The Lift asks you to be Fix-It-Felix for Control's Oldest House
Even an interdimensional handyman has to fix The John on occasion
The Lift: Supernatural Handyman Simulator, is exactly what it says on the tin. You’re a portly, mustachioed repair man with a receding (generous) hairline, and you’ve got stuff to fix. That “stuff” is sometimes mundane office furniture, where you’ll need to pop in a loose screw to tighten up a bench seat. Or, it’s a fantastical machine of unknown power.
And, sometimes, you’re just using your handheld vacuum to suckup interdimensional ooze.
This isn’t exactly Powerwash Simulator or any number of chill simulator games (dad games) that help make you feel like a blue collar worker from the comfort of your desk or couch. Instead, it functions as more of a puzzle game where you must use your handyman skills to repair this seemingly endless interdimensional office building.
When I booted up an early preview of the game’s playtest (which you can sign up for on Steam), I was expecting more of an automation-type game — like Satisfactory or Factorio — based on the trailer. Instead, I found myself in an elevator (a lift, if you will), where a voice proceeded to put me through corporate orientation.
Mid-presentation, the light in the room went out, horror game style. But the goal wasn’t a scare, it was to teach me that I’m not the guy getting jump scared, I’m the guy who fixes the damn lightbulb. So I opened the hatch under the bench next to me, grabbed a light bulb, removed the fixture, replaced the bulb, stuck the broken one in my picket, put the fixture back on, flipped the switch, and eureka. Let there be light, as originally said by God and Uncle Ben. Moments after solving the light problem, a fuse blew out, and I was off to work fixing that as well.
What’s striking about these little fix-it moments is that the action is mostly tactile. I don’t run up to the bench, click it, and an inventory screen pops up so I can hit X to collect all lightbulbs. No, instead I hold my mouse button in to grab the bed of the bench, and then pull my mouse back to lift it. I reach in and individually grab the lightbulb on the floor, etc. When I replace the fuse, I’m rotating through various wire pieces in my inventory, but I have to move them into my hands and rotate them before I click things into place.