It is time to plug in and get switched on as we take a closer look at, Electrician Simulator for the Nintendo Switch. Developed by, Take IT Studio and published by, Gaming Factory and Ultimate Games S.A. I think it’s pretty safe to say that nobody should be playing with electricity without the proper training, thankfully this is a game so suffering a shock isn’t going to lead to injury.

Your father has decided it’s time for you to take over the family business and establish yourself as a reputable electrician. Before we can go and take on the various jobs in the local neighbourhood we will need some training. Players will undergo a brief VR tutorial level and learn the basic skills of an electrician, upon completion you’ll receive your first certificate of completion which will make the first set of jobs available.

Before you ask, I indeed shocked myself because I forgot to turn the power off before tearing down a light switch. At certain points in the game, you will need to further your electrical education with some more VR training completing these sessions will open up more complex jobs and grow your business. I enjoyed the way that these training sessions made it feel as if you were developing your skills.

Controls are very simple with most interactions being a button press or hold. The sensitivity needed a great deal of adjusting before it was smooth enough to match the simple interactions. Out of the box, it’s just way too sensitive for a switch controller to handle it well.

You’ll spend a lot of time between jobs on your trusty laptop, here you can view and accept your next job, promote your business using the advertising page, and stock up on supplies and tools at the online store. The variety of jobs that you can take is quite varied and while most are simple enough to complete, some jobs will require some thought and planning, especially those that require you to place a path of wiring from the mains power board to individual switches and lighting fixtures. While I didn’t mind the simple interactions and controls, I was surprised that there was a lack of motion controls for the Switch version of the game, this could have added greatly to the immersion.

On-site jobs will have you changing light bulbs, repairing switches, and even working by torchlight as you restore power to the affected home. While I did enjoy the variety of these jobs, I did find myself getting a little excited when my disaster cable management worked and found it rather amusing that I could light up an entire house with one switch by wiring every light together. As somebody who enjoys tinkering and even repairing some of my broken controllers, I thoroughly enjoyed the jobs at the workbench.

Workbench jobs will have the player performing teardowns, diagnostics, part replacement, and reassembly of consumer products from consoles and controllers, to radios, and cassette players, even a trusty hairdryer. Taking things apart is easy, putting them back together in the right order on the other hand, well let’s just say I could get a bit lost. Thankfully there is a very handy tip system that helps you in the right direction, usually just highlighting the component I was missing was enough to jog my memory.

Being a simulator I expected a certain level of realism visually and it didn’t disappoint. I rather enjoyed that the majority of the on-site jobs were set in a unique property with different layouts and decor. Having decor that seemed to match very well with the current client was a nice touch. The star of the show for me though was the workbench jobs, these models had a great level of detail and were very satisfying to take apart and put back together. Given the level of detail that was on display, I was incredibly surprised by the blazing-fast load times, now that’s some quality optimisation.

In-game sound effects were passable though I’m certain a screw turning into wood doesn’t sound like a ratchet. The backing music track was a pretty chilled loop of glockenspiel melody that ran for about two minutes before looping again. Normally I would have turned this off entirely after a while. However, it blended so well with the gameplay that my focus on the task at hand made it seem to disappear entirely. The only other time I’ve ever experienced this is when I’ve been hyper-focused while welding at work.

Overall, the Electrician Simulator is a very well-optimised experience that has plenty of variety to keep you playing for hours. This would be a great choice for someone looking for a nice chill game to relax with, who knows it may even inspire one of our youth to further their education and become the next budding electrician.

Written by: Gary Nielsen