Sam Leith Sam Leith

Entirely pointless and extremely pleasant: House Flipper 2 reviewed

An excellent example of a video game that provides a mildly absorbing repetitive task that whiles away the hour

issue 20 April 2024

Grade: B+

Most video games challenge the player’s problem-solving skills, reaction time or hand-eye co-ordination. But a handful of them offer satisfactions of a different sort: the gentlest of difficulty curves and the calming pleasure, instead, of a mildly absorbing repetitive task which whiles away the idle hour in the way you might pass it flicking through a set of worry beads or making a cat’s cradle with a ball of string.

The unexpected sleeper hit House Flipper (2018) was one such. It was boring, but in a good way. Its sleeker, prettier sequel has had the wisdom not to depart far from the formula. The premise is that you travel around a breezy seaside town sprucing up properties for profit.

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