If you\u2019ve played VR, odds are you\u2019ve played Job Simulator. It\u2019s a staple of the VR space (pun intended), whimsically \u201csimulating\u201d an office environment to comedically overexaggerated effect. The problem, of course, is the \u201cif you\u2019ve played VR\u201d part. It\u2019s now been a full decade since Oculus Rift first released and attempted to bring virtual reality gaming to the mainstream, and despite advances on the hardware side \u2013 such as the raw power of the Valve Index or the wireless freedom of the Meta Quest \u2013 and killer-app quality games on the software side (I still have the sublime Half-Life: Alyx as my Game of the 2020s so far), VR has simply never gotten over the hump, adoption-wise. <\/p>\n
And so it was with plenty of excitement that I sat down recently to play Job Simulator: Human Relations, a non-VR version of the popular comedic multiplayer workplace sim that is played on a regular ol\u2019 flat-screen monitor. Although ironically, your character is an anthropomorphized CRT monitor, walking around each floor of the company office building and trying to manage the increasingly more insane things happening around you. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s good for up to four players, and as my four-player round began, we were in a pretty traditional office setting. Cubicles fill the center of the room, flanked by a kitchen on the left, a break room with a coffee maker on the right, and the boss\u2019s office in the corner. At the top of the room\/screen is a giant pneumatic tube that sucks things up into \u201cthe cloud.\u201d Things started calmly enough, as one autonomous printer rolled around the office spitting out endless spam reports. You and your friends (er, coworkers) can grab vacuums to suck them all up. As you do this, you\u2019ll be given new assignments, such as having to scan three things on three adjacent scanners and bring the paperwork to the boss to sign off on before you upload it to the aforementioned \u201ccloud.\u201d<\/p>\n
I may or may not have put a red stapler in the microwave on purpose\u2026\u201c<\/p>\n
But things get out of hand in a hurry. On the next floor, you find yourself in a server room. A fire breaks out (um, I may or may not have channeled my inner Milton and put a red stapler in the microwave on purpose\u2026), and as each server immolates and shuts down, you\u2019ll need to not only extinguish all of the burgeoning infernos, but you\u2019ll have to keep them all out so that all four servers become fully operational at the same time. It\u2019s more or less an office-comedy version of whack-a-mole, and it is absolutely fun. Of course, you might be wondering how you put those fires out. Sure, you can pull the fire alarm and that helps, but that doesn\u2019t last. You\u2019ll need to float your CRT body over to the water cooler and fill up your Ghostbusters-like water backpack to spray the flames with.<\/p>\n
Job Simulator: Human Relations Screenshots<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll progress through each floor of the office building, with new challenges awaiting you at each level. Different job objectives await at every turn, and you do get to put on different hats \u2013 literally, in this case \u2013 in order to gain different \u201cjob skills\u201d such as a fireman\u2019s hat that lets you shoot water from the backpack, a whirly-bird hat that lets you jump high \u2013 one item was up and out of reach, but when I had this hat, two teammates jumped on each other\u2019s heads before allowing me to stand on both of their \u201cshoulders\u201d and utilize my leaping ability to get the high-up item. <\/p>\n
Oh, and that progress I mentioned is of course couched in corpo-speak in Job Simulator. The progression is your \u201ccareer\u201d with a \u201ccorporate ladder\u201d to climb. You get \u201cpaid\u201d instead of earning XP, and you get \u201cpromoted\u201d rather than level up. What to use your \u201csalary\u201d on, though? Well, you\u2019ll unlock more of the ability-granting hats as well as cosmetic upgrades for your CRT bots.<\/p>\n
Based on what I\u2019ve played so far, Job Simulator certainly hasn\u2019t lost any of its whimsy in the pivot away from VR. If anything, Human Resources will introduce the series to a whole lot more players. It\u2019s the kind of low-stakes, no-drama fun with friends that\u2019s a step above the friendslop craze currently spreading through Steam these days, creatively speaking. And I\u2019m eager to get back to work.<\/p>\n
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked<\/a>, and a co-host of Next-Gen Console Watch<\/a>. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan<\/a>.<\/p>\n