House Flipper 2 Review (tryxrabbyt)
First, I wish I could give this a neutral review, there are things I like but then things I absolutely hate. So it tips the scale to stand on the do not recommend for the moment. After about 15 hours these are my opinions;
Positives:
● I like the way the game looks, I think the stylized graphics are fine.
● Trash pickup is more involved and feels realistic, which I love.
● Build challenges for different types of item are fun imo, again, it adds to the realism.
● Voice acting is great, I feel more part of the story which is lovely.
● Destruction/Construction is MUCH better, being able to make half walls and such is a HUGE boon. I love it.
● The furniture being able to be colored almost however you'd like was MUCH needed. huge improvements there!
Negative (there's quite a bit):
● Why did we replace the mini-map with this builder sense..? It's abysmal.
● No master quest list. You're expected to waltz through every room mashing your menu to find what you've missed
● No curtains, wall to wall carpets, slanted walls, arched doorways, and a TON of other things left out from HF1. why go backwards? It feels like a prequel comparatively.
● Gardening has been removed completely. now its just "put an object down". Feels very sims-like. not a fan
● As mentioned above with just placing objects, no more installing components like heat, plumbing, or electrical. Half of the fun was feeling like you're truly building/renovating a home.
● No workshop? I know the IO is meant to house a lot of that stuff but it seems to be more-so for maps and jobs rather than objects. the community really adds to these games, let them.
● Can't import pictures anymore, that's a true shame considering all the empty frames.
● The before and after wasn't something I realized I would miss. After finishing a job I'm finding myself feeling unsatisfied.
● The percentage of the job completed is necessary. I've had a "3 star completion" a few times. but it turns out that may be a HUD bug because it will then give me 2.99 stars because I missed the last pixel of one clean job in a room (shout out to builder's sense) and it rounds it down to 2 stars despite the 3 stars being fully lit. Just add what percentage of the job is finished. It makes sense..
● No mention of HOW to raise price when flipping a house. Potential buyers no longer tell you what they even want? We're left to guess what is good or bad. That's unbelievable. How are you going to slouch on house flipping when that's the NAME of the GAME? for real?
Final Thoughts
All in all it feels like a general downgrade from HF1. Some things were improved but at the cost of so many good features being canned. It's hard to tell if the devs left these things out because of a change in vision or as a way to squeeze more money out of the community by selling things that should have been in this game though DLC in the future. One would assume the devs would have put all they learned over the lifespan of HF1 into this game to start and sold dlc of things they hadn't thought of, like they did with the first one. You've already learned what the community wants, why leave it out? It makes the overall experience feel like most of the early access games I play. But atleast those are 5-20 dollars. Not 40.
For the time being i'm going to say it's not worth it and spend my time elsewhere, which is SO unfortunate. I've been keeping up with the discord and updates since it was announced. I was as excited for this as I possibly could have been. I guess I'll wait another year or so and hope the devs update it to add these things, sadly it's in vogue to charge 200 dollars for a complete game by adding necessary features as paid dlc months down the line so i'm expecting that. Let's see.