House Flipper Review

I’ve never really been one that tends to be interested in simulator games, but when I first saw House Flipper, for some reason I wanted to try it. The game shouldn’t really need any introductions since the name of the game speaks for itself. This is a game about flipping houses, at least for the most part.

Right at the start, you’re thrown into this pretty small house which has definitely seen better days, and with a few grand in the bank, you’re off to start your own business. At first, you’ll be using your laptop to accept up to at least around two dozens of different jobs where you have to perform all sorts of jobs that homeowners ask of you. From remodelling, installing new appliances (radiators, sinks, electrical sockets, etc), to painting the walls of the house, to panelling and tiling, to even cleaning, these are all tasks that you will need to perform in order to get your paycheck.

Besides that, as you keep earning more money, you will eventually have enough so that you can buy new houses and make the appropriate changes they need in order to be sold for a much greater value than what you initially paid for them. However, in order to do so, you must meet the requirements of those who are looking to buy those houses. From families who are looking for rooms for their kids, to a student who just wants the basic, to a businessman, or in case of the free Apocalypse DLC, you can even outfit some of the houses with fallout shelters.

This might sound enticing to some people, and while it might also sound somewhat complex (like it did to me when I first read about the game), it really isn’t. House Flipper is a pretty simple and straightforward game, as most situations are pretty obvious in regards as to how they should be handled, and most actions are executed by simply holding down the mouse button while hovering the relevant item. There is no trickery, no real challenge in terms of direct gameplay input. There are a series of tools that you use for cleaning, painting, demolishing walls, and putting new tiles, but everything is done by holding down the mouse button on the area you wish to intervene.

From the radial tool selection menu to your trusty tablet, the game couldn’t be any more direct and easy to handle. The mini-map also helps you a lot in knowing what you’re supposed to do in each room in the house, so you won’t really spend any time wondering and searching what you need to do next in order to finish your job. Moving stuff around, which is a big part of the game when you get to buying actual furniture and decorate houses at your own volition, also couldn’t be any more painless.

Besides making money, the game also has another form of progression, in the form of incremental upgrades to your tools. Initially, performing the most menial tasks can be somewhat tedious, but as you use each tool more and more, you’ll gain skill points which will let you improve your performance in a series of fields. Things like increased cleaning speed, acquiring a higher pay for your jobs, not spending as much paint when painting walls, faster building, faster assembly of things, etc, are just a few examples of what you can expect. While these are still just stat upgrades, they do help a lot and make your life quite a lot easier the further you play.

House Flipper is a relaxing game, which is best played in short bursts, it’s not really something that I’d see many people getting hooked on and playing for many hours straight, unless perhaps you turn on your playlist and listen to it instead of hearing the looping music over and over again. If the concept interests you in the slightest, chances are that you’ll have a decent time with it, as long as you don’t expect anything overly complex or challenging. House Flipper seems to fit into the “unwind” category for me, and I imagine that it does so for many others.

It’s a good game considering what it aims to be, but whether it’s something that will fit your tastes or not, that is a whole different question. If the prospect of buying houses, remodelling them, doing housework, and everything else that has already been mentioned sounds like something you’d enjoy, then I’d go ahead and give it a try.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.