Beer Manufacture Simulator Review (PC)

Beer Manufacture Simulator vies for the perfect pint of beer with a bottle-sized tankard that aims to swill the best of building and brewing techniques with a classic business simulation model that befits most traditional independent chore core experiences à la Supermarket Simulator. Built with the frothy texture and the predictable effects of a cliché-riddled system, Games Incubator steps forth to brew yet another chapter for its seemingly bottomless decanter. It was only a matter of time before it came knocking at the barrels of a brewery, too, seeing as the studio has, if memory serves me well, been a bit of an advocate for most, if not all trades and fields of expertise since its global inception. The question is, how does beer, of all things, compare with the thousand other products in the team’s ludicrously stacked portfolio?

First and foremost, it is worth noting that, if you have played one of Games Incubator’s trade-centric sims before, then you’ve more than likely connected the dots that bind to Beer Manufacture Simulator. As it turns out (and this isn’t us taking a jab at the team, by the way), Beer Manufacture Simulator isn’t all that different from the other entries in the series, in that it adopts most of the same generic hooks and gameplay mechanics—the manual labour, store management, and pivotal upgrade features, for example—as well as the same progression system that allows you to build your own business and elevate it to surpass industry expectations. The only thing that sets this jar of ale apart from the other elixirs in the taproom is, of course, the product. And if this is beginning to feel like Deja vu, then we can only apologize and confirm that it is, unfortunately, out of our control. Welcome to Games Incubator’s perpetual cycle, folks.

Games Incubator makes a habit of telling us that you don’t need to be a jack-of-all-trades player in order to lean into hobbies or successful business ventures. In this world, in particular, it makes a bold statement to highlight the fact that you don’t need to be able to analyze a perfect pour to be able to conjure hops and deliver the perfect beer from the comfort of your own home. No, all that it asks, really, is that you lean into your inner Willy Wonka of craft beers to make, evolve, and ultimately monopolize your own special brew. And, to give credit where credit is due, GI has often been more than capable of handing you that power. It doesn’t always deliver an authentic experience, but it does capture the spirit of its chosen product with all of the appropriate tools and techniques to back it.

As far as Beer Manufacture Simulator goes, what you see here is exactly what you get: a run-of-the-brewery sim that allows you, the sudsy brewer with a dream, to gradually follow the steps of a traditional brewing process and squash, ferment, bottle, and distribute your own beverages. At the heart of all of this is a self-explanatory experience that doesn’t divulge much more than the basics of brewing terminology and techniques. In addition to the equipment that you can unlock and eventually automate, you also have access to a wide spectrum of recipes, with each ingredient that you discover along the way possessing a crucial role in the formation of your lagers, IPAs and other alcoholic beverages. Whether it’s a backroom tipple or a factory-wide beer, the factory here is yours for the taking, and it ensures that you have all of the correct tools of the trade to make your product strike out like a signature brew at an overpriced festival.

For a studio that plays a lot of things safely and often cuts various corners, I will say that Beer Manufacture Simulator does envelope a lot of great ideas, including the mixology and the measuring, sampling, and distribution process, in general. Unlike a lot of your culinary classes, BMS invites you to monitor almost every phase of the brewing experience, as well as apply quantitative analysis to determine the greatest products before shipping them out to a client base. And honestly, it’s a lot of fun to work through, more so during the later stages of the development process when automation becomes more efficient and recipes begin to feel more refined and less complicated to craft. There’s still a learning curve to it, but if you happen to enjoy the history of brewing and have a vague interest in what takes place behind the scenes, then it’s more than worth the trouble.

Verdict

Beer Manufacture Simulator isn’t the crispest pint on the market, nor is it one that packs the most flavorful punch, for that matter. But then, like most of the chore-addled works in Games Incubator’s library, it does just enough to appeal to its target demographic with its leniency to the core terminology and facets of its chosen product. The brewing and mixology is great, as is the collection of recipes and various tipples that you can craft. But, also like the alternate worlds in Games Incubator’s portfolio, the game also comes with a lot of loose screws and wooden components, as well as an audiovisual palette that, frankly, doesn’t do much to bolster the overall aesthetic or amplify your immersion. But that’s GI for you; it isn’t in receipt of anything special. Instead, it just get the job done in the simplest way possible.

Suffice it to say, Beer Manufacture Simulator will most definitely appeal to fans of the job simulation genre, particularly those who share a fascination for brewing practices and common mixology. Again, it might not captivate the entire world with several of its half-baked facets, but to give credit where it’s due, it is a game that does everything that it says it can on the tin. In other words, it isn’t perfect, but it knows all too well how to bottle the best of Games Incubator’s core traits. Take from that what you will, folks.