Assemble With Care Review

Assemble With Care starts out with Maria, a repair-woman who travels the world doing odd-jobs here and there, visits the town of Bellariva in Spain. In this small, charming town Maria meets the residens, all in need of help fixing various items. The first person we meet is a little girl called Izzy, who has broken her walk-man. We are tasked with fixing it, and learn that the tape within the walk-man is of Izzies deceased mother singing to her. Afterwards we meet Izzys father, who is the mayor of Bellariva, whom is in need of help fixing a family heirloom in form of a statue. We learn tidbits of the life around Bellariva and the relationship between the characters within the story. Izzies father Joseph’s relationship with his daughter is strained due to him working as much as he does, which he begrudges.

Later we meet a woman running a restaurant named Carmen. Carmen’s phone is broken, and we are left to fix it. Afterwards Carmen calls her sister and asks for finantial help since her business is going rather badly as of late. They get into an argument, and we leave. The following day we are tasked to visit Carmen’s sister, Helena. She has an old expensive camera which is not working as of late. We fix the camera for her, and learn a bit of her relationship with her sister, one where Carmen only contacts her whenever she is in need of financial help. We now have established the main characters of the game, and their back story. Following, we learn that the town is to have a food festival in a matter of days, and both the mayor Joseph needs to prepare for being the food-tasting judge, but also Carmen needs to prepare for the competition.

Through fixing various objects the story moves on. We learn that Helena lost her well-paying jobs some months ago, and have nothing left of her savings, leaving it impossible for her to help out her sister with her late payments. Nevertheless things are prepared for the festival, and we end up helping Carmen assemble a stove and cook some food. Carmen is sad that her sister is not present at the festival, especially since Carmen won. We later learn that Helena spent the time selling her expensive camera in order to help her sister with the payments. Due to winning the competition Carmen gets an influx of customers at her restaurant, and hires Helena to help her. Joseph and Izzy’s bond are also mended during the festival where she helps her father taste and judge the food. We end up repairing a music box for Joseph that he gives to her daughter, being her mother’s. In the end Maria decides that she needs to mend her own bonds, and contacts her parents after having been estranged from them for over a year.

And thus ends the game, with an epilogue where we are fixing a coffee machine for Carmen. The game is a very short one, about and hour and a half. This should not discourage anyone, since what you get in that little time is a sweet game and a feel-good story. The game itself is narrated all way through, as an intermission before and after the repairs. Repairing items is the main feature of the game, and it consists of unscrewing parts of machinery, fixing broken things and screwing things back together. These puzzles are easy, and should not give any problems for most people. It does give a sense of accomplishment having fixed the items, and is decently fun. Following the game is a nice score, that fits the game perfectly. Lastly, the graphics are mostly hand-drawn images, adding to the ambience, intertwined with the game-part, which is 3-D – usually with an interesting background. All in all the game gives you a very cozy feeling, and is a relaxing, nice piece of media to consume when you have an hour or two to spend.