Modern consoles have now evolved to look sleek and professional so as not to embarrass dads around the world, and that means that they actually all look boring. Technology used to be exciting, colourful, and weird. We used to put the fun in functional, and dammit I wasn’t built to live in a greyscale world. ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs is a delightful throwback to the tech we once loved and relied on, with plenty of cleaning to keep you busy.
In ReStory you play as a promising new electronics repairer, who has taken over the role of the previously beloved master of tinkering. Still your skills will clearly be useful for the community you sit alongside, be they hardcore gamers looking for a pretend PSP fix or a little girl with a Tamagotchi that needs sprucing up a bit. There’s a rather adorable human element to this cosy game that will make you smile when you put the screwdriver down, and it helped me stick with the dusting.
There are dozens of different products you’ll need to learn to repair and clean, but when you get started you’ll only be able to manage the more basic models. You’ll appreciate the practice of cleaning classic knock-off Nokia phones though, as it teaches you how to manage in a job that’ll soon get mildly more complex.
No matter what job you take on, you’ll start by taking apart the tech that’s in front of you. This means clicking on plastic covers and batteries to remove them, and searching for tiny screws to loosen so you can really get into those motherboards. Everything you take apart must be put back together though, so it’s a good idea to lay things out on your workstation so it’s clear how to snap it all back into one lump of wires and plastic. There are handy guide shadows that’ll show you where to place something when you pick it up which help with this, but getting used to the order of stacking will serve you well in your career.
Most early jobs involve cleaning, which means finding the grubby bits of tech and taking a little brush to them until they look brand new. You’ll need to right click to turn objects and find the grime on each side, although hitting the one hundred percent clean target is much less punishing than something like PowerWash Simulator.
Not all phones and consoles can be made “like new” with a brush though, because they have broken parts. You’ll need to find and dispose of these, and put in a replacement piece from your collection. When you don’t have the cases, speakers or buttons you need for this you’ll have to turn to the internet, and order in some extras. Whether you decide to buy bits individually or grab a broken bargain and harvest it for materials is up to you, but if you’re clever you’ll find the way that makes the most profit.
The world wide web has all sorts of wonderful things you can use it for, so when you’re not busy fixing you’ll probably be clicking away on the PC. You can choose which jobs to accept from your emails, which means it’s easy to ignore repairing the same phone over and over again. The parts shop also sells licences which allows you to repair new devices, with so many familiar bits of tech to choose from. You can even buy handy upgrades to make your life easier, like better screwdrivers and bigger brushes that speed up repair jobs significantly.
The loop of ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs is satisfying enough, but really it’s the nostalgia that carries it. There are so many different (slightly off licence) retro consoles, phones and walkmans to fix that’ll make you grin, and send you on a journey back to your childhood. Everything from robot pets to brick games are present in this throwback of a game, and all need taking apart and fiddling with. As someone who owned a Motorola Razr and practically every console at some point or another, I was very well catered for.
ReStory is a cozy and compelling game for the most part, but I can’t pretend it captivated me for the whole runtime. Despite a whole lot of different tech to fix, doing so ultimately feels the same whatever job you take on. It didn’t take too long for me to be bored of brushing, and to become sad when screwing, and no amount of nostalgia can fix that. It’s pretty much a requirement that you have a podcast or show on in the background while playing, but if that’s what you’re looking for then it’s not even really that much of a negative.
For fans of cosy repetition, ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs will absolutely hit the spot. Even those less inclined to sit and clean in video game form will find a lot here, thanks to the powerful blast of nostalgia and delightful shop management elements. Although I grew bored in longer sessions, the appeal of ReStory is clear as the Tamagotchi screens I carefully brushed for the masses.
