You can see why the original House Flipper was such a hit. Its cozy fantasy of home ownership and fulfilling work was a soothing balm after a miserable day at the office, and that fantasy is only strengthened in this sequel. The basics remain the same: jobs appear in your email, from cleaning tasks to full-on home renovation, and you can use the profits to buy properties from the auction house, ready to be glowed up and flipped for a profit.
Accept a job and you’ll appear outside the house with your bag of tools. Bin bags to collect the rubbish, one measly cloth to wipe down the surfaces, a roller for painting, and so on. I haven’t played the previous game, but the interface for managing these tools seems neater and easier to grasp here. It’s no longer mimicking an in-game tablet, so menu icons are free to be a little more gamey: larger and more colorful, easier to identify at a glance.
Straddling simulation and more casual play—which is really the whole ethos behind House Flipper—these actions mimic real life, to an extent. When building a brick wall, you watch a lovely animation play, but all you’re doing is holding the mouse button down, as your character plucks bricks and mortar from thin air. Mostly, I’m happy with this middle ground—smashing walls down with the sledgehammer feels particularly satisfying—but I’d feel more connected to the work if I also had to clean up the rubble.