House Flipper – Review

House flipper is a simulation game about helping characters in the game renovate houses, with the ability to own other properties and make them go from looking abandoned to new and all for the possibility to make a profit. You could be hired in the game to just clean the property and put a new coat of paint on the walls to having to demolish walls and create new ones to make the properties in the game flow nicer.

The Introduction

House flipper starts with you having a small office space / living quarters, learning the basics of the game with a low level of cash so you don’t expand to fast, to allow you to learn the controls and how to do each thing in the game. From being just able to clean the area by standing next to the dirty area in the house to showing you how to access your tools, such as the sledgehammer and the tilling tool and how to use them in set properties or when they are needed. you will also learn how to use a tablet on the game, which will allow you to access different items as well as learn different things regarding the NPCS you will need. These can be things such as paint or a new toilet seat or what preferences the NPCS have. When you are learning these skills, you will also get to explore the first few houses you will help renovate, which helps you earn some cash so you can start to explore the option of buying a house that you can make look the way you want to either sell or make into your new office in the game. 

Creating your own space

As you get further into the game, you will have earned enough money to stop doing odd jobs for characters in the game and have the ability to buy and sell your own buildings. This comes with positives and negatives as when you first start this process you will have a low level of money so you will be buying the cheaper properties, however this can be a positive as it normally means there are less thing that need doing in the property for you to make it look nice and easy to sell, but it also means these properties are smaller in size which means they can be hard to profit of. However, this doesn’t stop you from profiting from the properties, but you will find you will profit better if you choose to design for a set NPC, such as Christopher Grey, who likes simple monochrome homes. This is due to how you sell a property in the game, as you can’t just set a price and wait for someone to snatch it up; no, you put all properties you have refurbished onto an auction each time you sell. These auctions go between all the NPCS and the one that bids the most wins at the price they bid. You can make them pay a little more on occasion however, that stems of a set percentage depending on how far in the game you are. therefore designing for a set NPC can give a high chance of a high bid against other NPCS so if they have a higher chance of obtaining the property.

Levelling up

In this game, there if a small part of the game regarding levelling up your skills. You will find, as you go about the game, that all the different tasks you do can be slow or hard to do at the start. This is to help you feel as you go about the game there is a form of progress as much as you also see that from being able to buy and sell properties. This is how you can make doing different task faster or easier to do. You do as such buy repeating tasks for each skill you’re trying to level up. When doing each task, like painting, you slowly gain points, and after so many points you can access your tablet to unlock a higher level of each skill. you can see this clearly, making the task quicker and easier in-game. a good example being painting as when you start you can only paint one panel on the wall at a time with a big amount of paint being used out of a can of paint in the game to when your max level for painting which is level 4 you can paint four panels on the wall at once using little paint from the can of painting making you save money on the pain and speeding up the process of painting the wall in the game. which I must add you come to appreciate in the later section of this game.

Gameplay & replay ability

Moving on to the game play itself this game can be great fun with the ability to learn what it takes to make a place go from looking run-down into a nice and refined living space. This game gives you the ability to explore home refurbishment without the cost on your bank account in real life giving you a place to get creative and make a space look like home, but it also give you the opportunity to be silly or just let out that inner designer that in real life you don’t have the energy for. You get this from having the ability to paint any of the walls in properties you buy in the game any colour you want or change the layout to any way you want with the restrictions of the outer walls. This game can be great, however, when it comes to the replay ability of the game I personally don’t see it there, this is just do to the fact of how many houses are on the game. As much as its great being able to play and design these properties however many times you want  I do find just trying to get through all the house on this game has been a challenge. which personally make me lack the desire to do the house more than once. By no means no am I saying its not possible, though I just personally see most people losing interest to redo them afterwards if they’re interested in trying to do them all and personal put this down to the reduced furniture options compared to the house to use them in. I have found myself getting bored on the different furniture as I have overused them all.

Graphics & audio

Starting with the audio of the game its very shallow in a way and throughout the game, there is little change to it. The music in the game is a small repeating lyric free tune or at least that’s the best way to describe it, when you first start the game it can be quiet nice and relaxing especially if your in the introduction of the game as its quiet and simple allowing you to easily earn how to do different things in the game without getting distracted, however as you progress through the game this tune doesn’t change to reflect that your getting better at the skills you are learning therefore you can some what feel like your stuck at the begging of the game even though you are progressing. 

Going on to the graphics of the game I personally found them quite neat and well-suited to the game as they help the game look realistic for the most part, with the odd detail here or there. however for the most part they suited the game as they have a good range of colour and vibrancy in them whilst still looking realistic and true the game’s design. I also found that the graphics kept up the mechanics of the game with one odd exception when it came to demolishing the walls in properties.

Criticism

To be honest, there is little to no criticism to really be made regarding the game but to be nitpicky with the game, there are two small areas that I believe should or at least could be improved on within the game. The first being a minor bug that I have experience and few times regarding the game which has to do with the demolition of walls if you so choose to or need to, this being that every once in a while after you demolish a whole wall you can still see a small section of it for up to a minute that you can not destroy or move out of the way. The second small issues I have with the game is the lack of furniture options. I personally only feel this way after trying not to reuse many of the furniture items in all the houses and learning that this can be extremely hard as the number of houses well exceeds the options for verity with the exception of colour for most if not all, furniture. 

overall

overall I would personally say this a great game with a very small area that could require a few fixes. It’s definitely a game I could recommend. As much as I would personally recommend it to creative people for the ability to be creative with the endless design abilities within each house. I have found this to be a great and enjoyable game to play throughout with multiple opportunities for achievements. As well as a great way to explore DIY in a game setting.

House Flipper is on all platforms.

To get it on Steam here: House Flipper