House Builder Review

In a day and age where people are desperate for actual housing instead of dingy apartments or their parents’ place, House Builder - Build all over the world!… does not really care about that but lets you build a variety of different types of housing in unique locations all around the world. Developed by FreeMind S.A. and published by PlayWay S.A. You may know PlayWay as the co-publisher of House Flipper and House Flipper 2, but now, instead of unleashing your inner interior decorator, you'll be unleashing your inner caveman/lumberjack/whatever-the-current-task-requires in order to get the job done. You are a one-person construction crew who can build houses from the ground up with just tools and your two hands. From igloos and piles of cardboard to modern homes and gardens, it’s your job to create the best damn living spaces that the world has to offer.

Let’s talk about the graphics and the places you’ll visit as construction sites. Now, the game isn’t the prettiest on the market, and I was playing on High graphic settings, but the locations can be a sight to behold at times, with quite a variety of different environments you can explore, such as forests, alleyways, and tundras. The Japanese location is my personal favourite with its pink sakura trees and setting sun; it’s really pretty. That being said, humans aren’t this game’s strong suit: NPCs look fine if you aren’t too close… and if they don’t animate all that much.

Ah, but you probably aren’t here to read about people and places; It’s all about houses here. In every level, give or take, you’ll be constructing houses using the materials that have either been provided for free, bought, and/or you’ve made yourself, as well as a variety of tools and vehicles you may get access to. It might seem overwhelming, but it is significantly easier, given the fact that you will essentially be given a step-by-step guide that tells you what to do to complete your tasks. It doesn’t mean that’s bad, though. There's nothing to really frustrate you here (unless you play around with the physics too much); it can be enjoyable to go through the process one at a time, but there isn't much in the way of creativity. You can decorate, yet the item selection is fairly limited.

However, you won’t necessarily be a professional construction worker all the time. There are a variety of scenarios that you’re dropped into that add to the basic foundations of building a house. One minute you could be destroying an old house so you can build a better one in its place, and the next, you could be homeless, and you’re forced to scavenge around the level for supplies and tools to make a decent place to sleep. It’s actually really fun and keeps the gameplay fresh.

But that means nothing if you can’t interact with the game properly. The controls, at least on a gamepad, feel a little floaty. Movement is fine: you can sprint and jump quite easily, but anything with the right stick feels a little more sluggish than it should. It’s very obvious the recommended control scheme is with mouse and keyboard because so many times, the game requires you to move the cursor to select something, and it feels so awkward. You can deal with it fine enough, but you’re better off unplugging your controller.

That’s not to mention actually knowing what to do in the first place. The tutorial could use some refinement. It shows rather than tells, quite literally. It just plays a video to show you how to use certain tools and how to process materials, which is fine enough, but it doesn’t teach you everything you need to know. I still don’t know how to use the handsaw; I was able to figure out some stuff by myself, but getting stuck in the middle of a build doesn’t feel good. Also, holy crap, the tutorial pop-ups could use some work! I found some text that didn’t look right or was overlapped by other elements, so I couldn’t read it properly.

Now, these elements can be annoying, but it doesn’t detract from the experience. And hey, they are somewhat mitigated by the skill tree. As you play through the levels, you’ll be achieving goals passively, which in turn unlocks a new skill to buy. They often make work easier, such as getting more material after processing or allowing looser tolerances. However, quite a few of those skills only apply to one or two levels, usually the one you’re currently playing at the moment, with only some upgrades being universally useful, such as the sprint and jump upgrades. I will say it does feel good to unlock these skills, but I don’t think creating more ice bricks will be all that helpful in building a suburban home in Canada. Plus, some skills just allow you to stop caring at some point, such as tree-cutting skills or more efficient installations. Have undersized logs and boards? It’ll still work as long as it’s only 50% shorter. Need to place over 200 floorboards? Just keep that confirm button pressed.  It certainly speeds up your work but to the point of just vaguely looking in a direction with the right tool or material in hand, and suddenly you’ve completely built a room in ten seconds flat. It certainly makes some scenarios less tortuous to play.

Onto the technical stuff and performance, there are a fair amount of visual glitches, but nothing all the major. I said before that the in-game physics can go a little wild, but if you’re careful, it won’t be too bad. As for how the game ran, it played perfectly smooth with minimal drops in FPS. However, it comes at a small cost: loading times. The loading time when you open the game can be somewhat long, and loading levels can take a bit. Not to the point of needing to play a separate game to pass the time, but you will have a chance to scroll through your social feeds in between levels.

House Builder is actually pretty fun for what it is. It’s like building Ikea furniture. Every level is just getting the pieces you need and following instructions the entire way, no matter how large and complex the build may seem, but the journey to its completion is a rather enjoyable experience. It’s satisfying to collect the materials and assemble the house using them. It feels like hard but satisfying work, even if you’re a superhuman workhorse that can build entire homes in an hour by yourself, but there aren't many opportunities to get creative. At best, you can place down additional furniture, which isn’t required to beat levels but makes for good Photo Mode bait. House Builder has a great foundation it's built upon, but what you see is what you get.