Developer: Frozen Way SA
Publisher: Frozen Way SA, Frozen District
Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PS5
House Flipper Remastered Collection – Review
We do love a good simulation title now and then, and we have already quite a bit of experience with both realistic and silly sim games. We absolutely loved cleaning everything in PowerWash Simulator or mowing the lawn in Lawn Mowing Simulator, but we secretly also enjoyed wreaking havoc in Goat Simulator. That being said, House Flipper had been on our list for ages, but we sadly never got round to it. Even the sequel sadly passed us by. Luckily, Frozen Way SA and Frozen District were nice enough to send us a review copy of House Flipper Remastered Collection, giving us no excuse to postpone diving into the House Flipper series.
Story
While you could say there technically is a very small and generic storyline in House Flipper Remastered Collection where you start your own renovation business to patch up houses and sell them, the narrative value is extremely low. We would just call it a typical career mode with some flavor text for the different assignments. Even so, it’s still nice to have something that ties everything together, so we appreciate the effort.
Graphics
Graphically, House Flipper Remastered Collection is a good-looking game. There is a lot of asset variety, making the different properties all end up looking unique, and it’s clear that the developers poured a lot of love into this title. Obviously, not everything looks perfect, and there are still quite a lot of simple textures visible and some low-quality assets as well. Even so, we absolutely loved going from property to property to see how it originally looked and what we turned it into. In terms of performance, we didn’t encounter any issues at all, even when fully decorating the different properties.
Sound
All in all, the sound design of House Flipper Remastered Collection is fairly decent. The developers also decided to up their game for this definitive version of the game by adding voice acting. We found this a very nice touch, and it did make things a whole lot more immersive. Other than that, the OST isn’t too bad, and the SFX provide great audio feedback for all the different things you do around the locations.
Gameplay
House Flipper Remastered Collection is pretty much the definitive version of 2018’s House Flipper, offering improved mechanics and all DLC, along with the aforementioned voice acting and enhanced visuals. That being said, the game’s still the ‘same’ simulation title where you’ll have to fix up houses to eventually flip them for a profit. The goal is simple here: you go from one location to the next, and let your creativity run wild. You can opt to take things slow and gradually unlock all the game has to offer, or you can already start with everything unlocked from the get-go. We personally prefer gradually unlocking everything, as there’s a nice progression flow, making it satisfying when your skills gradually improve or when you’re able to tackle certain tasks more quickly.
Truth be told, the game is really straightforward. For every location, you basically get a checklist of things you need to do, and most of these items are almost always self-explanatory. The game also eases you into things when you’re playing through the ‘career’ mode. Some mechanics can take some time to get the hang of, as we did encounter a few issues with planting plants at the beginning, but this was quickly resolved when trying it out a few times. You’ll truly be tackling a lot of different things in the game, such as painting walls and ceilings, doing some garden work, rearranging the interior, breaking down walls, or even buying and selling new items for the house you wish to sell. It’s a well-rounded experience, and even if you have a very long list of tasks, there is absolutely no stress. There is no real time limit, and you’re kind of ‘free’ to do a lot of things the way you want to do them. This makes for a very enjoyable gameplay loop that will certainly help a lot of people relax after a busy day. Most levels don’t take too long to just finish the tasks you have to complete, but you can, of course, spend a longer time decorating everything the way you like it.
Conclusion
House Flipper Remastered Collection is a great way to delve into all the content of the original 2018 classic and its DLC with improved visuals, voice acting, and some updated gameplay mechanics. We really enjoyed the content on offer here, and will be revisiting the game from time to time to unwind after a busy day. The low-stress gameplay loop makes for a very accessible experience for both casual and more experienced simulator enthusiasts. While the price for this package is fairly steep, it’s still worth checking out if these types of games are your cup of tea.
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