If you're the right sort of person, then this game is a holy grail.
It sat in my library like the Dark Souls games did. An interesting looking thing I thought I'd suck at. I started it up a couple times only to bounce off the obtuse UI, the weird interactions and, of course, the utter mess of car parts I thought I would never understand without following a guide. And I don't want to follow a guide. I didn't come here to paint by numbers. I didn't come here to be a pair of mindless hands while the guide author takes the role of my brain and plays the game for me. I want to solve the puzzle and overcome the challenges myself.
I finally gave it an honest try recently. No guides, but I do allow myself to look up specific details that either stump me or are too tedious and annoying to figure out. I highly recommend that, by the way. MSC has some weaknesses and questionable design decisions you'll need to overcome, and there's no reason not to benefit from community efforts in that regard.
But more to the point, once I got the hang of things this quickly became one of my favorite games. It's just... different. Things that are agonizingly tedious in other games are somehow elevated in this game. There's a real feeling of occupying and living in the place, and despite the mundanity of the place it all manages to feel both comfortingly familiar and hostile all at once. The whole texture of the place is hilarious even while it seems to hate you and even then you find little moments where it's actually... cozy. Pleasant. There are tones of cozy life-simulator in the brutal, player-hostile survival nightmare.
And death comes for you so suddenly. My first death, Uncle had finally handed over the keys to the van permanently. I finally had a consistent, cargo carrying vehicle! Real shopping trips! I went on the moped to pick it up. On the drive home I was doing some celebratory speeding on the highway. My index finger twitched over the 'd' key, and I was abruptly veering off the road. My last thought was "I hope he didn't implement collisions on that tree." He did. The irony was that I had just before, at the start of that very drive, noticed that you can buckle the seatbelt. I was buckled up for the very first time. Sadly, that doesn't help at high speed.
I still haven't even gotten the Satsuma to run well. It starts. It was smoking from the engine, but I fixed that. I've killed two batteries because the idle was bad and the wiring was questionable. I nearly started a fire once. I learned an expensive lesson about how precise the timing needs to be. Soon I'll be ready to turn the key and try again.
I can't simply say "I recommend this game." That's the option I clicked, and I would click that option even if there were a "maybe" button. If there were a nuanced rating scale, I would pick the very highest option. But that's not because I think everybody should play it. I emphatically do not. But it's absolutely brilliant, and if it's right for you then it's going to be right for you in a way that nothing ever has been before. If MSC appeals to you, then I think you should roll the dice and see how it goes. Push through the utterly obtuse start of the game. Stick a few parts on the engine block and Satsuma frame. Do a couple shopping trips and earn a little money somehow.
Maybe you'll hate it and I could hardly blame you if you do. But maybe you won't, and if you don't then you're in for something pretty fantastic.
Update: I've got the Satsuma purring like a sleepy tiger and it's one of the most satisfying achievements I've ever managed in a lifetime of games. Don't follow that comprehensive guide, people. You're only robbing yourself of the best thing this game has to offer.
