Pharmacy Store Simulator Review

Pharmacy Store Simulator is… well, you can probably tell. Developed and published by Art Games Studio S.A., you’ll be put into the role of the owner of a new pharmacy, where you’ll stock the shelves full of medicine and help cure or ease the woes of the public. Since I am not at the pinnacle of health, I’ve gotten quite acquainted with pharmacies, so why not see what it’s like on the other side of the sneeze guard?

Let’s start off with the graphics since there isn’t too much of a narrative here. It's a semi-realistic art style that you constantly see with these types of games. Outside of the store, there isn’t really that much to explore. At best, there’s only the small area in the front where the delivery van will dump your packages. And I don’t mean placing them down at a designated spot; they literally throw boxes at your store’s window from the van, including any furniture you may have ordered. I’m pretty sure that’s not standard delivery procedure.

Anyways, let’s get this pharmacy started. You start off with only a small room and a couple hundred dollars. As your reputation and level improve, you’ll get more customers, more medicine available to license, and more money needed to expand and improve the store. Eventually, your little shop can be about as big as a fancy retail store. To get to that point, though, is a lot easier said than done. Turns out, being a pharmacist involves being a cashier, manager, accountant, and health consultant all at the same time.

First off, you’ll need to license some medicine to put on shelves, then order it online. There’ll be a delivery fee each time you check out, so try not to purchase individual packages. Once they’re on the shelves, you can set the product’s prices to whatever you want, though the more you discount an item, the better your reputation becomes. After that, it’s the usual affair when it comes to serving customers: scanning their items, taking their money, and giving them change if necessary. Nothing too complicated, and it’s a nice and quick process. Although, I found typing in the credit card reader to be a little strange. Say you input 1234, it’s not $1234, it’s $12.34, and that feels unnatural.

When it becomes complicated is when customers start asking for help. Some people will come to the register and list out their symptoms, and it’s your job to select the right items that’ll cure their woes, which makes organisation and memorisation all the more necessary. You can refuse anyone’s service, but they might leave a bad review on the store, and we don’t want that.

Of course, some customers will have prescriptions you need to fulfil. These types of medications are kept in the back and aren't meant to be sold over the counter. Be careful, as there are some people who have nothing wrong with them, and only want to score some medication for… recreational or financial reasons. Or it’s an honest mistake, I’m not gonna assume the worst straight from the get-go. You'll have to validate their prescriptions, making sure all the details are right, before you hand them anything or else you will suffer the consequences of medical malpractice: losing the license of the medicine, which is pretty expensive when you're first starting out.

And that’s pretty much the entire experience you’ll have running a drug store. I have to be honest, I just wasn’t gelling with the game all that much. There wasn’t that addictive hook that made me enjoy the process of growing a store. Actually, it was a struggle to make money without gouging prices. I could barely keep up with the demand, while paying for bills, new medicine, and expanding the store. There were just too many things to keep on top of, I feel.

Unfortunately, all of my problems with Pharmacy Store Simulator weren’t helped by the glitches. Oh, sure, it ran perfectly well at 60 FPS, but it was a serious struggle! When I first started playing the game, it became unresponsive several times and crashed before I could even buy my first few boxes of medication. It would continue to stutter and crash throughout my playthrough. Also, sometimes the controls would glitch out and I couldn't do what I wanted. Like, when I accidentally picked up a shelf, I couldn’t put it down again. I couldn’t even place medication on it. I am playing this game before its official release, but this isn’t acceptable if it makes it into the public’s hands.

Pharmacy Store Simulator is simply another shopkeeping sim, just with a pharmaceutical coat of paint. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t do anything I’d consider special. Even requests for medicine bring to mind Retro Rewind - Video Store Simulator more than anything else. However, watch out as the game isn’t exactly stable currently. Unless there’s a patch, I’d advise staying away from this game until it comes out.