customer base in Repair This! Is randomly generated. It’s nice because you don’t know what you’ll get from one day to the next. Although I felt like the pool was a bit too small which meant that eventually it gets repetitive. It also means that there is not much replayability. After a couple hours of playing you will start to see many repeat customers and that’s fine, but their dialogues also starts to repeat.

Repair This! is a fun and quirky game that will entertain you for a couple of hours. I enjoyed the cartoonish aesthetics and the satirical commentary on relevant topics. It was interesting to see how the story unfolds depending on my choices and the pop culture references are sure to make you smile. I recommend you try it out for yourself for a fun evening.

Positives

• Fun Cartoon aesthetics
• Loads of funny pop culture references
• Interesting details
• Your choices impact the game

Negatives

• Characters can become repetitive
• Initial loading screen is very long