The first House Flipper game was very popular. Watching gameplay might make you think, “Why would I want to play this?” Well, it turns out that sometimes doing mundane things in video game form can be fun.
You can turn these fixer-uppers into gold on the real estate market. Get ready to yell, “Bus driver, move that bus!” as you do some extreme makeovers. Like most simulator titles, there is a lot to unpack here.
House Flipper 2 Is What A Sequel Should Be: Packed With Improvements
House Flipper 2 has many improvements over its predecessor. A lot of the unfun parts of the first game have been cut out, and many functions seem to be improved. The game starts you off small by having the player do some cleaning and shows you the features of removing unwanted items in the home. With each new set of missions, you gain the knowledge needed to be a master house flipper.
For starters, the gameplay is excellent. Doing certain tasks unlocks skills for that specific task on a skill tree. These skills speed up mundane tasks, so you finish them much quicker. This allows you to do everyday tasks as if you’re The Flash while renovating homes.
Playing with a controller works really well. I was worried about how precise I had to be without a mouse. It ran and played well on my Steam Deck, where I played it about 75% of the time. On PC, I did notice that the performance wasn’t utilizing the CPU or GPU efficiently. Considering what the game is, you would expect to get more than 40-50 frames. It was stable, so this is a minor gripe.
An action wheel contains all the necessary items to flip the houses, such as the hand icon to pick things up, a garbage bag to clean up, and items like a scrub brush, rag, or squeegee to clean windows. The action wheel offers a variety of options. Additionally, there are enjoyable mini-games when building furniture. The faster you complete the furniture, the more discounts you receive. Building furniture gives a great sense of accomplishment.
Image Credit:
Frozen District, PlayWay S.A.
The Story Isn’t Grand, But The Game Focuses More On Letting You Flip Your House As You See Fit
House Flipper 2 does have a minor story. You are a cleaner who is an up-and-comer to the house flipping market. Each mission also has little stories of why you are hired. You go from a nobody to the next Bob Vila. The only thing it’s missing is hearing from the client who buys your house. It would be funny to hear how the husband is a beekeeper, and the wife is a snail tamer, so their budget is $2 million.
The story is nothing grand, but the game is about flipping houses. What, did you want a 150-hour epic like Baldur’s Gate 3?
When you start on a new house, you get missions. These missions can help guide you so you don’t feel lost on what to do next. These building blocks can be carried over to the sandbox mode when you just want to go crazy on any house without that mission structure. The item interface can be a bit confusing, and it is one of the few cons I could think of. Using mod.io, you can create homes to give to players as a mission, which is something I haven’t heard a game do before. One thing I keep finding myself doing is making up my own narratives for what happened to the home and why you are fixing it up. You can extend that thought process to why you use a certain theme for a room. It really added to the fun.
Wrapping Up
House Flipper 2 is way more fun than it has any right to be, considering you are basically doing chores. The gamification of these tasks makes the mundane fun. The game looks good and plays very well. Content creators can get a lot out of this game. If you enjoyed simulator titles like Power Wash Simulator, you might want to try this game out.
There are only two negative things I can pick out. One is the performance on a desktop PC could be a little better. The game doesn’t run badly, but it averages around 45 FPS. No dips, but for what it is, you’d think that on a good setup, you should be getting 120 FPS. The other negative is the interface isn’t great. It is sometimes hard to navigate and find items.
For $40, there is a lot of game here, and the sandbox mode makes your home designing almost endless. This is one of the better simulator titles on the market.
