With house renovation, or specifically, house flipping shows having a continued dominance over the airwaves almost nightly, if not bi-monthly, have you ever gotten that itch of trying it out for yourself? No money? No cushy television production company support? No problem! It should come as no surprise that there are games on the market targetting this niche, without the polish of camera editing and huge teams of people, giving fans a concise and expedited look at the house modification, renovation and/or flipping process. The big one, developed by Empyrean and Frozen District was House Flipper, released for the PC in 2018 before rolling out to other platforms in 2020. Powered by the success of the original game, and complemented by a still booming live-streaming community, a sequel, simply titled House Flipper 2 is now available exclusively for the PC. Boasting improved visuals, a new sandbox mode and overall improvements that make up the game’s gameplay loop, it serves to be a solid experience, one much more fun than picking up the vacuum and doing some real-life housework instead.
House Flipper 2 is set in the picturesque seaside town of Pinnacove, a locale with beautiful homes in desperate need of someone to come up, tidy up the place and cater to their requirements. Players take control of a newcomer to the house renovation and flipping market in the town. With barely a dollar to their name, they must work their way up from a house cleaner and removalist – solving the irks of everything from a “messy roommate who abandoned their room… and steals microwaves” to a “new homeowner who wants you to unpack for them… oh, and clean up their trash while you are at it”. From your roots, your reputation grows, moving up to bigger properties, bigger tasks, bigger toys and ultimately more rewards.
The missions you receive are straightforward, generally by going room to room with (!) icons and fulfilling the objectives you are given. While the game world is devoid of life, you do occasionally receive phone calls from the client, with solid English voice acting and witty writing which, even if there are no major surprises, is a cleverly disguised way of keeping you moving forward – learning the different tools of the trade – and the most valuable skill of not getting too attached to one property you will ultimately say goodbye to after completing it.
The main gameplay loop is cathartic and relaxing, much unlike me thinking about tidying the bookcase next to me as I type this. As someone who tends to shy away from doing too much IRL cleaning or housework, I found myself lost for hours undertaking the tasks and quests pitched at me, from picking and tossing out the trash to ensuring that every piece of furniture I unpacked for my client or bought for them were neatly and meticulously placed.
This is despite the finer details not really mattering in the grand scheme of things. While you are graded on how many soot stains remain on the floors or walls when finishing up the job, or the risk of the owner stepping on the shards of glass that were already there when you arrived, it is possible to cheese some of the grading criteria, such as shoving unboxed/purchased items haphazardly on the floor. Honour system rules are in play, and ultimately it falls to the individual player whether to adhere to it. To me, ignoring the game’s three-start ranking system for each job, House Flipper 2’s aesthetic appeal, furniture design and room layouts all contribute to wanting to do your best for that personal satisfaction, or at least the guilt of knowing you would be appalled if you were the client.
Keeping in line with the ‘relaxing’ mantra the game exudes, House Flipper 2 once again favours simple-to-use tools that balance the simulation of you doing the task without it being overly realistic that tasks feel like chores. For example… do you have dirt on wooden floorboards? Embedded deep into a carpet? High up on the ceiling? No worries! Your scrubber tool can reach all that, without needing to go through 20 different tools. The tools you have at your disposal, from painting to vacuuming to demolishing walls to selling (or, “flipping”) the client’s stuff – all have simple, accessible and satisfying gameplay loops – jumping between them in different ways to ensure one mechanic doesn’t overstay its welcome.
The big new addition in House Flipper 2, which I can see being very popular with challenge streams over the coming months, is the Sandbox Mode, granting players easy access to comprehensive yet relatively easy-to-use development tools to build their own houses which can be shared with friends, or be utilised as a custom challenge map – with the tools to add dirt, trash and other less-sightly items to your new creation. If you are looking at the game from a purely ‘house development’ perspective, then there are life simulation games that are more accessible and provide additional opportunities to get those creative juices flowing. However, if you are looking at getting up close and personal with the home you create, want to take advantage of your creation’s sharability via mod.io integration, or have ever dreamed of making House Flipper challenge maps, there is much to appreciate here.
If you are more aligned with me and don’t enjoy the “home building” aspect of games like House Flipper 2 and prefer prefabs, kudos to the integration with mod.io, downloading the mods and content of other users means you won’t just be relying on the eventual DLC – with a small but growing number of options including 266 properties and 100 custom jobs available as of writing. Here’s hoping that Frozen District continues spearheading community challenges, and building out the objects and tools available to users as time progresses.
Another big shift between House Flipper and House Flipper 2 is the improvement in visual fidelity. While not losing out on too much of the quirky charm its predecessor had, presumably a bigger budget and five years of technological innovations have shone kindly on this game, with a cheerful, light-hearted vibe to the locations you visit, and some picturesque architecture with clear love and attention to details going into the pre-made buildings that show much attention to detail was provided on each. This is complemented by a larger array of furniture items and knick-knacks that make the homes more lived-in and immersive overall.
Whether you have the creative spark to build or restore homes to perfection or just want a relaxing, objective-based game that isn’t too strict or demanding, then there is a lot to love about House Flipper II – with some notable improvements, a more-than-welcome addition of the Sandbox Mode and a nicer visual aesthetic. Sure, you could do some actual housework in the time it takes to do a couple of missions… but where’s the fun and relaxation in that?
