Tank Mechanic Simulator – Is It Worth It?

Big lumbering behemoths of metal, and you get to fix them up? Yes please! Or at least that’s what I thought at first… Welcome fellow tankers, to our next ‘Is It Worth It? article, where we let you know if you should buy now, wait for it to come down in price, or just avoid entirely. So, without further ado, let’s clean those tracks, sand down those engine covers and get started. Here’s Tank Mechanic Simulator – Is It Worth it?

About The Game

Tank Mechanic Simulator is a game that lets you find, dismantle and repair a generous supply of WW2 tanks from the KV1 to the mighty Tiger. Head on out in your 4×4 with your spade and metal detector in hand and start looking for tanks. Once you’ve found one, have it sent back to the workshop where you can start the lengthy, and detailed process of restoring a war relic to its prime.

Not only can you find tanks for yourself but you can also accept contracts via your PC from other collectors who ask you to repair their pride and joy. Fix them up yourself or order in some spare parts from the online shop, the choice is yours.

Not only can you repair and paint these tanks but you can also take them out onto the training ground and give them a test drive! Startup the engine, hop in and guide the tank around the course. You can also hop into any seat in the tank to gain a small insight into what it would be like to work within such cramped conditions.

And if that wasn’t enough, you can also access dozens of upgrades and unlock even more tank related goodies such as a museum to display all your mechanical marvels, a drone to help you recover even more tanks in the field and permanent buffs to your tool speeds in the garage.

The Negative

Despite being incredibly detailed and allowing you to repair almost all of each tank you are presented with, the control system, at least on console anyway, feels clunky and quite fiddly when trying to select a particular bolt or smaller part. It can become quite frustrating as you settle in for a long session only to be constantly thwarted at every button input on the controller. This stretches into the other parts of the game too and is most notable in the tank reclamation part of the game, which I was looking forward to the most, as again, the controls feel heavy and clunky to the point that the whole process begins to feel quite frustrating. I have been told that the PC version is far easier to navigate in terms of controls and seems to fit better with a mouse. However, here, with a controller, I found I can only play for short bursts of about 20 minutes before I have had enough.

Secondly, this version of tank mechanic simulator seems a little further behind in updates and support compared to its PC counterpart with the latter gaining a whole host of new tanks, settings and quality of life updates that are yet to reach the console version. For this reason, I would strongly recommend picking this up on PC if you can.

The Positive

The biggest positive has to be the detail in which you can repair and rebuild your collection of metal monsters. The different tool types available, the chance to jump into the different seats of the crew and repair from there, all make the experience as immersive as possible. The developers have clearly put a lot of their time into this game, researching each individual vehicle and making them as historically accurate as possible. For a fan of armoured vehicles, it is a lot of fun to be able to fix, paint, display, shoot and drive them all within a carefully constructed garage setup. As far as simulator games go, this one has a wide range of different activities, tools and unlockables to keep dedicated players coming back for more.

The Verdict

As a big fan of armoured vehicles – playing World of Tanks, War Thunder as well as frequent trips to the excellent tank museum down at Bovington, I was very excited at the opportunity to try this game. Unfortunately, the controls and clunky feel of the game really detracts from what is, at its core, an excellent simulation game. As such, I would only recommend this for people who are already super into armoured vehicles and not the casual fan and would also highly recommend picking this up on PC if you can where you are treated to a wider range of tanks, updates and support. Although priced around £15, which is pretty good value, I would suggest keeping an eye for when this game appears in the sales (which quite often does) before taking a punt.

Oh, and did I mention you should get this on PC?

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