TL;DR:
Awesome Indie title that comes with quite an unexpected depth and a kind of anti-climactic ending. The map, graphics and overall length are at an expected level and the gameplay loop will sometimes surprise you pleasantly with its mechanics and more to discover.

--- ATTENTION --- Gameplay-SPOILERS will be included in this review!

Graphics – 7.5 out of 10:
Since the game is made with Unreal Engine 5 it comes with its benefits and disadvantages. The benefits are e.g. the Lumen-system which can be spotted on a bit more powerful PCs and really help the visuals of the game. I’ve felt like the reflections in the garages are very awesome and really had some path- or ray-tracing-vibes to it. Some other stuff, like bloom, is way too saturated but that could be adjusted by the developers in the future. Especially if taking a look at some highlighted elements it really goes to show that it is too powerful. The LOD of houses, cars and trees could be further optimized and I would like to see some dynamic weather included as well. The visuals of some gameplay-mechanics were done in such a great way that it blew me out of my socks – see gameplay-section of this review. When going closer to an object some load-in times could be also improved to be more fluent. The biggest disadvantage that comes with UE5 is the smearing or ghosting – this is awful to the brim. Even when NPCs just go by your cars, they seem to be out of a horror game where ghosts theatrically pass by. Probably nothing that the developers can do much because it is an engine-related problem.

Map – 6 out of 10:
The map seems to be large in the beginning but when advancing through the game, it “becomes” more and more shallow. Your shop develops over time and looks better and better with each upgrade but the town and everything surrounding it is just dirty. Not a single building looks like it has some fresh paint on it and thus makes you want to skip through the neighbourhood and just do your work. The level of detail given to any enterable building is great. In the gas station, the bar, the market or your garage the lighting and art style fits the type of building. I would have preferred to have some kind of progression (like getting rid of the dirt) more in the beginning (so some sub-station of development in your office and garage) but in the end the upgrade system helps you out. The biggest wow-moment I have had with the map was when getting the more mid to high tier upgrade for your building. And the last iteration of your store is oof! Holy moly, that blew me right out of the window. What a great idea! Outside of your garage the map has nothing special to offer and seems to be sometimes even a bit procedurally made. Especially when going for an offroad ride (sometimes with intention, sometimes because I drive like a cowboy with 20 beers in his system) it comes to show that the game has some room to improve over time.

Gameplay loop – 8 out of 10:
In your early single player campaign, you will be introduced into the shady business and strategies of Sam (your helping hand on the phone). He will never show up until the end of the game (though can be found easily when you know where to look at). He will periodically ring your phone and tell you what to do – which helps you get the grasp of the fundamentals of the game. The gameplay loop itself is to search for cars, look at them and try to persuade the owner into a lower price. Afterwards you tow it back to your garage to fix the car if needed, get rid of dirt and clean the rust. Each stage has its depth which you really learn from the ground up and will get used to quite easily. Every iteration of your buildings offers benefits and will help you with something that enhances your gameplay. Some of the benefits are still a bit hidden and I did not get them until somewhere in the mid game. Towing cars, getting them on the hydraulic lift, fixing broken stuff, afterwards getting rid of the rust and washing everything felt quite soothing to me. When advancing through the game it gets a bit repetitive from time to time but there will also be some kind of turning point in which you literally lose this connection to the cars. (Probably this will happen in real life, too, but if you get the upgrades too fast, you will just go to your workers and tell them to do all and proceed with hunting down the next best trade.) I would have enjoyed to see some more progression in your tools and the stuff you have to do with the cars instead of just upgrading and getting NPCs so “early” on. The mechanics of mounting and dismantling have some issues with the UI but also provide impressive depth. It does not meet the depth of other games (like the car mechanics simulator), but is still deep enough to have you do a lot of work. If you want to swap out every piece of a car, it will probably take you up to half an hour – depending on your tools, skills and overall speed. In the beginning you will take a day to rebuild one or two cars which speeds up to an almost endless pace after all the upgrades were implemented. The overall feeling of you actually working on a car is very high in the beginning and lessens over time. You will have some other work to do in the end game that still makes you feel like the business owner. Your reputation will increase over time and unlock upgrades, benefits and more – leading to its end goal of buying out the whole business from Sam. One thing that I do not understand is the part where you can customize your business display but not owning the company. Owning the company should be a bit more gradual in my opinion – like buying out percentages until you hit the overall goal of 100%. After hitting at least 51% you should be able to change the name imo. This might be some personal preference though.

