House Flipper 2 Review (sjc7812)
With almost 600 hours into HF1, I have been super-excited to see the shiny new version of the game. There are some great quality of life upgrades – the ability to duplicate items, clone designs, etc. I also really like that there’s a storyline of sorts, it gives the game more personality.
So I was absolutely devastated to realize that accessibility seems to have been completely forgotten. Every single mechanic in the game requires sustained mouse button holding, with no alternate configuration options available. This was an issue for me in HF1 as well, but not nearly as bad – the long press on the mouse button was largely in short bursts, aimed at one spot.
In HF2, when painting, applying certain wall or floor coverings, etc, you’re guiding the mouse – while holding the button down – to color in large areas in small blocks at a time, rather than a whole section (or floor-to-ceiling strip) like the last game. This combination of hold + move is a MASSIVE problem to anyone with carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis, or other nerve conditions. I spent about 10 mins playing around with the painting tool, stupidly hoping that adjusting mouse sensitivity might help, and now my right arm is on fire.
Naturally, it took me just over the allowed ‘refund’ time to discover how bad the controls are, and TBH I would hate to refund anyway, the devs generally seem like decent sorts and (aside from certain mechanics), it’s really enjoyable. However, in its current state, House Flipper 2 is literally painful for me to play. It would be great to see similar option to Power Wash Simulator, which has a ‘toggle on/off’ option for the sprayer – without it, that game would be unplayable as well for people with disabilities, injuries, etc. Or even just an option to select a complexity or difficulty level for various mechanics.