Review | House Flipper

Originally published at: Review | House Flipper - XboxEra

House Flipper was originally released on Xbox in February of 2020. I picked it up after having fun with it on PC and it became a go-to podcast game for a very long time. Seemingly out of nowhere this house cleaning and repair very light simulator game shadow dropped into Xbox Game Pass on both console & PC. This game is far more fun and relaxing than it has any right to be, so let’s get into it.

Paint, clean it’s all in the mind!

Things start out with you visiting your luxurious home office. After some light dusting, you’ll start taking jobs and slowly unlocking each of the game’s various tools. Mops, paint brushes, shovels, and more are on hand to help you fight off roaches, clean the floors till they’re sparkling clean and paint the walls to your heart’s content. Things are set progression-wise so you’ll want to play through the game’s “campaign” to get each tool unlocked as you earn enough money to get to the real fun. Buying a house and rebuilding it entirely to either try and entice the highest bids or just make your dream estate. That’s the main gist of this zen game that is played entirely from the 1st person perspective.

Graphically things are rather simple but the options on hand are pretty darned forward-thinking. You get to choose from three resolution settings, can turn off the FPS limit to get a silky smooth 60fps on Series consoles, and even up the FOV to 90. When this originally came out I played it on a One X and the 1440p option was great, with the power of a Series X 1800p looks clean and felt steady at 60fps. Another highlight of the game is the music is understated enough to never get in the way while still being memorable in its own way.

The Good, the bad, and the funny

Controls-wise it’s hit and miss on controller. The movement in-game is fine enough but the tablet UI can be rough. Whether it’s trying to use its circle cursor to choose what you want or having to type out items to find them as your available list grows it is a far better experience with a mouse and keyboard on PC. With all that said though it’s still worth it , put a podcast or something fun on the TV and do all the cleaning and house decoration we all wish we could avoid or afford in real life.

Over the years they’ve added a lot to the overall package including some hilarious home locations ripped out of anime and science fiction. There is a level of light humor throughout the game that helps keep a funny tone without ever being “too much”. Everything is done with the left and right triggers, LT for tool selection, and RT for using said tools. View brings up your tablet UI which you’ll mainly use for buying items to decorate homes or use your perk points. Each function of the game has a Skyrim-style leveling-up system with a series of perks you can choose from like needing less paint to get a wall panel done, or cleaning 25% faster. After a few hours of playing the cleaning power-creep feels awesome and you can fly through cleaning a home in a quarter of the time that you used to.

In Conclusion

House Flipper is really fun and it’s a great addition to Game Pass. It’s an Xbox Play anywhere title and available on both console and PC. The UI works best on the latter but the game is still a hell of a relaxing time on the former. Grab your bucket and mop, start vacuuming up every roach you can see, and you’ll be building the home of your dreams in no time.

Reviewed on Xbox Series X
Available on Android, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Classic Mac OS
Release date February 26th, 2020 on Xbox (June 29th, 2022 on Game Pass)
Developer Frozen District
Publisher Frozen District
Rated E for Everyone

8 Likes

Great Review!

However as someone who has been renovating their first home for the past 8 months, I’m afraid that my entire life will be painting and chopping out walls if I begin this.

I hope you can trip over cables on the floor and stand on screws, just to make it extra authentic.

4 Likes

I feel this post so so much. :sweat_smile:

2 Likes

Buy an older house, they said They don’t build them like they used to, they said.

There’s a reason for that.

“I can’t wait till I’m finished redecorating everything”, the lie everyone tells themselves

I just had my last room plastered. It’s been a journey.

1 Like

That is looking so good!

We’re doing the same on ours

Recent has been one of the bedrooms.

Expectation: Oh there’s a bit of damp in the corner, I’ll get that chopped out, sealed, replastered and then get the room painted.

1 hour later

Basically took all the plaster off two of the walls and got it replastered.

1 Like