It’s notable to see a smaller sport given the time to develop into one thing particular. When Empyrean’s Home Flipper arrived in 2018, it felt much less like a home flipping sport than a bare-bones cleansing sim. Whereas huge updates and DLC added increasingly more to do through the years, it was an expertise damaged into chunks. In contrast, Home Flipper 2, which arrived earlier in December, is a completely cohesive sport straight out of the field.
Whereas the primary sport dabbled with voice appearing or dialogue decisions, Home Flipper 2 makes use of narrative components to full impact with a view to immerse the participant. You play as a returning resident of Pinnacove, a tiny seaside neighborhood that has seen higher days. With the assistance of an previous good friend named Tom Marino (who calls through your smartphone), you got down to turn into a full-fledged home flipper, getting your identify on the market with the townsfolk by cleansing, unpacking, and renovating the homes and companies across the cove. All of those jobs, emailed to your in-game laptop computer from city residents, are what allow you to be taught all the instruments and menus the sport has to supply. After you might have a handful of jobs beneath your belt, you unlock the power to totally renovate and promote homes (which is a returning function from the primary sport), hoping to lure a few of the choosy homebuyers from the realm by catering to their wants. (It’s no Home Hunters, nevertheless it’s shut!)
Whereas much like the unique Home Flipper, Empyrean has expanded the gameplay of the sequel with tons of nice quality-of-life modifications that make utilizing the instruments simpler and extra built-in throughout the consumer interface. First previewed within the original game’s final DLC, Home Flipper 2’s hero function is the Sandbox Mode that offers bold flippers a full suite of creation instruments with a view to construct a home from the bottom up. The mode even permits gamers full artistic freedom to design their very own quests for his or her customized homes, all of which may then be shared on the House Flipper 2 mod.io website.
![A room filled with anime posters and a computer desk in House Flipper 2](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fw0PE01zOWh0Pj4hzEBfsR9NoBk=/0x0:1920x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1920x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25182029/20231214204545_1.jpg)
![The exterior of a crab shack in House Flipper 2](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0Ol1_gfewOlCm3hm0YEgD6mcXig=/0x0:1920x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1920x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25182030/20231216134559_1.jpg)
![A nice yellow living room with blue couch in House Flipper 2](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WSaz5pXMyikf0-gQHgckA8eLebY=/0x0:1920x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1920x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25182032/20231217125311_1.jpg)
![spraying the floor with water in House Flipper 2](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5_6OdmLVGBdXz9sSUVjU0BS1M3A=/0x0:1920x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1920x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25182034/20231217162114_1.jpg)
Pictures: Frozen District, Empyrean/PlayWay through Polygon
You don’t have to have performed Home Flipper in any respect with a view to get into Home Flipper 2. If you’re somebody who likes Unpacking, Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ Joyful Dwelling Paradise DLC, or are simply an HGTV fanatic, this sport gives plenty of bang to your buck, permitting you to point out off your creativity in a low-stress means. Even when you wrestle with the concept of inside design, the sport permits you to do as little or as a lot experimentation as you need, even offering instructed coloration swatches for job quests or premade palettes for customizable furnishings items. You might be by no means judged in your design abilities, and as an alternative are simply requested to assist out different residents with their properties.
I’m a die-hard Home Flipper fan and have discovered its sequel to be a really charismatic and compelling replace to the franchise moderately than a rehash of the unique. However getting used to such huge modifications has been slightly little bit of an adjustment; whereas the depth of customization is big, long-term gamers would possibly discover the scale of the particular catalog up to now to be fairly restricted. That is moreover compounded by the truth that Home Flipper 2 doesn’t mean you can use customized content material from different customers but. I want extra rugs! I can’t reside with out my stunning rugs!
Regardless of having an enhanced set of instruments, I nonetheless discovered myself scuffling with designing and adorning in sure methods. The largest downside I had was with how objects work together with one another; shifting objects as a set is typically persnickety, and placing objects within different objects is sort of unimaginable. It will be nice if I may have a bowl filled with hand-picked fruit in a kitchen, or perhaps even individually choose objects to maneuver as a unit with out them being set on a floor. Nevertheless, a lot of this appears to be useful resource limitations of a smaller improvement group, and can hopefully be added sooner or later.
Whereas I encountered just a few bugs and slightly little bit of jankiness as I made my means by the sport, I take into account it to be an appropriate trade-off relating to being so engaged and delighted by one thing I waited so lengthy to play. Empyrean has earned my loyalty previously with tons of community-driven enhancements and DLC that expands the bottom sport in a really compelling means. I’ve little question in my thoughts that that is yet one more sport that the event group will quietly construct upon for years to return, making certain that I’ll all the time return to Pinnacove.
Home Flipper 2 was launched Dec. 14 on PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Sequence X. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media might earn commissions for merchandise bought through affiliate hyperlinks. You could find extra details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.