As someone who has done a lot of mechanical work on their cars over the years, I am happy to say that Car Mechanic Simulator 2015 is accurate in many ways. However, it does lack a number of key components of any wrenching session, such as...

-The "This Bolt is so Badly Rusted and Seized That No Amount of Breaker Bars, Impact Wrenches or Penetrating Oil Can Help You Now" puzzle;
-The "DO YOU FEEL LUCKY, PUNK?!" EZ-Out Bolt Extractor Mini-Game;
-The "Dropped a Nut in the Engine Bay and it Didn't Hit the Floor" experience;
-The "Broke a Thousand-Dollar Part While Attempting to Fix a Ten-Dollar Part and Now I'm Inventing New Swear Words" vocabulary game and its companion, "Throw the Wrench Across the Garage in a Fit of Rage"; and
-The "Desperate Run to the Parts Store Five Minutes Before Close" racing game.

Oh, I almost forgot about the ever-popular "Roll to Hit Your Head on Everything Between the Floor and Ceiling" skill check. Come to think of it, that's exactly why this game is pretty enjoyable - all of the wrenching without any of the frustrations that come along with it. In all seriousness, it could use a couple things (for example, removing an engine whole instead of piece-by-piece, then tearing down the engine on a stand outside the car), a bit of polish here and there and, of course, more cars and more customisation (performance parts, tuning and engine swaps would be great!), but overall, CMS 2015 stands well on its own as it is.

This is among the few simulator games such as Euro Truck Simulator and farming simulator that actually does a good job. Game runs smoothly, has minimal bugs, well designed and is fun.

Pros:
+Manage your own car garage
+Nice textures and models
+Test driving
+Garage customization
+Minimal bugs and glitches
+Runs at 60 fps
+Developers are actively working on improving and adding features to game

Neutral:
~Needs more cars (coming soon in dlc)
~Would like to see more cables and parts under engine hood (bit empty atm)
~Different engine types would be interesting (diesel, hybrid, older style engines, vans)

Cons:
(Remember the developers are actively working on this game)

-Career mode could use a few more features (ranking, economy, business decisions)
-Some UI improvements can be made (selling and buying multiple parts in tedious)
-Main car parts are in cars however fuel lines, brake lines, radiator pipes, electrical cables etc are absent

I almost gave thumbs down... but the game is well-made and it's very relaxing to play it.
I learned a bit about car parts, but this game could have more information about parts:
-what they are for
-if they break what are the consequence and symptoms
-how can we damage those parts (so we don't do it IRL)

The game is nice, but If we learn more about mechanic this game it would be much cooler.

A view from one who both enjoys driving and also swings spanners for a living.

TLDR version - A very basic introduction into light vehicle components that feels like it needed another 3 months before release. CMS 2014 is more realistic in many ways - sideways evolution not revolution.


Graphics are decent, sounds are reasonably realistic if simple. Music is passable for the first half hour, then gets turned off. An ingame jukebox with your own mp3 folder linked would be great.

Into the reason why we play games - gameplay. The main suspension types (live axle and independant) are well represented along with engine choices. What is lacking is any customisation. Once you've put together 20 or so cars the excitement fails and you feel like you're grinding toward a goal you can't see. You cannot change parts from one car to another to improve horsepower or weight like Redline Racer 2 or similar (incidently a very good car modification game but very buggy).

In my case, I was grinding for 9k experience, the point in which you can buy parling spaces to get cars from the auctions.
I hit 9k, spent my 50g then went shopping at the auctions. Bought an absolute beater for far more then it was worth and took it home. Stripped, rebuilt every component I could, replaced everything else and then looked for a place to market my rebuilt ride.

That's strange, I have no auction option...that's right. You can only sell the cars you buy for a set sum dependant on condition and model, not feed it back to the auction where you bought it. You get paid a minor 'restoration bonus' and actually end up almost even steven from where you started, which considering you've just spent the better part of 30-45mins rebuilding this thing is.....disappointing to say the least.

This seems to underutilise the potentially exciting platform of the auction. Why couldn't we walk the lot before the auction, checking out the cars beforehand or even meet other bidders?
Also on bidding, it seems a very simple but random process - you're not sure why one model car sells for more then the same model in similar condition because you're literally given no information on each unit. Zero. Can't even pan around to see how many panels are missing.

Another lost oppurtunity is the test track - this could have been much larger and give the player a challenge or at least a reason not to on-sell a car but alas no.

