Hardware Engineers Reviews

Disappointing, saw all the positive reviews and figured I'd give it a look. Tutorial is pretty mundane and teaches you little if you know much about computers. UI needs work, e.g. no feedback when you click actions and the game is paused, some actions still work fine, others do not, so you're left wondering what's happening until you realize the game is paused. Then I also got a mission to build a PC for someone, assembled it with high end parts, matching the criteria they gave, but still under budget, installed the OS, the drivers but dragging the completed unit to them does nothing, they do not accept it but do not give a reason why it is not good enough. Would also say the UI for selling printer cartridges needs work, you need to figure out yourself to move the entire box back to inventory, then edit it to remove a single cartridge. Should be able to grab a single cartridge from the stand as long as there are still some in stock. This is something they could have put in the tutorial. I know it's still an early release of the game so I'll try check back at a later time to see if it has improved but for the moment I cannot recommend it.

Great Fun to begin with, Shows potenial and the developer is willing to take input from anyone to imrpove their product. How ever the game has some bugs and glitches but most of them are patched soon after their found this is one of the great indie devs that are there to make something the most enjoyable for everyone. The game it self currently is quite repeatitive but attempts to mix it, Some of the quests it gives you are sometimes quite complex and sometimes don't define what they want exactly leading you to question and guess what they want but for the most part they usually give hints out to what's wrong or what ever, when handing in a quest they give a quick checklist of everything that's good and if anything is wrong or not done yet will apear making it easier to the player this option could be removed in the more harder diffucuity that hasn't been added yet and still is in the works (quite exicited for it) Anyways this game is a good time passer and should be watched for the end stage of this game.

As far as Management sims go, This one is pretty dull, if you just want to run an IT repair shop, with all the tedium that entails you may enjoy it. This is less of a game more of a work simulator. If you're expecting something like Game Dev tycoon or Hardware tycoon you'll be disappointed. Should have called the game "Repair shop".

Awesome game, the developer knows his stuff. Got this from the sale for £3 and I don't regret purchasing this. If you're thinking about buying this and you're a PC enthusiast then what are you waiting for? Buy it!

It's pretty fun. Lacks the graphics and real-world hardware of PC Building Simulator, but is also quite a bit deeper, and does more with the business element. Totally worth having both. It seems to be made by one guy, who must work on this game constantly because it updates all the time. Each update greatly improves the experience, so if you don't like something, just come back in a week or two and it will probably be fixed or replaced with a better system.

Hardware engineers is quite a fun and addictive little game of managing your own little IT shop. On one hand, you have to deal with customers that want to buy new hardware. On the other hand, you have customers arriving with broken equipment, or their PC needs an upgrade. Your challenge as the player is to properly balance customer care with IT repair work. But it doesn't stop there... To build new equipment or to repair existing equipment, you have to get your hands dirty; you need to swap out hardware, drivers and programs all by yourself! As someone who has repaired laptops and PCs myself since I was a teen, this game already comes pretty close to simulating and exposing the players to the decisions and problems of the IT store. Someone in Green127 (if it's not a one-man company) has clearly used previous experience to shape the basics of this game. To sum it all up, the developer has encased the game in simple, but charming graphics. Even though Hardware Engineers is early release, it already has a good deal of gameplay and content. Updates also roll out fairly often with new content and fixes.

There are a few things to be aware of with this game. 1. This is not in Early Access or Beta anymore. As of April 22nd, 2019 this game is officially version 1.0. Things are pretty quiet from the developer so it is likely that any and all changes/tweaks to the game will be from the community via mods. 2. This game is not built on a pre-existing game engine and is not super optimized. It is a labor of love with some rough edges. I can run it on maximum 1080p settings on my Lenovo Yoga laptop, but it sounds like I am flying an airplane at takeoff. 3. The graphics are not the reason to play this game. The depth of the game mechanics are the main draw. And yes, it is a niche game for tech nerds. You want to build a custom PC and go for the top of the overclocking leaderboard? Sure! Want to set up several powerful machines to mine for BitCoin? Go for it! Want to find ways to swindle customers by swapping their expensive hardware for a cheaper part? Uh... yeah, you can do that. Want to build your own line of PCs and sell them in your shop? Yep! 4. Try the demo before you buy. If you find the tutorial boring, keep in mind that you can select Expert difficulty in the main game which makes things much more challenging. But, if you find the demo hard and tedious, this probably isn't the game for you. And that is ok. 5. There are a lot of things that aren't fully explained. Updating the OS, filtering shop parts via the dots at the end of the tabs, the error code beeps... some things you have to Google. And unfortunately Google doesn't have all the answers. All that being said, if you like this game you can easily spend hours playing. Like it enough and you may decide to try your hand at modding. If you need help, the best place to look is in the community guides section here on Steam.

