Liquor Store Simulator

Carding customers instead of just scanning barcodes

Liquor Store Simulator drops you behind the counter of a small alcohol retailer, stocking shelves, hiring staff, and eventually expanding toward a full "alcohol empire" — including, per a later content update, brewing your own beer on-site. What sets it apart mechanically from the genre's dominant template is a real ID-verification system: customers who look underage require a documents check, and correctly catching a fake or expired ID (or correctly clearing a legitimate one) is its own trackable skill, backed by dedicated achievements for both outcomes. One reviewer plays the premise for laughs while still describing the mechanic approvingly: "I have never drunk alcohol in my life and yet I am running a liquor store... I shall only sell the finest of waters and highest quality cola," turning the age-verification system into a running joke about running an accidentally wholesome establishment.

For players already steeped in the genre, the reception is genuinely favourable relative to the wider field. "I do recommend playing this game if you're into store sims. This is the 2nd best store sim game I have ever played and the devs are continuing to update the game," one reviewer states, specifically crediting ongoing support as part of the recommendation.

The comparison it can't escape

The most consistent critical framing in the negative review sample measures the game directly against Supermarket Simulator, the genre's dominant reference point, and finds it wanting. "A copycat of all the other games out there and yet somehow less," one detailed review states, rating it a 5 out of 10 specifically as "leftovers" for players who've already exhausted the genre's best offerings. A separate reviewer frames the comparison more gently but reaches a similar conclusion: "basically Supermarket Simulator with less stuff to do and a slower start... everything is moving very slow," specifically criticizing skill-point costs that feel disproportionate to how slowly money accumulates in the early game.

That said, this comparison is worth holding lightly rather than as a final verdict — a meaningful share of reviewers explicitly rank this above several other genre entries even while acknowledging it doesn't unseat the market leader, and the specific ID-checking mechanic gives it a mechanical identity the bare "copycat" framing understates.

A checkout that skips the actual transaction

A specific, repeated complaint concerns the sale process itself feeling incomplete relative to the game's simulation ambitions. "The checkout process only takes one click instead of actually receiving money, giving change, etc. In a Simulator, you'd expect to go through all the steps," one reviewer writes, and this reads as a fair, specific critique rather than a vague quality complaint — a genre built entirely around simulating small business operations arguably loses some of its appeal when its central transaction is abstracted away rather than played out.

Compounding the pacing frustration is a specific reported bug: when a customer is rejected — whether for a failed ID check or otherwise — they can get stuck near the counter rather than leaving the premises, and the player is fined regardless of having handled the interaction correctly. That's a real, mechanically unfair penalty distinct from ordinary difficulty, punishing players for a bug rather than a mistake.

An upgrade path with a trap in it

One of the more specific and useful pieces of advice recurring across the review sample concerns upgrade sequencing: multiple reviewers independently warn against purchasing the "Draft Beer" expansion early. "Do NOT, I beg you, upgrade to the 'Draft Beer' unless you're at the end of playing the game and have run out of literally everything else to do," one detailed review states, and a separate reviewer reports genuine regret after unlocking it: "after unlocking draft and you can't have a worker on it, it is dreadful." That's a specific, actionable piece of consumer guidance rather than a general balance complaint, and it's corroborated closely enough across independent accounts to be worth repeating directly: this particular upgrade appears to remove automation options rather than adding meaningful new gameplay, making the mid-to-late game more tedious rather than more interesting.

An abandonment claim the numbers don't support

One reviewer states plainly that "the devs are working on other projects and have stopped releasing updates," and a separate, more pointed review calls it "a pure cash grab" for the same reason. Checking this against the developer's own posted update history tells a different story: thirty-eight recorded events include a major content update adding the brewery system, translation additions for multiple languages, and version 1.4.0 patches posted well after launch — an active, ongoing support cadence rather than an abandoned project. Whatever prompted these specific complaints, the broader claim that development has stopped doesn't hold up against the record.

Where this leaves it

Liquor Store Simulator doesn't reinvent its crowded genre, and reviewers who've played the field's best examples are right to note the pacing feels slower and the checkout shallower than the current market leader. But its ID-verification mechanic gives it a genuine point of mechanical distinction, the achievement data confirms real depth for committed players, and the abandonment narrative circulating in some reviews simply isn't supported by the developer's actual, ongoing patch history. Worth picking up for genre fans looking for a solid, actively-supported second or third entry in their collection — just skip the Draft Beer upgrade until you've exhausted everything else, and don't expect it to dethrone the games it's inevitably compared against.