If you enjoyed the original House Flipper and are looking to do more redecorating, you’re in for a treat. House Flipper 2 is finally among us and keeps some of the original game’s favorite mechanics intact while also having its own unique additions. Let’s dive in to see how the sequel shapes up, so you can see if this is a house worth redecorating or if it’s better to continue living with your mom.

Starting with the story, indeed there is one. We are a broke cleaner and up-and-coming house flipper, hailing from the small town of Pinnacove. With the help of an old childhood friend, we managed to get some jobs cleaning nearby houses. At first, the focus is strictly on cleaning them up and removing the stink of old people who died there. Later, step-by-step, you unlock more features: redecorating, painting, fixing electricals, and even demolishing and replacing walls and doors. Just be careful not to disturb the Indian burial ground.

The story functions as an indicator of what to do next, thus do not expect dramatic twists and turns. Ok, no one was expecting them anyway. But the narrative also provides tutorials for each new mechanic you unlock. There isn’t much of it in terms of depth of characters or narration, but it’s enough to keep you going from one house to the next while unlocking new tasks.

As for the tasks themselves, House Flipper 2 manages to maintain the fun side of those while mostly skipping the boring parts. For instance, cleaning is easy and focuses more on the satisfaction of seeing everything squeaky neat and smelling of lemon afterwards. It’s not really about searching every nook and cranny of the house to find that one missing popcorn hiding under the sofa, rather it’s about cleaning everything quickly and efficiently without worrying about small details.

After cleaning, we get to redecorating the house and making it look attractive, as much as an isolated suburban home can be. Which is, probably not much, we’d guess. During the first few hours, the story mode focuses on introducing these tasks by assigning other people’s homes to bring back up to shape. Shortly after, we finally get the chance to purchase any home we desire (as long as we have the moolah) to clean and redecorate, with the ultimate goal of bringing it to market and resell it. The more efficient we are at redecorating, the more money we’ll get per house auctioned.

Additionally, the game includes a Sandbox mode. While it feels pretty empty at the time of writing this review (since there aren’t other players to compare builds), it will be a mode with endless possibilities one day. In Sandbox, you can build a house from scratch. If you’ve got a creative imagination and want to put to work all the skills gained during the story mode, the Sandbox mode is for you. Also, it’s a great way to show off your designs to your friends. In the old days, we used to compare something else, but I guess kids these days compare house sizes. Gen Z, am I right?

In terms of graphics, House Flipper 2 is simple, satisfying, and overall quite beautiful to look at. It doesn’t have a lot of details, since it’s just houses we are looking at, but everything looks highly pleasing, especially once the stink of the old dead tenants has been cleaned. No one wants that. As for performance, I managed to play smoothly without any FPS drops on high settings.

Audio-wise, the music is quite soothing. It’s the type of game you’ll play after a long, hard day, and the audio helps relax, especially while slowly painting a wall and cleaning stains. Ten hours of House Flipper 2 for sleep and relaxation coming up. Characters are voice-acted, and it helps to make the game feel more alive, especially since many of those jerks will call you while you’re cleaning their house to add some comments, extra requests, or simply for banter. Just tell them you’re on the toilet, in case.

So, if you enjoyed the original House Flipper and are looking for a relaxing game where you turn old, messy, and almost abandoned houses into modern luxury condos, House Flipper 2 is the perfect sequel for you. It doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel but just builds on the predecessors’ strengths. The gameplay progression is solid, and there’s a lot of depth – especially if you can’t wait to create your own designs. House Flipper 2 will keep you occupied for dozens and even hundreds of hours.

Even if you don’t want to focus on the creative part and prefer to take it slow and chill, you can keep following the story quests and complete assigned tasks that involve all kinds of functions. Overall, progression feels effortless and engaging at the same time. After sitting down to play, I didn’t realize that four hours had passed and my dog was trying to chew off my arm since I forgot to feed it. That’s how captivating House Flipper 2 can be.

Our House Flipper 2 review was made possible with a key provided by Frozen District. House Flipper 2 is currently available on Steam and will be released on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 on March 21, 2024.