Job Simulator

Job Simulator is a virtual reality game that takes place in the near-future, when robots have completely dominated the human workforce. Playing as a visitor in a museum run by robots, you'll experience four unique human jobs, spread out across dozens of small mini-games. Guided by the museum curator, you'll spend a handful of hilarious hours filling in at four different human jobs. As you experience the ins and outs of human life, you'll learn some fun (if factually inaccurate) stats about our workforce. By offering players easy-to-understand gameplay with a dose of colorful visuals and funny characters, Job Simulator is easily one of the best VR games you can buy.

Main Game Features

• 4 occupations presented in bite-sized activities
• Offbeat humor and dialogue
• Highly replayable levels

Story

Job Simulator takes place in the futuristic year of 2050, in a reality where robots are the only working-class left. Playing as a nameless robot, you can visit four unique virtual exhibits, where you step into the shoes of a common human worker.

Standing behind the counter or desk at your chosen workplace, you'll complete a variety of tasks deemed appropriate for your position. Throughout each of the jobs, other robots act as your co-workers and management, providing some context for the life of an employee.

Apart from some funny jokes and a few gags, the story content in Job Simulator is simply the window-dressing for the entertaining VR gameplay. While the jobs themselves feel very distinct from each other, there's nothing exceptionally unique about Job Simulator's narrative. Don't expect some riveting sci-fi tale about the downfall of mankind, as this is simply not The Terminator franchise. Instead, you should expect a leisurely adventure with a few chuckles along the way.

Gameplay

In terms of raw gameplay mechanics, there's not a ton of complexity to Job Simulator. Regardless of the job you're performing, your character has limited mobility and function. You can push, pull, and interact with nearly every item and piece of scenery you can touch, but you won't be exploring any levels or slashing any swords. Instead, Job Simulator is more about tinkering with the tools in front of you per your instruction, while simultaneously screwing around and having fun.

There are four jobs to complete, placing you in the shoes of a chef, a cashier, a car mechanic, and an office worker. While the controls stay the same throughout, each job will have you performing dozens of small actions.

For example, working as a cashier will see you scanning lottery tickets, heating up hotdogs, and counting change. As the office worker, you'll have to make some hiring decisions, check your email, and even do a bit of chatting by the water cooler. Generally speaking, the gameplay in Job Simulator is never challenging, offering a relaxed and silly trip through time.

Pros

• Hilarious writing
• Great concept
• Lots of interactivity

Cons

• Not enough levels
• Gameplay lacks depth

Many people use video games to escape from the ordinary, so the concept of Job Simulator might seem pointless at first. Players perform basic duties of four everyday occupations: office worker, chef, convenience store clerk, and auto mechanic. However, putting on your Vive headset isn’t like heading off to the daily grind. Owlchemy Labs’ VR title has plenty of irreverence and surprises, but I was still happy to punch out at the end of the day.

While the professions seem familiar at first, you quickly realize something isn’t normal. The copy machine spits out solid objects, and you “burn CDs” by putting them in a toaster. The jobs you’re simulating don’t always line up with reality; they are just the closest approximations that robots in the year 2050 can imagine. This disconnect is the source of a lot of funny moments (and frequent uses of “job” as a verb), and that charm and humor is the main draw of Job Simulator.

The professions are well-suited to the Vive experience, giving you small and densely packed work areas for your various tasks. You make coffee, add fluid to cars, put hotdogs on the rollers, and cook steaks depending on your currently selected sequence. Each job has a standalone linear progression of tasks to complete, but they all have you using the controllers to navigate 3D space, grabbing objects, turning dials, and pressing buttons.

Controlling your in-game hands occasionally feels clumsy, but that also results in entertaining moments, like knocking the fire extinguisher onto the stove, or throwing paper airplanes at your co-workers. Because your tasks are painfully simple, these mistakes never have any repercussions, so they’re easy to laugh off.

From kitchens to cubicles, you have enough space to maneuver and interact, but the limitations of your play space still make sense. Counters and machinery present intuitive boundaries, so I never worried about inadvertently hitting walls. If anything, the danger is thinking the in-game surroundings are real; I leaned back against a non-existent wall once, and also tried to use a virtual table to support myself as I bent down.

While the workplaces have lots of objects to interact with, being limited to four environments means that you quickly exhaust your options; without any additional challenges or modes, you have no reason to keep playing after you complete your assigned duties.

Despite the changing backdrop, everything from the jokes to the tasks run together; whether you’re putting gum in a bag or a tomato in a blender, you’re basically going through the same motions. They’re clever the first few times, but you already have a limited variety of activities, and all the repetition doesn’t help. Job Simulator lives up to its own ambitions, presenting a compact, cute, and accessible showcase for interacting with virtual locations. I can’t deny the fun and novelty of the experience, but the entertainment fades quickly. Popping in for a few minutes to dump an energy drink on an engine or make fire-extinguisher soup is funny, but that’s as deep as the experience goes. The laid-back toybox structure means that I was never under pressure, but I was also never challenged or engaged beyond VR’s universal joy of inhabiting a digital space.

Job Simulator is a comedic and aloof virtual reality game where you work at seemingly normal jobs, viewed through the eyes of a futuristic species of robots. You'll take up the job of a convenience store clerk, a mechanic, and several more as you explore the idle life of humans. The game is broken up into easy-to-understand segments, which challenge you to perform simple tasks to get the job done. With an ample amount of humor, fun gameplay, and a nice amount of replayability, Job Simulator establishes itself as a must-play title for any new VR owner.

Main Game Features

• 4 unique jobs to complete
• Hilarious voice lines
• Unlockable gameplay modifiers

Story

In Job Simulator, you play as a robot visiting the museum of humanity, run by goofy-looking robots with a hefty interest in the now-extinct human race. Along with your tour guide, you can check out four unique jobs, experiencing everyday life as a human across a variety of roles. Told from the perspective of the ignorant but excitable robots, you get to live out your wildest fantasies of working in an office, checking out customers at a gas station, and more. While the story isn't the focal part of Job Simulator, there's a lot of humor and heart to be found. The characters are voiced well, with effective writing full of laugh-out-loud moments. As the robots attempt to simulate human life, they make some silly mistakes, resulting in plenty of gags and goofs. Job Simulator might not be the strongest narrative in VR gaming, but it's still lighthearted and enjoyable.

Gameplay

If there's one thing that Job Simulator excels at, it's variety. There are four main jobs to experience, including a cashier, a car mechanic, a standard desk job, and a restaurant cook. Each job is broken up into bite-sized tasks, encouraging the player to interact with their environment and figure out the next step. For example, the office worker job will see you logging onto the internet, using a printer, eating a doughnut, and much more. Alternatively, your life as a mechanic involves rotating tires, changing headlights, and even decorating the dashboard. None of these tasks are designed to be tough, but instead offer the player a funny and laid-back playground to have fun in. Many of the tasks have multiple ways of completing them, so you'll never get a game over or fail a mission for being too curious. Once you've completed the four main jobs, you unlock extra gameplay modifiers that shake up the experience. These include an anti-gravity mode, tiny object mode, and more.

Conclusion

With its irreverent comedy, off-beat depictions of everyday life, and a surprisingly satisfying gameplay loop, Job Simulator stays fun throughout the entire experience. If anything, Job Simulator is a bit too short, and can easily be completed in a few hours.

Pros:

• Effective jokes
• Fun and interactive level design
• Great for new VR owners

Cons:

• Occasional tracking issues
• Not enough levels
• Simplistic gameplay