Here at The Elite Institute, we are keen on highlighting a variety of great games to our audience. Whether it be indies, AAA titles, or anything in between, we want to show off as much as possible in order to help guide your purchasing decisions.

That’s why we’re not entirely restricting ourselves to the Nintendo Switch. Thanks to Nintendo Labo VR Kit (check out our review), we’ve fallen in love with virtual reality and as a result have invested in a PlayStation 4 along with PSVR. There are some truly great experiences on the system, and we’d love to share our thoughts with you.

LET’S JOB!
If you asked people what they would love to be able to experience in a virtual reality environment, you’d probably expect a response along the lines of space travel, gunfights, underwater adventure, and so on. What you probably wouldn’t expect to hear someone say is that they’d want to simulate work life from the comfort of their own home. Yet that is what Job Simulator strives to do.

Albeit with a slight twist.

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Set in the not so distant future of 2050, robots have completely taken over the world of work. Now, the only way for humans to experience how ‘to job’ is to visit special work museums where they can simulate being in an office, working as a gourmet chef, repairing cars, or serving customers on a checkout. Absolutely thrilling!

It’s such a shame then that the robots don’t quite understand the ins and outs of how everything used to work, meaning that things aren’t exactly as they should be. As such, computer passwords will be made up of 1s and 0s, cooking the books will require you to quite literally set them on fire, and when a robber demands that you hand him the cheese he absolutely means it. The ludicrous misunderstandings make doing each job a joy as you wait and see what absurdity the next customer will bring with them.

Each of the four jobs are selectable from the museum and will take around half an hour or so to beat. They feel just long enough to feel satisfying and rarely outstay their welcome. Each one has you standing in one place while you manipulate the space around you, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that you won’t need a big area to play in. The game requires you to stand quite a distance away from the camera with free arm space 360º around you. Having this space is absolutely essential as you will have to reach around you and grab things both high and low. If you have a small play space like I do, this may result in you having to re-orientate your camera to ensure you have sufficient room.

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But, providing you can do that, it’s absolutely  worth the effort. The game is full of whimsical charm with simple cartoonish visuals that hold up well in the VR headset. It may not take too long to get through, but an infinite overtime mode allows you to play the jobs with slight visual tweaks and randomised customers. Whilst this may not be enough to keep you replaying for long, it will at least encourage you to dip into the game every now and then whenever you get the urgent desire to job again.

VERDICT
Job Simulator is a great showcase for VR, as the charming work simulation is both hilarious and surprisingly engaging. So much so that it will actually make you want to go to (simulated) work!