Bite Sized Reviews: House Flipper 2
Happy New Year!
Damn, my New Year’s Eve was uneventful. By that, I mean that I just ate lots, and played some Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur’s Gate 3. Two awesome games, but now we’re in 2024! That means a new year and new plans.
I’m going to be slow on content creation for several weeks as I recover from December’s deluge. However, House Flipper 2 came out last month, and I wanted to spend some time with it. The original House Flipper was an enormous success, first launching in 2018, and providing players with years of content updates, patches, and substantial DLC packs. Honestly, I was surprised when I learned that the developers were creating a sequel. The first House Flipper was already damn good, and one of those cosy, addictive games that keeps people invested for hours on end. I blame House Flipper 1 and Disney Dreamlight Valley for leaving me as a coffee-addicted Christmas gremlin, hunched over my laptop or Steam Deck gaming away. Seriously, if you haven’t played either, give them a go. Both are lovely games.
So if the original House Flipper was such a success, why make a sequel? This isn’t a criticism of the second game by any means, as House Flipper 2 offers an improved experience overall. I’m just confused. For many returning players, House Flipper 2 might feel like a downgrade of sorts? This is a dilemma with many sequels, especially with the previous game has the benefit of years of support. Slime Rancher 2 from 2022 was a similar case. While it is a great early-access title with lovely graphics and the charm that made me love the original so much, it almost feels like a reset. Kerbal Space Program 2 is another example — launching in early 2023 as a deeply compromised sequel with poor performance and lacking content from the first, highly established Kerbal 1.
House Flipper 2 is by no means bad. It’s a solid game in its own right bringing many quality-of-life features like an improved interface, better performance, nicer graphics and a much improved cleaning mechanic. When I’m going through houses in House Flipper 2 and getting them ready for my contracts, it doesn’t feel like I’m fighting the great control boss fight of boredom. Overall it feels nicer to play than the first House Flipper did. I’m also a fan of the progression — it feels like a narrative now. Kicking off by returning to the childhood home after your parents move away, you’re torn between carrying out refurb contracts for clients while renovating your family home to whatever you desire. I enjoyed the personal aspect of that.
I think the concern people have is the content. This is something I understand. After years of patches, content and DLC for the original House Flipper that makes it incredible to this day, coming into a sequel with less content feels jarring. While House Flipper 2 provides some enjoyable contracts and a Sandbox mode to dig into, it feels like something is missing. However, I’m confident that Frozen District will add to this. True, the story mode will only require a handful of hours to complete, this is more of a live service, ongoing sandbox game for people than one with a dedicated narrative.
While I think House Flipper 2 has an incredibly bright future, I’m unsure how much it really offers for returning players in its present state. For people new to House Flipper and don’t want to fork out the original with DLC, the sequel will provide those players with a reasonably polished experience. It feels more tailored for new fans right now. If you’ve already played the first House Flipper, I would recommend waiting for a few more content updates before diving in.