In every self-respecting family, there's someone destined to bear the heavy burden of being the house expert. It doesn't matter if you studied engineering at Harvard or if you like to tinker with thermal paste. Chances are, if you've read this article, you're, like many of us, the one in charge of all these chores: from transferring photos from your phone to your computer to opening it up because it's not as fast as it used to be back in 2007, you name it.

'PC Building Simulator' was released in early 2019 and joined the lucrative business of video games that emulate jobs, with the goal of making techies feel like real professionals running a repair shop. Along the way, players could tinker with hundreds of official products that in real life cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

What professional doesn't use thermal paste?

The truth is, there's something magnetic about video games, even those that focus on working outside of work. Even if it's on your own terms, there's magic in hauling cargo along Route 66 or turning your farm into the pride of Pinypon. 'PC Building Simulator' arrived on Steam as the opportunity to "create and develop your own computer repair business" where you could learn to "diagnose, fix, and assemble computers," a promising approach that turns out to be a less pleasant task than it seems, even for the most dedicated fans of the sector.

'PC Building Simulator' welcomes its buyers with a simple, no-nonsense menu: a few technical options and quick access to the important stuff: work. When you start career mode—because there's no other option—you appear on the landing of a small office that will be the setting for your adventures for however many hours you choose to dedicate to it. A quick glance reveals the game's possibilities: storage cabinets for storing ordered pieces to streamline processes, or a second table for processing another order.

'PC Building Simulator' isn't a game intended to appeal to a mass audience, or at least it doesn't seem to be. Despite all this, it has some concessions to the player that are somewhat disconcerting to the expert eye. The reminder to apply thermal paste to the processor because the owner of the shop you work for "almost always forgets" keeps echoing in my head. "Who doesn't apply thermal paste? What professional does that?" exclaimed my astonished friend Aitor, who started tinkering with computers as a child and spent about a year in a specialized technology store.

Real pieces, artificial fun

'PC Building Simulator' is a game that features more than twenty official brands from the most famous manufacturers on the market, such as Intel, Zotac, Nvidia, and Corsair. All these small details will delight even the most experienced players; in these types of games, it's always more exciting to be able to sustain the suspension of disbelief as long as possible to achieve the deepest immersion possible.

Despite doing everything we can to enjoy the experience—one that is always easier to enjoy with company—the beginning is tedious due to the repetitive nature and the simplicity of the proposals. The first twenty or so orders serve to familiarize yourself with the game and its basic mechanics, but it's precisely this first hurdle that proves most difficult to overcome.

It's not difficult to see the game's potential and imagine that as the hours go by, clients will offer the player a budget and specific needs, so the user will have to create the computer they, as an expert, will offer to the imaginary client. The videos about 'PC Building Simulator' offer a good example of how these computers can end up: hypnotic RGB lights, futuristic cases, and a certain futuristic aftertaste like the one you'd find in a battlestation.

Entertaining, but not widespread

However, it's a game focused on experts and enthusiasts of computer building, but even for them, it can be a bit tedious. We ended the evening trying to trick the system to get some traction: installing a cheaper graphics card than the one originally requested to make up for the difference, installing a cheaper heatsink... all sorts of in-game schemes to save a little money and liven up the experience. Of course, they wouldn't let us carry out our expert repair antics. A real shame.

'PC Building Simulator' does a good job of conveying many of the sensations you can experience when building a computer from scratch, but it falls far short of teaching you how to "diagnose, fix, and assemble computers."