Mods are enabled so the community will probably come to the rescue but they shouldn't have to. The pan speed is excellent however not being able to do anything while draining oil or lowering/raising a car on the hoist is immensely frustrating, can't even check the job sheet.

This game is worth money. How much though? To someone like me who already has a sound knowledge base on car mechanics, maybe $5-10. The content there is well done with no bugs I can see which is a pat on the back. I understand it uses DLC and I've bought a couple already, but misses clear oppurtunities to shine using platforms already existing in the game and offers little direction or encouragement to continue either doing customer jobs or rebuilding auction cars. You will get bored at less then 20 hours.

If you want a better understanding of cars, this is a good start at least in names of components and different types of suspension. Some little AVIs on how the different suspensions compare to one another in practise would be great to better educate those who wish to play this game as a learning tool.

A good crack at a title, but over far too quickly with little replay value.


EDIT - After playing the 2014 complete version I must say there appears to be more tangible goals at least on the Tuning and 4WD addons, in addition to 2014 having more realistic graphics and engine components (actually has intake from filter housings to throttle bodies unlike 2015). Unfortunately 2014 has slow component removal speed and slow mouse speed and still has limited content..
The best CMS would be an amalgam of the best attributes of both with casual/hardcore mods with more complex components and tuning/mix match options

I own an American muscle car custom garage... so the content in this game is something I'm familiar with. I'll say that, yes this is a game... and a good one. But, it is a casual sim and not so much like a Falcon flightsim. For example, changing the brakes on a car is one thing, but in this game you don't have to spend time bleeding brake lines or... running brake lines or electrical lines.

In real life, gremlins in the electrical systems (wiring harness, fuses, etc) are what takes up so much of my time. In this game... they're not even there... really (unless you count ignition wiring). That could be a blessing or a curse because I hate testing 2 miles of insulated copper wire with a multimeter just to figure out why a car has a mysterious parasitic power drain. In this game... you're either blessed to not have that tedium or let down without having that real sim experience.

Overall, it is a fun GAME. Little to no bugs. I only wish the market allowed me to reference my parts list from the build order so I didn't have to go run under the car every time I forgot what suspension part I needed.

Overall, I rate it an 8/10

I come from Car Mechanic Simulator 2014 and found that it (CM Sim 2014) was enjoyable but once I beat the game for the first time and played some of the DLC I felt like I didn't have a reason to pick the game up. When I heard about Car Mechanic Simulator 2015 being in crowdfund mode I was hesitant to put more money down as I felt like it'd be the same thing. A decent time waster until you beat the game. After looking at what they had so far I started to get excited for the title and immediately pledged enough to get the game when it was released. I received my code earlier today and began playing it.

The menu is completely different and I found it to be fluid and well designed. It immediately gave me a good vibe. I quickly and eagerly created a profile and began playing. As soon as I started working on the car I automatically fell in love with how it felt. In the previous title it felt like the menus were slow and sluggish. It felt like a burden just to check my inventory. In CMS 2015, that's not the case. The keys are simple and understandable yet pay homage to the original title. Taking off and putting parts on was a breeze. I found myself immerse and even at times swearing like I was working on a real car. Not even kidding. At one point when it told me I had to replace a Piston I was like "Man forget this game!" yet I quickly dove into the top end and just started taring down and enjoying it. It's immersive and easy at the same time. I played for 4 hours before I could even test drive a car, but it was worth the wait. I've messed around with the Auction house and that's a great perk. I gave myself a budget and immediately surpassed it because, well 'because I can'. This game feels endless and fun. Fluid, good looking and immersive.

I was how ever, disappointed in the fact that when you purchase a car on the auction house, you're required to put back what was on it. For example, I couldn't put a dual carb intake when I took off a single carb intake. It was disappointing as I am a big mechanic head, I love to be able to upgrade rather than replace. I was equally disappointed at the lack of aftermarket body parts. I was hoping for a hood scoop or two, but unfortunately nothing. These aren't game breakers though. I will still enjoy this game daily. Hopefully, they will update the game with either a DLC or a base patch that will allow you to do a motor swap in the auction cars.

TL:DR version: Game is fun, fluid and immersive. Way better than 2014 and in my opinion, should be in any gear heads library, or just anyone who wants to play a good car game. Looks great as well!

If you enjoyed this review please consider going to www.frostythegamer.com and following the website. We're still setting it up but I'll be posting new reviews soon!

As as former car mechanic myself it is fun to see that this game is really close to reality.
Play on expert mode and you really have to know where the nuts and bolts are, otherwise play as normal and
everything is highlighted for you.