Physics – 7 out of 10:
Talking about the physics in a car dealer simulator seems to be maybe a bit over the top but still it offers some reasonable enjoyment and annoyances. When driving with mouse and keyboard you will often hit some unexpected behaviour – especially with higher speeds, but when also using a gamepad (Thrustmaster eSwap Pro X) it will get better. Sometimes I’ve spotted myself thinking “this was crazy, why did that happen” and then I checked the reality… when going with a car on your dolly and trying to get around a corner at 50 km/h you WILL spin because of the weight in the back. I though this would be annoying but have spotted myself being the monkey here. When altering my own behaviour to fit more like the real way of driving I did not come across the same issues. When reversing the cars spin a bit too heavy and also the bump and weight physics when hitting off road need a bit of an overhaul. If you go into the gras you could possibly go for a space launch, lol. Not sure if this game could work with my sim-rig, but I was not eager enough to find out. The physics overall are not meant to be in-depth and this is fine for an Indie title. Some bits could be tweaked a bit more but overall, it was a very interesting experience. Please make sure to have some working mirrors in the future, because this ruins the feeling you get in first person inside a car.

Progression – 8 out of 10:
Despite touching on the topic of upgrades and progression already, I will still make this as a stand out point now. The progression feels natural but has some weakness in when to do this or that. It is quite linear but still gives you a bit too much freedom in my opinion. Some of the upgrades are not needed at all or could be left out whilst other progressive elements are kind of missing. There is no clear path in upgrading and some of the items are not really worth its money. Gas station and underground parking – you do not need them at any point in the game because you have enough space and with a jerry can you will never be running out of fuel. The gas simulation is quite nice and does not feel too demanding but it also does not give me anything wh

TL;DR: Has some heinous mechanics that can be abused, annoying campers and misbalanced agents but overall a solid game that has a lot of potential to give you some good hours.

So, after about 111+ hours, I will have to say that the game overall feels very good. No weird lags, hitreg is also quite good (even with higher ping enemies) and the anti cheat actually works better than e.g. Valves AC does.

Do I enjoy the game? Yes. Either playing ranked or unranked always gives you a good lobby and they will fill it to the brim so that you can have your 10-30 min battles (Warfare).

Do I enjoy the campaign? Meh, not really. After a combined 10k+ hours in different shootergames I do not think the campaign is that well done. If they want to have it tactical - then they need to make it tactical and also nerf enemies when solo campaigning.

What are the downsides of this game?
- unpunished campers on every single map. Some maps are just absolute BS and on some maps you can battle them easily.
- vehicles (i.e. both ground and air vehicle) have too much armor and ENDLESS flares... Helis always just fly out of range and come back. Battle them with 10 stingers is still pretty useless. (Needs fix/nerf!)
- some weapons are misbalanced: AT4 can kill tanks on 100m but not an enemy in front of you - what?
- some game mechanics are blatantly annoying: bellyflopping whilst shooting, crouch flying across 10m and more... pls fix. Yes, some are maybe game mechanics for a good reason, but still - some of them are so annoying to battle against. And everyone is abusing the crouch/duck-exploit to make your head nearly impossible to hit. (I am in the top ranks, trust me - it is just blatantly annoying)
- some maps need a little more balancing and less options to camp. The map design is really good overall but there needs to be a little bit less clusterf***ing here and there.

What are things that I would wish to see in the future?
- balance AT4 and Stinger abilities to tackle helis and vehicle better.
- stop campers
- adjust the mechanics on bellyflopping and more
- give us a CQB-option for every map pls!!! (I am a solely shooter guy and I hate to battle vehicles, even in BF3 and more I hated them...)

If carnage was a game - it would be this. So much fun to play.