House Flipper 2 is an absolute dream (home)

polygon.com:

It’s notable to see a smaller game given the time to grow into something special. When Empyrean’s House Flipper arrived in 2018, it felt less like a house flipping game than a bare-bones cleaning sim. While big updates and DLC added more and more to do over the years, it was an experience broken into chunks. By contrast, House Flipper 2, which arrived earlier in December, is a fully cohesive game straight out of the box.

While the first game dabbled with voice acting or dialogue choices, House Flipper 2 uses narrative elements to full effect in order to immerse the player. You play as a returning resident of Pinnacove, a tiny seaside community that has seen better days. With the help of an old friend named Tom Marino (who calls via your smartphone), you set out to become a full-fledged house flipper, getting your name out there with the townsfolk by cleaning, unpacking, and renovating the houses and businesses around the cove. All of these jobs, emailed to your in-game laptop from town residents, are what help you learn all of the tools and menus the game has to offer. After you have a handful of jobs under your belt, you unlock the ability to fully renovate and sell houses (which is a returning feature from the first game), hoping to lure some of the picky homebuyers from the area by catering to their needs. (It’s no House Hunters, but it’s close!)

While similar to the original House Flipper, Empyrean has expanded the gameplay of the sequel with tons of great quality-of-life changes that make using the tools easier and more integrated within the user interface. First previewed in the original game’s final DLC, House Flipper 2’s hero feature is the Sandbox Mode that gives ambitious flippers a full suite of creation tools