Hotel Renovator Review (Xbox Series X|S & PlayStation 5)

So, I recently found myself sweating virtual bullets over a mop and bucket in Two Horizons’ Hotel Renovator. Why? Well, as it turned out, I was to spearhead a brand-new lineage of award-winning hotels—a monumental objective that would see me going way beyond what the job description failed to interpret in my introductory interview as a jack-of-all-trades concierge and maintenance aficionado. Sure enough, it mentioned that there would be spills, and it informed me that, regardless of how absurd the requests would often seem — the customer would always be right. Little did I know at the time of my rather brief but informative conversation with a make-believe Michelin-hogging tycoon, of course, was that such requests would often revolve around hurling chickens out of glass windows and, for some explicit reason, adding two balloons to a bachelorette party’s en-suite: 6, and *sigh* 9. Nice, Two Horizons — real mature.

Hotel Renovator isn’t all that different from its sandbox peers, in the case that, objective-wise, your only real goal is to demolish the leftovers from a husk of an abandoned hotel complex, and embellish it with a whole host of paintings, trinkets, and other pieces of furniture while simultaneously unraveling pieces of lore that pertain to the former owner’s past. As it turns out, that former owner is your grandfather, who has made the ill-fated decision to uproot and disembark the business for the sake of allowing another pair of hands to, well, pick up the pieces, so to speak. With the checkboxes in tow comes an entire docket of things to shovel through — a checklist that can take you anywhere from a dozen to thirty hours to complete. That is, provided you can stick with it long enough to taste the fruits of your labor, anyway.

Open for Business

It all starts with an absent grandfather — because, of course, why wouldn’t it? Fortunately for us, we’ve seen this same exact setup numerous times before: a former family member has inexplicably taken a backseat somewhere, and has left you, the naïve child, with the keys to a derelict plot of land that, due to the previous owner’s inability to cater to its strict demands, has taken a rather sharp turn for the worse. Surprise surprise, your old pops isn’t interested in lending a hand in its revival, which means you, along with an assistant or two, will need to pick up the slack and breathe a little life into the roots. The question is, how do you go about returning the old girl into a bustling communal hub for the wealthy? Why, you start by throwing a broom at a few things, of course!

In no way shape, or form, is Hotel Renovator in receipt of a genuinely meaningful narrative, nor is it laden with a myriad of thought-provoking plot holes and intertwining character arcs, either. But then, I can’t say I was expecting much else, to be fair, what with the entire game being based around, you know, renovation. With that said, I was, in all honesty, genuinely taken aback to see an actual storyline sewn into the patchwork of the game; I’d be lying if I said that I was expecting more than the bog-standard sandbox mode, to be fair. As it turned out, though, there was a rough ten-hour story to shovel through, albeit one that was arguably paper thin and without any major morals to take home once the final bed had been made. But still, a story is a story — and I’m not about to complain about that.

Filling in the Blanks

Assuming that you’ve poured your fair share of hours into the likes of House Flipper and, well, any other game that requires you to knock down a few walls and scrub a few tiles, there’s a good chance that you’re already well on your way to becoming the next fledgling hotel tycoon. What I mean here is that, there aren’t a huge amount of alterations to the formula, what with the bulk of the game revolving around renovation and embellishment. And, as the title implies, the main goal of the project is to work through multiple lobbies, rooms, and facilities, and essentially flip them from grubby and boneless husks into stylish suites for future guests.

If you’re not one for delving into a copious amount of odd jobs and general chores that stretch from painting walls to adding teacups to dining tables, then it’s doubtful that you’ll actually enjoy what’s on display here. However, if you’re the sort of person who finds joy in the little things—say, tweaking a portrait in order to have it match the aesthetic of the room, for example—then you’re bound to fall into the other end of the spectrum. Fact is, a good ninety percent of the game is exactly that: tapping a few buttons and selecting thematic set pieces to implement into the infrastructure of a room. It’s simple fun, and nothing particularly challenging. With that said, it does give you a lot to think about, and it makes a habit out of keeping you on your toes and forever knuckling in on favors.

Of course, the sheer volume of content doesn’t necessarily equate to additional stress. On the contrary, it helps alleviate the boredom, something that I can’t honestly say I ever really felt. For that, I was grateful, truly.

Workin’ Nine Till Five

The good news is, the gameplay itself isn’t all that difficult to crack. In fact, it’s all rather formulaic, in the way that you can acquire a broom to sweep up the scraps from the carcass of each room, and utilize a tool wheel to add a splash of paint to the walls, and then a selection of customizable embellishments to fill the client’s requirements. However, when it comes to working through the Story Mode, the option to get a little creative with your designs isn’t all that present, as it’s more or less the case of working through various checklists in order to make guests more likely to return for future outings. This isn’t an issue, though; the fact that each room comes loaded with its own requirements does make the overall process of renovating a hotel a little less repetitive. And that’s a relief, all things considered.

Thankfully, there is a silver lining to all of this: it comes with a sandbox mode—a creative mode that allows you to flex your skills a little more without the risk of losing the respect of your peers. Like most games that employ such an option in their webs of modes, the bulk of the game’s features tend to shine the most when readily available right from the get-go. This is, in all honesty, where I spent most of my time in Hotel Renovator — lost in a wealth of tools and ideas, and in a virtual space where my ambitions could thrive without the distractions and illogical curveballs. Sure, I enjoyed finding out why the former owner made the abrupt departure from the company, but at the same time, I couldn’t ever shake the feeling that a lot of my ideas were being discarded and not being utilized.

Verdict

Hotel Renovator doesn’t do anything major to switch up the formula and amplify its ingredients, but that isn’t a major issue, given the fact it essentially portrays itself as nothing more than the item it etches into its skin. Clearly, House Flipper was a great inspiration for its conception, and I’m not about to dock points for that, seeing as the creator did make an effort to at least add a bit of flare to it, if only a small amount. Its inclusion of a story mode, too, is a neat touch, and one that definitely helps to fortify it its own form of identity.

Assuming that you’re on the market for a game that allows you to knock over a few walls and throw a bit of paint on an open canvas, then you’re probably going to find more than enough to keep you busy in Hotel Renovator. With that said, if you’re hell-bent on submerging into a bulky story with plenty of twists and turns, then it’s unlikely to scratch that itch, in particular. In other words, if it’s a spiritual successor to House Flipper that you want, and one that just so happens to provide a few additional floors, tools, and objectives to work with, then allow Two Horizons’ world to transform your creative ideas into fully-fledged virtual works of art. It’s as simple as that.