House Flipper Remastered Collection by developer Frozen Way and publisher Frozen District and Frozen Way—PC review written by Jim with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated
Reading Time: 6 minutes.
I
enjoy simulation-type games, and I enjoyed the original release of
House Flipper, but I never got around to getting the DLC. When the
remastered version of the game was released, I figured it would be
the best way to experience the DLC while checking out how the base
game was upgraded. This might be a good chance for new players to
feel excited about exploring the game.
House Flipper is a
house renovation game where you take on jobs ranging from cleaning to
building new rooms and more. Since it comes with the DLC from the
original game, you will get a lot of jobs to unlock. You will pick
jobs from your laptop, then pick a city; each area seems to represent
one of the DLCs. North Levyville, for example, has all the levels
from the original release, while South Levyville seems to be just the
garden jobs. Some jobs involve renovating a house to be pet-friendly,
and jobs in farming, like fixing a barn for a cow. In total, there
are over 100 jobs to take on, ranging from small, short ones like
painting a room or picking all the weeds from a yard to huge lots
that need to be completely redone.
Some jobs give you a budget you have to stay within, and some jobs have options where they will let you decide between a few different options, like what style they should pick or what kind of room to make. One of the options in one of the first jobs I took was to decide whether to keep a storage room or turn it into a sauna. It's nice to think you are helping the owner decide what to do.
As a house-flipping game, you can buy houses to renovate and sell once you earn enough money. But the game also offers options like renting properties, starting a farm, growing crops, raising animals, opening a cafe, or entering garden competitions, providing a variety of activities to explore.
One thing that surprised me was that, in one of the jobs, you find a puppy and can choose to take it home and raise it. As an animal lover in real life, I couldn't say no and ended up taking it home to my office. You will have to feed it, give it water, and bathe it. You can also play tug of war, feed it treats, and pet it! It is also cool to see it grow over time. My puppy was no longer a puppy after a while in-game! Puppies are not the only animals in the game; there are a large number of pets like rabbits, lizards, cats, and farm animals!
One of the new things I noticed is that the game
is now voiced. When you select a job, a character will tell you a
little about what they want done and why. The voice acting isn't
really that great, but then again, it doesn't have to be that great
in this type of game. I had one issue where a few of the jobs never
played the opening with the voice acting and loaded me inside a
building I wasn't supposed to be in, and I had to restart the level
where the voice acting never loaded again, but at least it loaded me
in the right place. Another issue I have that seems to be a glitch is
that you can use a top-down view to help with building and laying
furniture, but a few times I had it open, it wouldn't show anything I
placed, or where I was placing new things I was trying to buy. One
last issue I had was placing wall tiles: you sometimes placed them on
a wall in another room. An update that just came out claimed to fix
this, but it still happened in my game after the
update.
Graphically, the game looks about the same as the
original game, at least to me, and that's at max settings. However,
they added more movement in the background, like butterflies, birds,
and cars driving down the road now and then. There are some graphic
hiccups and stuttering, even on lower settings, and almost every
job-opening video freezes for a second or two. The music and sound
effects seem to be the same as the original release. One strange
sound effect, though, was when I lit a candle; it sounded like a
light switch. I think the sound of a flame would be a better fit.
I
really like taking on jobs more than flipping houses, and after over
15 hours in the game, I still have plenty of jobs left. There is a
lot to see in House Flipper Remastered Collection, which might be a
little overwhelming for new players. Some of the tutorials are not
really good, or some parts, like laying down a floor plan for a new
building, had none at all, and I had to figure it out myself. It took
me maybe 5-10 minutes, but I did figure it out. Just like the
original, you will level up as you perform actions, and you can spend
a skill point to make it easier to do things like building, cleaning,
farming, cooking, and so on.
Overall, I think if you own
the original and the DLC, it is not worth the price, but if you only
own the base game or don't own it at all, then it's worth buying as
it's a nice cozy game that I have enjoyed a lot, and there is enough
here to keep you busy for hours! It's not a perfect remaster, but the
game is still getting updated a lot, so the devs seem to be listening
to feedback and fixing the issues people are having. I do think it
needed a little more time in development, as some of these issues
should have been fixed before release, or it should have been
released in early access. Aside from the issues, I do enjoy the game
and find it relaxing to play!
Score: 7 / 10
