House Flipper 2 review: A flippin’ good time

House Flipper 2 completely flew under my radar, and I had not heard of the game until very recently. I will admit that it looked rather unappealing to me from the get-go, but I was pleasantly surprised that my concerns were unfounded after a few short hours into the game. This sequel does do a lot of things right, and the House Flipper 2 console release should help bolster its popularity even further.

While the gameplay is admittedly “simplistic,” much can be said about enjoying the simpler facets of life, and House Flipper 2 does fall into that niche. The game can be addictive and engaging, offering players a genuinely fun time during their playthroughs.

It does have a few issues, however, which unfortunately detract from the overall experience, which is quite unfortunate to see. Regardless, the game does remain quite enjoyable to play through.

House Flipper 2 review

Flipping houses is a fun experience that presents unique challenges of its own

Flipping houses can be quite fun (Image via Frozen District)

Make no mistake - flipping houses (a euphemism for renovating properties) can be quite a challenging affair - if you wish for it to be so.

House Flipper 2 features a laid-back approach towards its challenges, offering no major drawbacks to not being able to 100% these renovations. This is rather appreciated - after all, not every game needs to be sweaty in order to be fun.

For perfectionists such as myself, the sequel does offer a great deal of playtime and challenges, however. Micro-managing each individual decoration/accessory outside of simply cleaning up the place is quite fun, as you perfectly align each item into their requisite slots, thereby shaping the place to your design.

Your efforts will not go unnoticed, however, as doing these additional tasks rewards more “stars” which translates into a better rating (and more in-game currency). Overall, I did thoroughly enjoy the easy-going gameplay loop - even though it can get a bit repetitive sometimes.

The controls leave a lot to be desired

House Flipper 2 has a problem with controls (Image via Frozen District)

While the DualSense controls for the game are mostly adequate, you cannot help but notice that they feel a tad bit unoptimized. The game feels infinitely better to play with a keyboard and mouse (as demonstrated in the PC port that was released way back on 14 December 2023).

Simple tasks such as picking up trash and scrubbing floors require a fair bit of effort at first, which can be quite infuriating. Thankfully, you can unlock certain “skills” that ease up the process as you play through the 10-hour-long campaign.

It gets especially frustrating when you try to precisely position objects while you decorate the house. Placing items feels like an uphill battle, and a controller is absolutely not suited for fine-tuned placements at all.

So much so that I found myself randomly placing objects at times out of sheer annoyance.

The Skill system feels unnecessary

The Skill system feels largely unnecessary (Image via Frozen District)

There is a lot of stuff to do in House Flipper 2. I mean a lot. You can clean houses, repair them, paint, and craft to your heart’s desire.

The skills you unlock as you play through make the experience butter-smooth, but the progression feels kind of bland. The upgrade paths seem logical and are much appreciated, but I feel like they should have been unlocked to begin with, offering a proper sandbox-styled approach to the game.

Thankfully, this is a rather minor complaint as it is possible to very easily unlock these skills as you play through the Story mode.

While the visuals are basic they are perfectly adequate, especially in terms of performance

Visuals are simplistic, but that's not a bad thing (Image via Frozen District)

House Flipper 2 performs rather well on the PlayStation 5, and I was not able to observe any massive hitches or dips to the framerates. Frame times also felt consistent, with nothing out of the ordinary. This extended well into the stability of the title, and I am happy to report that there were rarely any bugs during my playthrough of both the Story and Sandbox modes offered.

The visuals can best be described as “basic”. While it will not awe players in search of the ultimate AAA visual experience, the game’s comfy art direction did a fine job of hiding any spectacular flaws or erroneous graphical mismatches.

In fact, the simplistic visuals do add a certain layer of charm to the overall gameplay.

The Sandbox Mode offers a great deal of customization and engaging gameplay

A look into the Sandbox mode of House Flipper 2 (Image via Frozen District)

Of particular focus is the Sandbox Mode, which is a huge departure from the usual house-flipping gameplay. Sandbox Mode lets you design and build a custom house of your own, with almost no restrictions.

Additionally, it also lets you create a series of jobs (of your own) that can be completed similarly to that of the Story Mode.

It's a particularly welcome addition to the base game and a truly transformative experience. While I did not approach the mode in its entirety, the sheer breadth of options on offer is quite nice to see. This mode should keep players engaged after they complete the admittedly short 10-hour-long campaign.

I am looking forward to what developer Frozen District is going to cook up if they plan on taking the DLC route (which, in my opinion, they should).

In conclusion

House Flipper 2 is a great simulation video game that lets you renovate (and build) your dream houses while offering a good deal of interactivity and control over the process. The game can be genuinely fun while not being overly taxing and is best enjoyed as a casual title.

It’s not perfect, however, and House Flipper 2 does have a few issues such as controls and a progression system that feels entirely unnecessary. As it stands, the game is rather short by extension of its campaign, and I do hope that Frozen District will add in new modes and general content to fill in the gaps of what is an overall charming game.