First of all I would like to admit that the game is addicting, I kind of like it and I absolutely respect the concept. Wouldn't be here otherwise. However, ALL things considered and in CURRENT state of the game - I can not RECOMMEND it.

Technically the game is divided in three parts: bidding, tetris and management. There's also player housing, but it works ATROCIOUSLY and it's not worth discussing.

There is no strategy to bidding. Every NPC just has a hidden "cash" value that they are willing to spend. If you, for example, rush-bid to 2000$, and the most an NPC had was 1950$ - you would win.
On Easy difficulty - the max NPC margin is very modest, so as long as you have ~300$ per lvl1, 700$ per level 2, ~1500$ per level 3, ~3000$ per level 4 and ~5000$ per level 5 auction - you would always win it and have a nice profit regardless of your state of progress. Yes, even with no verification and just level 1 fixing tool.
So essentially you accumulate money very quickly, you don't really bother with bidding and you focus more on other aspects(which may not even fit into the review size).
On Hard - the margins stretch a bit, often requiring you to at least get a pawn shop or some upgrades before challenging the higher tier of auctions. Which works absolutely counter-intuitively. Because at max upgrades, the profits off a 300$ T1 auction can be at least 5x or more. Whereas the profits off a T4-5 auction would hardly if at all pass 2x margin, and even there would be.... tilt bidders.
Tilt bidders are scripted bidders that you could imagine emulate your behavior. Some people say that they bid infinitely, but in my experience of the latest patch - they highest bid was around 8500$ for T5. Obviously the only way to not lose money there was to have 3x2 specced pawn shop and full upgrades. And even then you'd hardly make more than ~10k$ selling the stuff if you end up with ~6k$ value.
And the problem of tilt bidders is that they are absolutely singular and have no flexibility. They script bid even at 0.5sec left a dozen times or more until this very high margin that requires endgame upgrades.
Technically - this is supposed to challenge you, to enscapsulate the idea of quitting a loss(there's even an achievement for 10 quits), that not every auction is meant to be won. And I could say that this is roleplayed... if you weren't heavily limited by the number of auctions, if they weren't <censored> all over the map. Basically, it's ALWAYS easier and faster to just savescum. Save before an auction, try it and reload. Unless you are intoxicated and you just enjoy driving elsewhere and maybe having your entire day wasted just hitting tilters.

Worse yet - the bidding is PAINFULLY slow. Initially I tried to last-second bid, but like Barn Finders - it's pointless. This isn't your typical bot-managed ebay auction. The moment a bid is made, the timer is reset to full. So if an NPC script-bids at 0.5 seconds left - you have some 10 more seconds of timer to wait. You can only instantly challenge the bid to reset the timer.
Speedhack helps. And I would strongly recommend the devs to add INGAME speedhack of at least 2x, preferably 3x unlockable. It's easier than actually making your bidding system working, and there's no review size to discuss it here, though I could write essays about it that nobody, let alone devs would waste time reading.

The Tetris aspect is trying to impossibly fit crazy amounts of stuff onto your truck, being creative, trying to do less mistakes that break everything apart. There's some fun in there, there's some annoying wonky physics of a HANDFUL of BROKEN items(haystacks, kitchen modules), but overall it's enjoyable and applies to 3 out of 4 vehicles that you can own. The first truck that you can buy in the first village is more or less a direct upgrade and a must-have before you decide to cross the bridge routinely(without speedhack). The third truck is this exception that is kind of a cheat option for people who do not enjoy tetris. You have limited space, but there's a LOT of space, so perfectly enough to load 2xT5 auctions. Final truck once again requires tetris, but allows you to stack STUPID levels of cargo if you are willing to risk it.

Next - management. It sucks. Basically, you need an EXPERT to tell you that a certain item is a piece of jewelry or a toy or whatever. And 3 out 4(I think) "experts" are located a$$-deep in the city and aren't reliably accessible on your noob truck. So most people, especially on Easy(not too hard to do on Hard, ahem) just "fast-forward" it until they have 8k for level 3 verification tool and only ever make the trip for leggies. There's absolutely ZERO reason why your pawn shop doofus can't just verify stuff for you. Maybe up to Pink, whatever, maybe for a fee, maybe with a stupid time requirement, but RIGHT THERE IN THE STORE.
The fixing mechanic is even more stupid. It kind of looks nice when you turn a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ item into a new one, but one would think that fixing is a bit more DIFFICULT than just "LOOKING AT AN ITEM"(to verify it) and that, perhaps, fixing would be more suitable to a management task. Maybe that's where the specialists could help, maybe there could be different specialists, and only city specialists could fix to Perfect.
Instead - fixing\quality state is just a matter of profit margin and an extra ton of rightclicks.

But the worst part is unlocking. It serves as a waste of time in the starting village, and it serves no coherent purpose afterwards. The tools that you can buy are idiotic. Level 1 tool is cheap, but has about 20% success rate. You can maybe cough up some cash for it, but it would hardly matter. Level 2 is maybe 25-30%, no change at all. Level is maybe 40-50%, but still unreliable. And level 4, the most expensive thing barring 4th truck, is fixed 100% and an elimination of the mechanic.
I would just say that you need 3 levels of a lockpick that goes 30-60-90%. Never fully elinimating a mechanic, even at the risk of enrage, but if you allow the mechanic to be voided - why not remove it altogether? At the same time, getting "there"(60-90%) should be relatively cheap and easy, kind of like verifying the bulk of purple\pink items.
Or - you could introduce different levels of locks with different costs of picking them, or lockpicks that work 100% of the time, but only for a given level. But I assume it takes coding and that's work.

And then there are collectors. That ♥♥♥♥ is like the final nail. You can't "lock" items, or store them in your store. You need to use your houses for warehousing them. You can see the item's collector icon when you sell TO a pawn store, but not when you sell them AT your own pawn store. You can't pay a courier to deliver the item to the collector... or to your house. You just have to break your day and go to an armpit of the map just for some degenerate to give you a reward for every ~15 items given. Even the VALUE of the item DOES NOT MATTER. Give him a <censored> ANDROID and he'll thank you like you handed him a walmart hammer!

Oh and last but not least - pawn shop management. It's bugged three ways to sunday. You have to physically collect money with a laptop, and unload your truck with a garage door. The haggle is bugged and a ♥♥♥♥ mechanic. Basically you automate everything to an NPC and even then it bugs the customers spawns sometimes.


P.S.: Yes, game kind of runs and looks like ♥♥♥♥ and has plenty of artifacts and naturally caps at 60 fps and the devs even dare to recommend upscaling. But, realistically, I can't expect miracles from an asset\engine flip. I won't criticize it too much. People get soap and 30fps on Steamdeck and are happy, that means that this checkbox is filled and not going to get better.

itsfun

this just simply aint it.

It gives what it promises, but not much more. It runs well and isn't very buggy. Pricing is a bit high for what it currently delivers, which is a simple gameplay loop. I'd recommend if its on sale as its a good time sink. Time management, buying, repairing, selling. You can buy property, but outside of aesthetics and a place to sleep on a different part of the map, it doesn't really do much. There is room for improvement, but its not likely with a game like this.

Nothing in the game works. :(

good

enjoyed it

fun

Usually, the majority of games with "Simulator" at the end of their title turn out to be generic, boring crap after the first 10 minutes but somehow this one has a lot more to it. I really enjoyed my time int it and will probably play it again in the near future.

awesome game, i do the same in real life, the game is really close to the game in real life, you start from garage, and grow yourself up. 10/10