My experience with the simulator genre does not run deep. However, it does span across Power Wash Simulator (PWS) and House Flipper 2, both of which are similar to Spray Paint Simulator from North Star Video Games. The concept is simple and familiar; you are starting a spray painting business and must go from job to job fulfilling the customer’s orders. Much like the van you clean off at the start of PWS, Spray Paint Simulator starts by having you repaint a car. It then progresses to kitchen cabinets, buses, and more. Everything other than the main gameplay loop is done through menus. No voice acting or cutscenes. You select the job you want to start, and the only interruption you get after that is from brief character pop-ups that add small jokes or anecdotes. I’m not saying that you play these sorts of games for the narrative, but if you were expecting any semblance of a storyline here, you will be disappointed.
Now let’s get to the gameplay. For better and for worse, the game is very true to the title. The first phase of each job is masking. This requires you to purchase paper and tape from the in-game store menu to mask off any items/areas that don’t need to be painted. If you’ve painted in real life, you’ll know this is quite a crucial step if you are trying to be precise with your paint job. Once everything is covered, you begin phase two. This involves getting out your spray gun and purchasing paint, batteries, and equipment to begin the main task. Your spray gun has a few different modes, and you can also change the angle at which it is spraying, much like with a real spray gun. You can meticulously spray each little corner yourself or tap the spray button to start auto-fire and just focus on aiming the spray. Once the spraying is complete, the final phase has you undoing all the masking from the start and replacing anything you removed (such as lights or side mirrors) before stepping back to admire your handy work.
As someone who had to spray paint a garage just a few months ago, Spray Paint Simulator is a faithful recreation of the experience. The problem is, at least for me, the experience isn’t entirely glamorous in real life, and the gamified version of it is often more tedious than engaging. I use these sort of simulators as my “hobby” games; something simple that I can play while listening to my favorite podcasts. However, I could only play Spray Paint Simulator in short bursts because the process of masking an area off and slowly painting through it was not satisfying enough to keep me hooked for long periods of time. This is only exacerbated by the fact that you have to keep an eye on both the battery and paint levels of your gun as you play. This means you have to stop painting to go and refill the paint container or swap out batteries, and it adds realistic but annoying speed bumps to the experience.
I have been playing Spray Paint Simulator on the PlayStation 5, and the game looks fine. Knowing the scope and scale of this game, it’s not surprising that there aren’t a whole lot of visual tweaks to be made. How it looks out of the box is what you get. However, for a game that is based primarily on the menus, I find that the game doesn’t have a whole lot of personality. The tabs and sliders are all generic, and while they get the job done, they don’t really stand out from others in the genre.
My opinion aside, there are a few more important details I want to cover. Spray Paint Simulator has co-op multiplayer in Free Spray Mode, with co-op support for other game modes planned for a later date. If you have friends to play with, Free Spray Mode represents the most fun you can have in Spray Paint Simulator. The game currently supports crossplay between Xbox and PC via the Windows Store. All other systems can only party up with people within their own console ecosystem. Seeing that this is a Whitethorn Games publication, there is quite an assortment of accessibility options that let you remap inputs, separately adjust audio channels, and more.
That is about all I have to say about Spray Paint Simulator. There is definitely an audience that will find enjoyment in the faithful recreation of spray painting here, but the game unfortunately didn’t quite strike the right chords with me. The gameplay loop added too much friction to make the overall experience enjoyable, and it’s one I personally wasn’t excited to return to after a long day. That being said, if you are looking for a more granular simulator experience, then maybe this is worth checking out. Spray Paint Simulator is available now on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. The Nintendo Switch version is dated to release later this month. A review code was provided by the publisher.
