To the devs: Do not give up on this game. I've seen it too many times where devs allow the critics to get in there head and discourage them. That trend needs to end. This game has a good concept and I support it. I've played games this year with more of a budget and it doesn't even come close to this game. Now on the other side, this game has bugs that need to be fixed ASAP. I think once when the bugs are fixed, character customization is added, racing, maybe mods, and a bigger map... I think this game can make it to the Top Rated section on here in the racing category.

To the friend that gave me this game as a gift I'm sorry that you spent your money on this.

If that doesn't say it all, well, maybe the rest of this review will fill in the gaps.

A lot of reviews for Early Access games will use the word "potential" to describe a game that isn't all there, but has the bones to suggest that it more than likely is going to turn into something particularly worthwhile. I personally have used this description in previous EA reviews. For Underground Garage, however, using the term "potential" would be dishonest and do a disservice to this game. Frankly, it doesn't have potential. It's an interesting *idea* for a game, and an idea with a lot of potential, but an idea with potential is nothing without good execution. This game would take an immense level of not only work, but rework to get it into a place of even having "potential" that I don't see that happening. The bones don't suggest that is the direction this is going to go. So let's break it down like a fraction.

The mechanics of Underground Garage, that is, the working on cars, taking things apart and putting them back together, is disappointing. I'm left wondering if the devs of this game have spent any actual time working on cars or researching how cars go together. The order of operations for disassembly vary wildly from one car and engine model to another, and range from surprisingly tedious to impressively obtuse. Sometimes you have to disassemble the entire front of the engine to take out a camshaft on an engine with overhead cams, but on another overhead cam engine you just need to take off the valve cover before you simply take the camshaft out. The former is more realistic, and the latter is certainly easier, but the inconsistency makes it impossible to say how realistic this game wants to be. For another example, with some engines you have the option remove the valve cover, the camshafts, and the valves before removing the ignition wires and spark plugs, which makes zero sense. With each part there is one way of getting to that part, and one way only. Want to change the valve rockers on a V8? Well, you better get ready to remove the whole front of the engine and the intake manifold first, because those are the steps that are *required* to access the valve covers, even though they are in no way connected to or blocking access to the valve covers. I could go on, but the point is simple, even the most straightforward of tasks can turn into a tedious game of clicking as you disassemble parts that should not be related to the part you are trying to access.

Let's talk about the UX, shall we? Working on these cars is a major part of the game experience. The main part of the game, you might argue. I understand that not everyone is going to want a mechanic simulator that makes you keep track of every nut and bolt, and requires that you ensure every bolt is properly torqued. (BTW, if that is something you want to try, check out Wrench.) But when I can uninstall and reinstall a bolt instantly by passing my cursor over it, access a bolt from any camera angle even if I'm looking through another part of the car, and can repair any part by simply taking it to the repair bench and clicking it, all the possible satisfaction of a mechanic game is sapped away. At that point all this is is a glorified clicking game. But hey, I guess that's okay because the camera controls are more annoying than my aunt when she gets drunk at Thanksgiving, so a UX that was any more complicated might be impossible to use.

The big selling point of this game. The main premise that makes this an interesting idea. The only feature that could possibly turn the mess from earlier into being a worthwhile $20 game. And it stinks. Don't even think about throwing the term "tire model" around in the presence of this game, its idea of a tire model is that the tires have a 3D model. That may be beating on someone when they're already down, and I seriously doubt anyone was expecting a driving simulator on par with Assetto Corsa from this title. What I did expect was something more than the basic vehicle controls that I would expect from any other Unity game. Unfortunately, even that expectation is too high. The brakes are nonexistent, the steering is twitchy and imprecise, and the handling is abysmal. Credit where it's due though, there's a hint of genius on display. If you physics model went MIA and never showed up for roll call, then you can make the fastest car in your game top out at 120 MPH, and then make your slow cars so slow that I can browse Reddit while I wait for them to get up to speed.

I could go on, from the bugs, to the weirdly written story, to how easy it is to soft lock yourself, to various other strange behaviors in this game that add up to something truly representative of the Early Access quality we've come to anticipate in todays games, but I feel I've said enough to make my point. At the end of the day I was gifted this game by a friend who also picked up a copy for himself at the same time. We had a great time hanging out in a call and picking this game apart with all the inaccurate intricacies, and purely in raw entertainment value, it was probably worth it. Compared with a $20 movie ticket, after all the hours I've put in at this point, it evens out to a mid rate comedy. But that's a bad metric to review and recommend a game by. By game metrics this is not a $20 game, which is the current "sale" price. This is barely a $15 game. More than that though, it's not a $25 dollar game, which is what the "regular" price is listed as. $25 is good indie game territory, and this is passable at best.

There's only one way I can think to wrap up this review, and it's by sharing the experience that led me to write this review in the first place. After 7.5 hours of game time in a single save I have one achievement left to unlock. The last achievement seems to be for what is essentially finishing the main story line of the game, and it would probably take about 4-6 hours to reach that point. And after a lot of time questioning if I really wanted to sit through the tedium of doing the same two basic jobs over and over again to make this my second perfected game on Steam with more than a single achievement, I've decided to let it stay at 14/15 achievements.

The only thing that I liked about this game was the idea of it. Nothing else