House Builder 2 by developer
FreeMind S.A. and publisher
PlayWay S.A.—PC(Steam) review written by
Susan N. with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
In January of 2024 FreeMind S.A. and PlayWay S.A. released the first House Builder game onto Steam. It is a building simulation game that had players interested in the trades without the huge cost of entering the profession and the requirement of a lot of permits. The game was successful enough that the developers released House Builder 2 into Early Access. To say that they may have jumped the gun is a massive understatement, much to my disappointment.
Unlike the first game that was well received, House Builder 2 is rather uninspired and downright frustrating at times - usually for incredibly dumb reasons. But before I dive into why I think the game needs a lot more time in the pan and instead it is about as cooked as blue steak, I should qualify some of my personal background that will shed a bit of light on my overall impressions.
Several years ago I was hired on as a helper to a subcontractor. This means that I was always on the job with my boss who taught me about the trade with every job we did. He was the one that worked directly for the company where I was hired by him. Though the company knew about us (the helpers) to their contractors, we were not working for the company. Anyways, the jobs we did were mostly new installations or minor repairs. Many of the jobs we did were storm door installs, shower doors, gazebos, toilets, and sinks. There were a couple of personal jobs we did which involved building a small and simple deck and a gazebo that we should have asked for more money based on all the complications. Thus, my hands on knowledge and understanding of contract work is limited to the above experience. Although, my entire life has been filled with professions that I was interested in like DIY jobs, house flipping, interior design, and architectural design. While I've never built a house from the bottom up, I've always taken an interest in the details about the single largest investment that people make in life.
With that out of the way, let's talk about House Builder 2.
Gameplay
I suppose the simple place to begin would be the job progression - because there isn't really a story progression. As one might expect, you get hired by a gentleman who lives directly across the street from you and your job is to build a new fence. In the grand scheme of things, this contract is incredibly simple and takes more time to buy the supplies at the local Fixtorama than it is to build the darn thing. Okay. Sure. You're a video game in early access so I'm not expecting a ton of realism regarding the fencing.
After you complete that job, you are directed to sleep at your home and then to proceed to the next job. Conveniently this second contract is next door to the fence that sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the other houses. Once you arrive there, you are thrust into building a small house. How exactly did we suddenly become an expert on building a house from a fence? I have no idea. We don't even apply for permits or deal with the city planners. Heck, I'd have been fine with a cute notification saying something like "permit acquired for 'x' property". Again, I tossed that part off to being a minor gripe about a simulation builder, but going from a fence to a house was off putting. We could have gone with a fence to a deck to a house addition into a full blown house, but alas that might have been a bit lofty. My bad.
You finally get to spread your wings and head to jobs that are further away. These jobs come to you through your telephone - not a cellphone which was an odd choice in my mind. Amazingly, the game provides you with direction. On the compass, you will see a handy green line leading you to the next contract. For the first few properties, you get this directional indicator but it is short lived. In fact, the longer you play, the less likely you get any direction at all which I'll talk about in more detail in the next section.
With every new job I became more agitated and bored with the state of House Builder 2 because after around five or six contracts you really get the sense of how lifeless the game is. You no longer need to buy supplies at the local Fixtorama because they're all provided which includes the tools needed. The actual house building itself is the easiest gameplay loop in the world. Simply point and click. Don't worry, the game will do the rest with a million staple guns or drills to fasten each piece of drywall. And while the game accounts for some amount of foundation, the real steps to building is a little more logical. You have to build the framework first, and then put the supports in, and finally erect the walls or the gables with a few good people or a crane. Again, while I'm not expecting a hit game, I feel like House Flipper, Powerwash Simulator, and Construction Builder to be much more in depth video games.
