7.8 hours played
Written 9 days ago
It's fun, but I got it on sale for $2.50. There is something relaxing about it and has a good sense of progression completing each job. Cozy and low-stakes. You run tasks and get paid, then can invest the money you have into properties that you can renovate and re-sell. I can't imagine spending full price with the overall mechanics.
Are they looking to improve those on the many DLCs available, House Flipper 2, or the splash-screen advertised Remastered Collection? It's not even out yet and that's the first thing you see is "hey buy the game you just got but it's better also you can't buy it."
The progression is clear: do tasks, get perks, do tasks better.
There is definitely more to be desired. I haven't unlocked some of the other tools - is there a lawnmower? The yards are awful. As far as tools go, I've got painting, tiling, cleaning, mounting/moving (hand), demo, and wall building. Patching is noted, but has yet to show up.
Painting: Buy a paint bucket, fill your roller with paint, apply to wall until gone, rinse and repeat. It is impossible to gauge how much you're going to need; you're best off buying the large container and just selling it when you're done. You can paint multiple sections at a time as you advance, but it still requires a slow-and-steady process to ensure you don't miss something and have to trace back over all of it. They will sometimes ask you to paint a room two colors, but you can just paint it all one color and still get full credit. No eye-dropper tool makes color matching a pain.
Tiling: Buy some tile, stick it to the wall. Similar concept to painting, which leaves something to be desired - it's just point at tile, hold on wall, rinse and repeat. Same story with the painting situation as well as the color requests. It also does strips in the wall the same as painting, so there's a significant lack of customization for your walls.
Cleaning: Love that you can just point and click on things to remove them. It picks up piles of various debris, then you can click on boxes/trash/bottles and it removes it entirely. This is nice compared to other simulators where you have to pick up the box and run it around to the trash. With that said, the larger trash items (such as just a trash bin) also disappear. Could be more involved, but stays casual without getting tedious. The biggest issue you'll run into is the dirt patches that you can't even locate before perks based on the color schemes. There are three major cleaning tools: the hand to remove trash, the mop that you just point and hold the click to clean things up, and the vacuum to remove pests (with a neat option to turn them into glass if you have a phobia). There are so far just the one type of critter to remove, but it's well done in that it feels disgusting. The mechanics here get very repetitive, though, and it turns into almost a power washing simulator without the same satisfaction. Just point your mop toward the mess, hold click, and it's clean. No other tools or products going on, just point and disappear slowly.
Hand tool: pick up trash, move/place things, unscrew pipes to mount things, and mounting in general. Trash pick-up was covered, but the moving and placing feels terrible for little things. The big items it's completely fine, but the little stuff doesn't get the most precise placement, especially on shelves above you - I found myself jumping and clicking sporadically hoping to get it to land in the right spot. Unscrewing things is neat, because it adds a level of immersion to installing appliances; though that immersion is seemingly only for sinks, showers, washers, and tubs. Everything else mountable, such as the three radiators (lacks HVAC as a trade), air conditioning wall-mounted units, don't. There are a handful of options, but overall very limited in what to place. You get a selection of various things, but there are 2 radiators you can use in a room and a radiator for the bathroom. You are also limited to where you can place pipe-related things, as I haven't encountered an option to add or move plumbing otherwise. Each item has a specific installation pattern, but it goes back to more of the same gameplay of point and click and hold until it's done. The mounting at least has different angles to do the installation, but gets very repetitive; every single mount is the same feeling. There isn't a lot more going on as far as an expected "mini game" in terms what you're actually doing to progress. With that said, it's difficult to balance that with a casual game having too many additional elements, so it works well for casual paly, but leaves you wanting more if you're able to press other keys or click other buttons.
Demolition: More point and click action a la painting and tiling. You tap different areas of it to clear it out. The debris disappears for you. Pretty straightforward, but more of the same point and hold click gameplay.
Wall building: Same situation as demolition, but you only need to do it one time instead of each section. There is a separate build mode for the above-door walls, but it's just point, hold click: wall.
You also have a number of windows to clean, but it's all the same - swipe your tool across and clear them out. I am not kidding when this is actually the least satisfying part of the game. It is an interactable where you swipe your squeegee-style tool to clear off the dirt. VERY satisfying in theory, but the catch? It doesn't require fully clearing the window off, so you get to the end of it and it just kicks you out of the interaction and the window is just clean. Absolutely the worst pay off so far in terms of satisfaction.
Flooring is interesting in that if you're putting down carpet or tile or wood, it is all the same. You just point to an area, expand to how big you want it, and it's there. You'd expect renovation to include rolling out carpet or putting down flooring in general, but it just skips past all of that.
Shopping has a good number of options, despite use-limited items (1 washing machine) that restrict customization. Despite the limitations, it's very difficult to find what you want at a glance; thankfully when you're on a job, the tasks have clickable elements to take you right there.
Your character "talks" through tips on the top-left. These are also very repetitive, saying a pile of tile would be good despite you actively clicking and using said tile.
Overall, worth $2.50, but significantly lacking in more; fun casual play, but limited to that casual play aspect. Maybe the DLCs are worthwhile, but I'd wait for the remastered collection to come out - and go on sale. Maybe the sequel covers some of these things, but again, not paying full price after this experience. Great for the price, at least!