I have played this game for more than 30 hours now and finaly i bought and fixed my own car.
I was hoping that i could race it on the 1/4 mile track to earn some extra cash or race for pinks.
Sadly it was just a test run.
Now i'am at a point were it becomes much of the same, because in the end all i do is swapping parts.
I still have a lot of XP points but nothing to do with it.
Bought every DLC there is, got my tools and my shop nice and clean and now it seems to end.

In my early years i owned an Amiga and there was this game "streetrod"
Loved this game, because you worked on improving performance of the cars so you could win races.
This game has all the potential to do the same,
If such a DLC becomes available, i would buy it instantly.

Loading times could be improved as well, i have a pretty good PC, but it takes ages to load.

I really hope that there will be continuing development on this game, because this game deserves it and it is fun for everyone, my kids (7 and 9) love it too and they are getting pretty good at it.

tl;dr pros & cons list:

I recommend you buy this game if you love cars, or want to learn more about cars!

• Awesome leap in graphics, game function, and quality from its sequel
  
• Easy learning curve, it guides you through what to do
  
• A good educational game for learning car parts
  
• It's a learning experience for newbies to cars in general, like myself
  
• A fantastic developer that keeps up with its community
  
• New content and updates are still coming out since it's a relatively new game
  
• There's a large variety of vehicles with several different engines and/or arrangements, but variety isn't introduced much until you get more XP which makes sense

I'm going to list a lot of cons to balance with the pros, but don't misinterpret it, it's a fantastic game.

• Dubstep music on the radio, can easily be turned off however
  
• The game holds your hand almost too much once you become proficient and want a challenge, since it doesn't let you mess up assembling the vehicle
  
• There's no tutorial about how to play the game really, but it always shows you the controls and is really easy to figure out for the most part
  
• It isn't a challenge if you're a mechanic, surprise surprise
  
• It doesn't show you how the parts actually work in the vehicle, if you're looking to learn about that
  
  Now for the non-tl;dr review:
  It's an incredible leap in quality from Car Mechanic Simulator 2014, and I'm pleased to say it's a full fledged sequel! Everything is vastly improved, especially the graphics and game mechanics (pun intended). They've also added the ability to buy auctioned vehicles, allowing you to fix them and sell them for profit, among some other big new things. The developers are actively updating the game and listen to the requests of its fanbase which is always a great thing to see. I love a dedicated developer that keeps up to speed with its community. Also, there's a growing multitude of cars available to work on, engines have variation most of the time, and while the game has no tutorial, the learning curve is easy to get over once you figure the parts of a car out. It gives you a very easy start, then slowly gets more and more intricate as you become more proficient in your tasks. It actually gets pretty challenging sometimes.
  
  A lot of people wonder about how realistic it is, so I will go over that in the next paragraph:
  I'm no mechanic, so I have no real-life depiction of how realistic the game actually is, but I got an opinion from a friend of mine who really is a mechanic.
  
  The original Car Mechanic Simulator is what initially sparked my interest in how cars work, and now this sequel helps me expand on that. Hell, it got me so intrigued I went out to my car to see if I could take the air filter out! I even watched some YouTube videos on mechanics principles. I really didn't care for cars prior. In fact I knew nothing of cars. Thank this game for inspiring my love in vehicles! After talking to a mechanic friend, he does say the game lacks realistic difficulty because in reality, knowing which tools to use and finding out what is broken is only half the battle, and it holds your hand through putting things back together, as well as taking things apart in the right order. In real life, it's far more possible to forget to put something in the car, or to lose a bolt inside the engine which apparently sounds painful to a mechanic. He said you can't simply pull out some parts like the game does, too, such as a gearbox. Also, the engines it has you work on aren't as wildly varying as real life cars. My car engine has many of the parts the game has, and thanks to the game I could identify a few of the things which felt very satisfying since I had literally no knowledge of it prior. Everything was arranged differently than in the game, though. It's possibly true that the game isn't quite spot-on realistic, however there's nothing I know of that's better at teaching you the parts of a car and how cars work. With the incredible leap in game quality in just one year, I wouldn't be surprised if it'll be marginally closer to real life in the next sequel. I'm not IGN and I give this a 10/10, so that should say something! It was well worth the 16 dollars I spent, as you can't put a price on education and inspiration.

Over simplified and a bit repetitive after a while. Good fun for a car nerd like me though!

I'm working for 16 years in a garage, never seen a game so real and so close to realtiy in gameplay.
It's worth playing it. I wish my job was that easy from behind the computer on my desk fixing that car :-)