I really liked that it has a story that plays out as you deal with a number of standalone jobs, while based out of your main job that has a number of different rooms to be worked on one at a time.
The story helped add interest to the game beyond just renovating one place after another, and was great for someone like myself who gets bored without something more concrete happening in a game beyond just accomplishing one task after another. I also liked that each of the separate jobs were used as a means to gain money towards working on the main goal, which also allowed for breaking up the potential monotony of working on one large location and nothing else and instead getting to explore other distinct locations and getting little one off jobs between.
The tools are what you might expect from your typical renovation game with some differences along the way, at least as far as my experience goes. Thank goodness for the upgrade system because toiling away with some of them long-term would have gotten tedious. Painting was perhaps the worst experience for me in the very beginning when it started with a tiny brush, but luckily this is remedied pretty quickly, and it has the redeeming quality of allowing you to paint an entire wall in one click once you reach 50% of total painting complete. There is also a power washing tool for those who get their joy from that, as well as the usual garbage, destruction tools, broom, etc. Overall, there is a nice variety, at times tedious, but generally decently functioning.
There are some limitations as far as decorating and such that people might find disappointing. I for one didn’t have a problem with it generally, but I also prefer being told what to put in which rooms. If anything, I found the open dollar amounts that needed to be met to furnish different places was too open as far as being able to put whatever you wanted as long as you spent the correct amount. On the other hand, there is not a lot of furniture to choose from which is a bit limiting, but considering you’re working with athletic venues, this kind of makes sense. You also get to replace old furniture with very specific options (ie. Three different choices for a desk) which is where I think most people will feel limited, because there are not many options and you don’t get to pick the placement either, but I actually loved this particularly in combination with the greater freedom of how to spend your budget money.
Now, there are a couple things that took away from the experience a bit. For example, it was a bit buggy at times, such as painting successfully near the edges of walls. The cleaning aspect can also get a bit tedious at times and I did want there to be more buying of furniture etc. and arranging to break up the monotony. Furthermore, at one point in the game a puzzle is randomly added to one of the jobs and it felt so out of place that it was kind of a miss for me. Not to mention the fact that there are no instructions or help options and the one available clue isn’t completely helpful as it looks almost incomplete. There’s also the fact that this is a one off, and there are no similar puzzles throughout the entirety of the rest of the game so it feels a bit randomly thrown in.
All together I did enjoy this game, bugs and all, and it’s a short, fun renovator that kept me entertained for a few hours. If you like these kinds of games then this is a good game to pick up, particularly if you aren’t too bothered by the above mentioned limitations.
