Measure twice, cut once
I can’t really imagine a future where I can afford to buy a home for myself, let alone one where I could make a living buying up repair jobs and selling them at a higher price. Not that I think I’d want to. But regardless, House Flipper is probably as close as I’m going to get.
Released in 2018, House Flipper had a profound effect on the simulator genre. Not that I think it meant to. However, it hit upon a nice balance of ugly jank and tactile gameplay. It wasn’t the first of its kind, but a combination of its engaging execution of its core concept and ability to connect with audiences made it a success that others hurried to emulate. We still live in a market glutted with job simulators, and while some of them are good in their own right, it’s hard for any of them to stand out.
Nonetheless, after years of being supported by DLC, we’re finally getting House Flipper 2, and Steam Next Fest gives us an opportunity to test drive its demo.
Just move a bookcase in front of it
House Flipper 2 starts off by stranding you on an island with a dilapidated house on it. Your job is to make it suck less and then sell it. You’ll notice a lot of books lying around that tell you how to work the various systems within the game, and I read exactly none of them. While almost everything has changed in House Flipper 2, it’s all relatively easy to figure out.
Like with renovating the house itself, I’m not exactly sure where to start here. I suppose I’ll just assume you haven’t played House Flipper. The idea is that you’re given a task – or a series of tasks – and you need to accomplish them to the best of your abilities. This involves cleaning up garbage, removing stains, cleaning windows, vacuuming up debris, painting walls, laying floors, repairing walls, and general furniture placement.
A lot has changed in the individual mechanics of House Flipper 2. The painting, for example, is no longer in vertical strips. Instead, you can outline where you want your paint to go and then just roll your ridiculously oversized paint roller of that area. Trash needs to be bagged instead of just sucked into your body like it’s an evening at KFC. You can spray stains to make them easier to mop up. Nothing that’s going to make your jaw drop, but at least it does some things to differentiate itself from the first game.
No one will notice
Unfortunately, the demo doesn’t include any of the tactile bits of the original title aside from painting and cleaning windows. Before, when you’d install something like a radiator or sink, you’d have to manually click to screw it into place. Now, every piece of furniture just drops into place.
This may be something that just hasn’t made it in the game yet, as things like building walls and picking up garbage have more physicality to them. I’d hate to think that these things have been cut since entire simulators have been spun off the simple handyman tasks you’d handle.
For that matter, I don’t really see House Flipper 2 as much of an improvement thus far. It seems just to be a different take on all the same stuff from the original. Even the graphics don’t really show much improvement. Early material suggests that decorating and customizing might be the big feature here, and I absolutely couldn’t care less.
In fact, while playing the demo, I accidentally sealed up part of a wall that the game wanted me to put windows in. The demolition tool didn’t want to target my new walls. I knocked out the only brick that it would actually let me target and left it. I also accidentally painted over things I shouldn’t have because there’s currently a bug where if you start with your roller outside the designated painting area, it will paint over it anyway. Instead of fixing these things, I just left them. The game still gave me three stars. It will be the new tenants’ problem.
Good enough
If you’re just looking for a slice of House Flipper 2, the demo certainly gives you that. However, if you’re looking for a peek at potentially new gameplay, that’s not here. Some things are different, but I’d hesitate to call them new. Right now, I’m not even sure why I should pick this up over the first game.
However, this is a demo. House Flipper 2 has a release window of 2023, so certain things might not be implemented. We’re also not getting any kind of look at the story or sandbox modes here. So, while the demo might be kind of underwhelming, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it offers nothing new. We’ll just have to wait for the renovations to finish.
