House Flipper 2

good

I bought this game quite some time ago when it was on sale for the first time, because I loved the first part so much. I didn't play it right away though, as some reviews said the first one was still richer in content at that point and that the new release lacked optimization - and I don't currently own a very strong machine. And then I forgot about it, obviously. Now I have remembered it, and finally tried it. At first, I had trouble starting the game, it would always freeze on the first loading screen and just crash. Once I got it running, however, it ran surprisingly well on my laptop on medium to high settings. No frame drops, no broken lighting, fluid movements, and it looks really nice. For me it runs a lot more smoothly than the first part. After completing the first few jobs, I was a bit confused when I thought the tools were lacking some quality-of-life features that were present in the previous version, until I discovered I had to unlock those first. Putting these kinds of features behind achievement walls felt like an odd choice, because you'd expect that they would want players to use tools comfortably from the start. But I have to admit, it was actually quite charming because it felt like my character was really mastering the tools step by step. Things became faster and easier. And unlocking these perks isn't hard, you just have to use the tools for a while. It made me excited to return to my own house after every job because there would probably be some new way to work on improving it. The variety of items is fine. It's a bit hard for me to judge because I had several DLCs for the first game (which means I had a lot of additional furniture), but I usually find stuff for every kind of style I want to realize. I think they did a really good job with the surface selection. There's so many ways to freely use these on all kinds of walls, floors, and items. Some of them are fixed textured, while others can have an individual color or tint. And in combination with all the different pattern options, you just have a great system for designing whatever you have in mind. I also like how you can now put together your own potted plants! I do think the glass selection could use a bit of improvement, because it feels lacking in comparison to the other texture options. For example, I'd love to set up smoky and milky glass in other tints than the default ones, and I'd like to put one-way glass on other kinds of windows than the two or three windows that feature them. Also, it's a bit strange that the default glass is always tinted, even if the black color is basically just transparent glass. Took me a bit to understand that there's no single option for 'just normal glass pls.' So, all in all, I played several jobs, and I played a lot in sandbox mode, and I rarely ran into any limitations for what I wanted to create. I hope they add some more variety for base shapes like pillars and stuff, but otherwise I'm really happy with House Flipper 2. I will probably go for a few DLCs as well, although I think those are always a bit pricey for a few additional items and jobs.