A promising idea ride with poor implementation and rife with AI.

As someone who loves tinkering with car parts in real life, I had a fun time with this part of Underground Garage. You have multiple cars to work on, and they did manage to provide a great level of detail for these vehicles and their parts. With that in mind, the game doesn’t feel ready for a 1.0 release, because it still has a lot of bugs and some of the title’s features feel undercooked. I encountered a lot of small bugs, but also some progress-breaking bugs that ended up being quite frustrating. Additionally, Underground Garage relies quite a lot on the use of AI-generated assets and tools, which might end up rubbing some players the wrong way. It’s clear that the game’s scope was grandiose, and some shortcuts like using AI had to be used in order to achieve that goal. Was it worth it? It depends on what you expect from Underground Garage. I like the work you do in the garage, when you tinker with vehicles and parts. However, the racing side and performance need heavy improvements, which hopefully the game will get, eventually.

The meditative repair work is there, and the busted garage gives you a goal to strive for, but it’s dragged down by everything else. From the ugly human models to the awful controller support. The fact that the racing is so awkward and unsatisfying means that that engine repairing is all you’ve got. If you can lose yourself in that, then you’ll find some fun. In the end though, you’ll be asked to drive the car to the drop-off location and it’ll all go downhill.