PC Gamer

House Flipper tasks you with
renovating houses. There’s contract
work for other people – cleaning up
after messy students or putting up a
wall to convert a big bedroom into a
small bedroom and a bathroom. But
the game is named for
the fact you can use the
money you earn to buy
property, do it up and
then sell it for a profit.
It’s one of those
games where a review
feels like an irrelevance.
That’s partly because
digital tidying-up and
home decor fans are underserved on
PC outside casual browser game sites.
We h ave Viscera Cleanup Detail for
post-disaster multiplayer scrubbing,
we have Home Improvisation for
hellish furniture assembly and we
have The Sims’ build mode for home
design. Thus House Flipper has no
real competition.
The other part is that House

T

he cockroaches have been hoovered up, the bathroom is
covered in hot pink paint and teal-coloured tiles, and the
brown-stained couch has been evicted in favour of a corner
sofa. This House Flipper house is now perfect for resale. Well,
I assume it is. My understanding of the property market is
entirely based on old episodes of Changing Rooms and Location, Location,
Location and not, e.g. owning property.

Flipper has the novelty value that

comes with being an oddity making it

attractive to streamers. There are also

decor options which hint at bidders

with a doomsday prepper storyline

and others with names like Dolan

Trusk. These touches

make House Flipper

feel really focused on

courting a streaming

audience and offering

them obvious gags.

But for those of you

who are genuinely

curious for a review, it’s

one of those releases

which still feels like it’s in early

access. Here is a short list off the top

of my head to illustrate:

There’s a lack of furniture and

what’s there is often dated and ugly.

Crucial information feels hidden (why

can’t I view a request email while

doing the request?). Rooms look

dingy even after renovation. Client

emails need an edit pass. Repetitive

actions irritate rather than soothe.

You can’t improve the garden. Some

spots of dirt bugged and were

impossible to clean. Fitting

appliances is just boring clicking.

HARD SELL

The way the game clues you into

how your potential buyers feel about

the house is also clunky. You have to

watch for their reactions on the side

of the screen while you work. They

also give some baffling critiques. For

example, two bidders complained a

house had two bedrooms and they

only wanted one, but there was only

one room with a bed in it. The other

small room was furnished as a study.

It’s not a bad game, it’s just utterly

average and coasts on its appeal as a

quirky project. As someone who

loves a bit of digital tidying, I hope

either its developers continue to

work on the game or its success

brings other devs into the space to

create more interesting or

aesthetically pleasing options.

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

Buying, renovating and

selling houses.

EXPECT TO PAY

£15.50

DEVELOPER

Empyrean

PUBLISHER

PlayWay SA, Frozen

District

REVIEWED ON

Core i7-5820k,16GB

RAM, GTX 970,

Windows 10

MULTIPLAYER

None

LINK

http://www.houseflipper

game.com

50

It’s a middling game

which seems more

geared to streamers

seeking novelty than

digital cleaning fans.

VERDICT

FLIPPING DULL

HOUSE FLIPPER has plenty of room for improvement. By Philippa Warr

It’s one of

those releases

which still feels

like it’s in

early access

Cockroaches can survive an

apocalypse, but not a hoover.

This half-demolished

wall was deemed fine.

Waggling my mop at the room

to find a spot I’ve missed.