EDIT: Many of the changes that have been made to this game since I wrote this have been absolutely amazing. There's lots to love in here people. Totally worth your time. Tons of new features have been added. TONS. I'm a full time network engineer in real life. There's a lot to love in this game. Nearly 2 hours in, and I get the jist of what to expect. Man... it's quite funny how vague the customers can be, much like in real life. For example: I got an email from my bank about "Suspicious activity". Can you look at my PC? No kidding, this is a real mission in the game. It's completely up to the player to decide how to fix this. As in real life, your clients will ask things of you that you just can't do. I had a lady come in, and request that I build them a PC meeting certain requirements. One of them being a specific BRAND OF RAM. Guess what?...... My supplier didn't have it, so i just bought any ol' ram, and slammed it in there, and tried to give them the PC. Needless to say, they were not happy, So I have a $1000 dollar paper weight, and a pissed off client... grrreaaaatt.... The good? Paddle your own canoe IT shop "Owner". You don't have anyone to ask for help. If you can't solve a problem in the game, google it like a real IT guy. Plenty of sorting options in the shop, and a search feature. Use it. It's your friend. If you need time, slap the space bar (pausing the in-game clock), and take it. The bad? There's plenty to love about this, but only a couple of annoyances. Tutorials would be nice. Just digging through the steam community discussions reveal some confusion among the players. Like... How to use a NAS, etc.... Personally I was reading through patches, and noticed that the effectiveness of showcases has changed? Really???? What do they do? I really have no idea. I'm going to go find out after this review. Also making a mental note that, like in real life, certain sub-models of processors can be overclocked while others can't. Having that stated somewhere in game would reduce the frustration of other players. Do I recommend this? Oh yeah. If you don't know a single thing about the parts inside of your computer right now, you'll have a hard time... in the beginning... but you will learn. However, if you've built a few PCs, you'll want to play on medium mode. Less info, more vagueness, more puzzle... and much more fun. Under the hood there's lots of good things in this game. If the updates keep coming then this could really shape up to be great.

To summon up where we are with Hardware Engineers still in Early Access since Aug 2016: Hardware Engineers is a simulation game where you have to manage a IT business. In a world where technology expands every day, you will need to learn how to be competitive. Economy, reputation , selling strategy and communication will be your best weapon to travel on the road of success! Current features: -Play with large amount of components like processors, graphic cards, RAM with realistic and balanced characteristics! -Buy, sell, test, optimize, replace all devices and components in a computer. -Create your own rig for different profiles from the little workstation to powerful gaming computer. -Investigate on system of your client to repair and debug. -Reinvest in your company to expand your business. -Native 4K support -Develop your skills -Achievements -Steam Workshop The developer is working hard and updates and fixes are coming at a steady phase. Working nicely at the moment and looks to be a pretty good game when released. [i]* The review critiques a work in progress, and represents a snapshot of the game at the time of the review's publication. Unlike released games I don't give Early Access games a review score.[/i]

I do IT professionally for a living, and I've been building my own computers since I was a kid, so when this game appeared on Steam I instantly took a shine to it. The developer is a great guy who is building this game by himself, yet he manages to put out updates all the time, with both content and bug fixes. He listens to feedback, and often will add features we request into the game soon after we ask. Same goes for any fixes we think could be made; if he becomes aware of something that needs fixing, don't expect it to be broken for long. He has a clear path for improving the game and adding content, with no slowdown in sight. True, it could use more content. But this is a unique little gem that doesn't break the bank. I am happy to have been able to purchase this and help support a truly helpful, caring developer.