There is more about the gameplay that bothered me beyond belief. Aside from the absolute lack of plumbing, electrical work, and insulation, you eventually get to a point where you can invest in a new truck or a bigger house. The problem is that there is absolutely no way to buy a new vehicle or fix it up since there is no establishment to do so! And as for a bigger house, well there is only one that you can buy for a whopping $10k (I wish!). The place is beautiful but it's missing a crucial thing - a bed! You know, the thing that skips time to morning so that a job is easier to do? Yeah that. That is missing. What? I'm sorry but I spent my time in game working through the night which is interesting because you - supposedly a good contractor - don't seem to have a light! Who needs safety, am I right? *me flips desk*
Instead of a mechanic that can at least make your crappy truck look like it will survive the first sharp turn it hits, we get a furniture shop. I can't think of something I cared so little about as a person who has several issues of Architectural Digest in my possession. I just.. can't contain my utter lack of interest in an aspect that is completely unneeded in this particular game. This is House Builder not Interior Designer. Those are two separate professions with their own considerations and budgets. Instead of including the furniture shop, could we instead swap in a mechanic that lets us buy a new truck or at least fix up the dead beat junker that we have for the entirety of the game? Sure, we can steal a better looking vehicle but that isn't worth it either. Why? Because if you save the game and quit, the next time you load in, the vehicle has mysteriously vanished, but the supplies that were likely in the back are still at the location. On the ground. And that is assuming the game knew where you were when you logged out. If you spawned back at your first crappy home (not the new one you likely bought either), the game doesn't tell you which property you were working on. You know that handy path that lead you to your destination? Yeah, it never returns after the initial instance... I hope you remembered where you left your original truck and where the job was because otherwise, you're going to have an interesting time.
Graphics and UI
One could hope that something will make up for the frustrating gameplay, but aside from its simplistic low poly aesthetic, the graphics and UI don't add much to the overall experience. Again, while I wasn't expecting a spectacular game, I also wasn't expecting House Builder 2 to be so lifeless either.
As mentioned previously, House Builder 2 is a low poly game which is similar not only to its predecessor, but also to other games developed by FreeMind. Though there is a sort of charm that comes with this sort of graphics style, I felt no real draw to the art style after the gameplay dropped me from a proverbial roof. The people and vehicles are procedurally generated and lacked any real life because they followed a regimented path. Asides from some cute voicelines if you hit the people or crashed into another vehicle, they were like robots.
The islands were needlessly larger than expected. And I hated how little there was to do. In fact, the roads were sometimes steeper than the beat up hunk of crap that you drive could handle. Heck, even the nicer looking cars struggled with certain inclines. Even from the terrain design, the game feels like there was very little thought to any aspect it tried to include.
But a real kicker came from the UI itself. Let's start with the world map. It's useless. Not only does it NOT tell you where your current job is, but it is a static image that you can't rotate or zoom in on. For the first time ever, the rotating compass map in the top corner of the screen was more useful than the overhead map - and I generally find minimaps to be unhelpful.
You are able to hold up to five separate objects, which includes your tools. As one might expect, you have to have the right tool or the right material for the job you are doing. But considering the game is nothing more than a point and clicker, I'm almost surprised proper tool or material was even a consideration. Heck, the UI doesn't even let you choose the wall color before you start painting. The game has all of that figured out for you.
Another frustrating part of the UI is grabbing supplies. While it's a simple click and drag to the back of your truck, the orientation and placement is just inconsistent and bad. To boot, there are times where your materials will shift in weird ways because you don't even get to secure them to the vehicle nor because the game has any understanding of proper physics.
I. Can't. Even.
Pros and Cons
Sadly the cons will outweigh the pros in House Builder 2. What I can say is that I never fell through the world or managed to get stuck in an area that I couldn't get out of. Aside from that, the game was a nice time waster for a couple of hours but that's all it has to offer right now.
The cons are much more frequent with weird graphics and/or collision of both the vehicles and the people. Sometimes I'd see four car pile ups and a vehicle magically go flying for no reason at all. I watched as people walked into what were supposed to be solid objects. I gawked at the terrible interpretation of the construction profession and I'm definitely no expert in the field.
The map and the navigation features were non-existent. And after saving and quitting, I found that the game seemed to forget important things like houses that I had already built were still completed but magically had the supplies on the lawn as though it wasn't. Let's not forget the time where the paint seemed to perpetually fall off the wall even though the job was complete. And my favorite failing of the game came from one job where when the structure was complete, the scaffolding vanished, and dropped me on the ground below. No damage taken.
Final Thoughts
House Builder 2 is an uninspired and boring simulation game that pales in comparison to several games within the genre. It is lacking in so many ways that after six hours I'm fairly certain I 'completed' the game, but received no notification indicating such (even after updating where we were supposed to get some kind of achievement). There is little sense in building progression, realism, crucial construction considerations like safety and organization. At one point you can restore an old car or look for random tires and I can only question why those were included in the game.
Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this game to anyone at this stage. I think House Builder 2 needs a lot more work before I would even think of suggesting it to anyone.
Score: 5 out of 10
