Virtual reality can be a lot of things, it can affect, it can impact, it can educate, it can inspire. But perhaps virtual reality is at its absolute best when it allows you to forget about everything else and embody that all important three letter word, fun.
That’s exactly what Job Simulator does and what it does so well.
I first had a chance to mess around with Job Simulator earlier this year and immediately found myself lost in an awesomely interactive world where even the most mundane task, like cooking a soup, was fun because of the game’s comical approach. In fact, one of the moments I tend to mention when talking about times where I felt particularly immersed was a simple egg toss into a pot in that demo. That experience of curiosity-fueled wonder and joy carried over to the game’s newest level in spades.
Set in a convenience store, you are an everyday clerk on the job. The narration/computer instruction comes in to tell you that it is opening time and you need to clean the place up before customers arrive. Around you are a number of empty cans littering the countertop, beckoning you to clear them away. In the corners of the room you see a trash can, giving you reason to immediately test out one of the more fun things you can do on the Vive, throwing stuff.
I cleaned off my countertop and pulled the level in front of me to turn on the stores power. Once you do, you are greeted with a few other tasks necessary to start your day on the job before finally encountering your first customer of the day, a floating computer – these are job simulations after all. The customer approaches the counter and requesting to pay for some items that he had grabbed in the store, and at the last minute deciding to add on a hot dog (because apparently computers don’t get food poisoning).
I don’t want to spoil it too much because the fun truly comes with the moments of discovery as you play through the game, but sufficed to say the rest of the customers get progressively more goofy as the demo continues along. Overall though I can easily say that Job Simulator is one of the titles I am most excited about because I know that it will manage to put a big smile on my face the whole time I play though it.
A lot of the credit goes to the game’s excellent design which has taken into account just how much fun someone might want to have in Job Simulator‘s worlds. Every detail and step in the game is something for you to do, truly exploring the magic of VR to make the simple things amazing. Job Simulator is one of those games that rewards your curiosity at every turn, and constantly finds new ways to surprise and delight the player.
The convenience store is the second of what will be five jobs in the final game when it is released later this year with the HTC Vive. We will continue to keep you posted with more hilarious updates from Owlchemy as soon as they are available.
