Cabin Crew Life Simulator Review (PC)

If you’ve ever so much as taken a short haul flight or studied the in-flight magazine stowed into the seat of a Boeing 737, then you might just have what it takes to host a crowd of virtual holiday makers or business travelers in Cabin Crew Life Simulator. That’s right — the cabin crew have finally received their comeuppance from their aviation higher-ups and launched their own simulation experience on PC. And yes, it is, rather glumly, an experience that steers away from the commotion of a turbulent flight and focuses solely on a single act: serving potato chips to guests. Oh, and extinguishing the occasional fire, of course.

I jest, because clearly there’s a lot more to the job description than shelling out hot paper towels and an endless supply of lukewarm coffee to an array of disgruntled frequent flyers. The question is, does Cabin Crew Life Simulator mirror these job elements with a sense of realism and grace, or does it fall short of being a faithful representation of the timeless art of hosting at high altitudes? Let’s board and find out.

Taking Flight

Cabin Crew Life Simulator takes the same basic flight path as the rest of its simulation-type ilk. The game, which bears the same familiar trappings as the likes of Supermarket Simulator, Taxi Life, and Paramedic Simulator, sees you onboarding the daily duties of a service provider—an average Tom, Dick, or Harry whose sole purpose is to uphold the laws of aviation by creating an eco-friendly environment that allows for sustainable and comfortable air travel. Well, that’s the more advanced side of the equation; the job—your job—isn’t quite as fanciful as that. No, what this is, is a love letter to cabin attendants, and as such, an opportunity to peek beyond the iconic curtain at the back of the cockpit to witness the ins and outs of the industry from an unfamiliar perspective.

The game itself is spread across a multitude of roles, several of which align with the hospitality sector, and several of them more toward the security sector. From your humble beginnings, you have the opportunity to establish yourself as a fresh-faced representative for a series of prestigious airlines, each of them offering a unique collection of tasks and other avenues of service to learn and ultimately master. From checking in passengers at the local airport to examining boarding passes at the gate, performing routine safety checks to serving guests their in-flight meals and other items, Cabin Crew Life Simulator grants you the ability to meander through something of an authentic checklist that is, although a little monotonous at times, true to the spirit of the position. But is it fun? Eh — it has its moments.

Your Exits Are Here, Here, and Here

There is a purpose to your journey: to earn your wings and become the “greatest” flight attendant in the world. To start out, you have the absolute basics—a trainee badge, a slither of makeup (because a good choice of contour is a vital part of the job, apparently) and a short-haul flight schedule. Simply put, the first batch of jobs sees you working through some generic tasks—assigning passengers to their seats, identifying their needs, and cleaning the aisles before and after takeoff and landing. All of these jobs, which come embedded in a trusty tablet, each cough up a set amount of XP; the more XP you accrue, and the more efficient you become at your job, the more likely you are to move up the career ladder and unlock better flight paths, incentives, and crew skills.

The vast majority of your tasks are carried out with a wheel—a multi-selection tool that allows you to sift between different options, whether it’s for the task of serving passengers one of several items, or creating a comfortable space for long-haul flight plans. As you complete each flight, you earn additional XP—the currency that allows you to acquire better uniforms, team members, and other lavish perks. There’s also the matter of winning over the hearts of the company ambassadors—a feat that requires a commitment to the core values and mission. Granted, none of these jobs are particularly tough; if anything, they are more taxing on your patience than your ability to execute a job well done. But that isn’t what this game is; it isn’t a challenging, much less threatening experience, but a button-mashing slog of sorts. And it works.

Frequent Flyer Miles

I’m not going to beat around the bush and say that Cabin Crew Life Simulator is visually stunning — because it isn’t. In all fairness, it’s due to the game’s fixation on AI that a lot of its animations and motions lack the authenticity of their real-life counterparts. The passengers, for example, are prone to walking into inanimate objects and mindlessly trying to “be human” — which is comical, in ways. And it isn’t just the character AI that falls short, but the world design, in general. From the outside looking in, Cabin Crew Life Simulator doesn’t look all that great; it’s shoddy, wooden, and littered with graphical errors. However, upon receiving the game, and having a good idea of how half-baked such simulation games often are, I can’t say that I expected much. Still, this cabin, in particular, is a real doozy, and is nothing short of mediocre.

The actual gameplay experience is hit-and-miss. On the one hand, it’s teeming with things to do and areas to build on (the upgrade menu and team management aspects are solid additions to the mix), but on the other hand, it often fails to make special tasks feel satisfying or even rewarding. At times, I found myself longing for a new adventure—a snake in the cockpit, or a spontaneous fire in the luggage hold—to keep me from succumbing to the sheer monotony of the shift. And I had that at times, but more often than not, I found myself alternating between the same tasks, making small steps to reach the next story beat, and hunkering down for an inch of excitement to steer me towards the final leg of the flight. But I was always making progress — so that counted for something, I guess.

Verdict

If you’re hell-bent on securing your own pair of wings and imitating a clone of a cabin attendant, then you’ve little reason to look anywhere other than the cotton skies of Cabin Crew Life Simulator. Yes, the game is brimming with graphical glitches and a lack of polish, but with a surprising number of upgrades to explore, extracurricular activities to participate in, and a fairly solid crew management system to curb your interest, nothing is preventing you from onboarding a couple of short-haul flights and rolling with the skies, so to speak. But as for whether or not it’s worth any more than a couple of hours of your time is another question. It’s a lot like Supermarket Simulator: you reap what you sow, and if you lack the patience to watch your inner workings flourish, then you’re less likely to enjoy the spoils at a much later time.

If you can excuse the Lemmings (or the passengers, sorry) and the sloppy UI, then you might just find a genuinely entertaining gameplay loop here. Is Cabin Crew Life Simulator the picture-perfect poster child of career simulation games? Probably not, no — but it does the job some level of justice, albeit in a sexist and oftentimes detrimental manner. The fact that you must have an established appearance and funnel your XP into acquiring better cosmetics sort of overshadows the hard work that real air hostesses accomplish daily. It’s almost as if to say that, by knowing which brand of mascara to use, you have a higher chance of earning the trust of a corporate executive and, in turn, a chance of escalating your career prospects — and that’s a little immature, as it doesn’t reflect the reality of a world that prioritizes skill and ability over appearance. Swings and roundabouts, though.