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0 Building on solid foundations from the first game that was released in 2018, the development team at Frozen District have brought us a new addition to the House Flipper series. House Flipper 2 is available to buy now on Xbox and PlayStation for an average £34.99. Of course, it can be brought on PC, however, this version was released in December 2023.
Will you become a property brother?
Since House Flipper 2 was announced, I have been incredibly excited to play. This has been highly anticipated by the House Flipper community. It’s great to see the best parts of the original game taken and improved. Let me know in the comments if you are enjoying the new game!
Gameplay
Moving back into your parent’s house isn’t everyone’s dream, but the sleepy town of Pinnacove is your new home. The residents are ready to entrust you with their renovation needs, thanks to the help of an old friend. Tom shares knowledge of the area with you and helps you get your name out there. You begin your journey by receiving emails from new clients, with each request different from the last.
The first handful of requests almost serve as a tutorial. Whereby each job teaches you how to use a tool. Once the basics have been taught, you will move onto jobs with multiple tasks to complete, involving all that you have learnt. Gradually as you progress, further areas will unlock. These are areas such as Crayfish Coast, Suburban Pinnacore and finally Coralroot Forest.
When completing the tasks, your performance will be judged on a star system. The star system ranges from 1 star to 3 stars. If you complete everything that the client asks for, you will be rewarded handsomely. Throughout the job, you can check the progress of the quests. This will be through selling and buying furniture and cleaning.
f you complete all the quests, then, of course, you will be rewarded 3 stars. By completing the job to the best of your ability, you will collect the most amount of profit. Throughout the progression of the story, you will also unlock the ability to have clients who demand more. By completing these bigger jobs, you will earn more bang for your buck.
Completely jobs for clients are just one part of the game. Throughout the progression of the story, the ability to buy houses to flip is unlocked. The best way to describe this part of the story is that you become both sides of the popular TV show Property Brothers. You will find a house, which is in a poor state, before renovating it into a dream home. Of course, this is an investment. And you will lose plenty of money before you see the benefits. But, it allows you to show your creative side without the restrictions that are typically given by your clients.
With how much House Flipper 2 offers, you will soon become a master in house renovations. As you continue to paint, clean, and hoover, you will level your skills. This in turn unlocks perks, which makes it easier to complete your tasks, therefore completing the jobs quicker.
An improvement to the core of House Flipper
One of my loves of House Flipper 2 is that it takes the best parts of House Flipper 1 and improves them to another level. A clear example of this is the mechanics of the tools. In House Flipper 1, you would be able to paint one panel at a time and would press down on the panel until you applied enough paint. Now, in House Flipper 2 you can set a painting border and can move in the box in a more seamless action.
Essentially, the House Flipper team have improved the mechanics of each tool to make it more seamless. Completing these tasks never feels overwhelming or exhausting, just cosy. I’ve always found with games such as this that you can get lost, forgetting about what is going on in your everyday life.
Like with every game, there are of course improvements that could be made to make your enjoyment last longer. A prime example of this is that there is no way to “delete”. With placing tiles, a box appears, with up to 6 tiles being placed at once. The issue is, that a slight movement of your Joycon stick could lead to you placing a tile outside of the area, and thus placing it over your wallpaper for example.
There is no way to delete that single tile, and you have to instead reapply to wallpaper. It is such a small mechanism of the game, however, if it was added, it would remove my frustration when I accidentally move my Joycon.
Another addition which would greatly improve the game is if we had more of a variety of houses to renovate. At the moment, there is a smaller selection when we compare it to the original game. However, although it is easy to compare, we should probably not in these circumstances. House Flipper had continuous work completed, which included a vast amount of DLC and new objects such as furniture.
House Flipper 2 is at the start of its cycle, and when we compare it to the original we can see how much it has. It is only getting started, and I believe we will see the same level of houses, furniture, etc in due course.
One thing I do hope they bring back is the use of the mini-map to see where the “dirt” is within a lot. The mini-map has been replaced with the “seeing eye”, which makes it hard to see where the little specs of dirt are. I hope this is a change they make, just purely for my sanity.
Graphics & Audio
One of my favourite things about House Flipper 2 is the audio. As I have said previously, you often find yourself getting lost in the game. The soundtrack used gives a calming but charming feel to the game. Cleaning, tilling or vacuuming, you will have a cosy soundtrack to add to the mood.
Although the acquisition of jobs is through emails like the original House Flipper, there is also the addition of phone calls from your clients. If you decide to accept the phone call, a short conversation can be had with your client who explains the job. The reason I am talking about the phone calls is because of their rigidness. The voices sound AI-generated and do not always fit in the way that they should. However, I would like to praise Frozen District for their inclusivity, as it was refreshing to see a client with Vitiligo.
Lastly, I’ve always enjoyed the cartoon style the series presents. It does not need to be realistic to reach its intended goal.
Longevity
With games such as House Flipper the creativity is endless. Although there is a small number of houses when in comparison to the original House Flipper, using your creativity prolongs the longevity of the game. House Flipper gives you the foundations, but what you do with it is what counts. It’s not a game that you can easily get bored with.
Although, the addition of Sandbox Mode helps to shake it up. Sandbox mode allows you to build houses from scratch, without the worry of money. A new range of tools is afforded, which allows you to speedily place down walls and roofs. One of the best parts of this mode is the fact you can create houses in a run-down state, that those all over the world can then fix up.
You can create quests, add stains and destruction throughout your design, and upload them for other players to renovate. I think this a brilliant addition to the game. And it means that there will always be new content for players to explore and fix.
Final Thoughts
The best way to describe House Flipper 2 is that it is the older sibling of House Flipper. The grown-up version, but is still familiar. But there is plenty of room to grow and develop. It’s not often I say this, but I genuinely believe that this game is worth its money. Frozen District has taken the well-loved mechanics from the first game and has improved them.
Although House Flipper 2 is not at the level of its predecessor in terms of furniture, objects, houses, etc.. the game will just keep improving, and I am genuinely excited to see how it improves. It is with all this in mind, that I will be awarding House Flipper 2 with the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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