Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Mar 20, 2018

  Early Access Watcher Public Service Announcement Game: Landlord Simulator Version: Initial Release Gameplay Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qui9vix2fM0&feature=youtu.be Disclosure: This game copy was bought by the reviewer. Landlord Simulator charges you with the task of maintaining homes in New Blossom with the end goal of owning the whole town. This means you need to purchase homes, collect rent and fix issues with the help of a off screen handyman. You start with enough funds to safely buy two or three homes and have to ensure the tenants (also not seen) are happy by ensuring the home’s quality. While you wait for the rent or a problem to arise, it is possible to explore the town. I have yet to see another living being or any kind of event pop up, so for now I can only assume the town doesn’t have anything to offer outside more homes to buy. The wait is made worse by the amount of money you need to purchase new homes and the continued maintenance costs keeping the overall pacing to a crawl. Before discussing the major issues with the game, I wanted to mention the state of the visuals. Synty Studios have seen some mileage with the number of games featuring their assets with Landlord Simulator using a couple of their asset packs for housing, interior fixtures and people. Hopefully the assets will be modified or replaced with the developer’s own work sometime in the future, but it never hurts to use a placeholder. While playing the game, I noticed a couple of game mechanics that were either missing or not working properly. A home’s condition needs to be monitored to keep residents from abandoning their home. This is done by having some repairs done at an increase of 5, 20, or 35 points. Some homes (6 Tales being the example from the video, 2 Wackshow Avenue / 6 Games Court from off recorded play) will not receive the condition increase and thus decline without the ability to repair. It takes a lot to make a resident abandon a home too in terms of happiness decline, or so I thought. I was sitting at a couple of homes with -250 happiness and the homes were still owned. I am starting to think the game doesn’t actually allow homes to be abandoned and this defeats any purpose for actually maintaining homes. All you need to do is essentially wait around for rent to accumulate and buy up any property you can without spending $10k below budget. Other issues include the time control being tied to your movement keys (A,D), time control resetting when approaching a house, and the inability to fix a home yourself (trailers shows it and the guide says you can, but have yet to see the option to do so). I can’t recommend the game mainly for the simplistic gameplay compounded by the sheer amount of downtime. The downtime eventually decreases as more homes are bought, but the amount of time it takes to get to that point makes it exceptionally tedious without something to keep you busy. I would understand if you could play the game in the background, but you cannot minimize or work on something else without the game pausing. It needs a lot of work, especially with the basic durability mechanics and with failure states like abandoned homes. As it stands, there are other games out there that do the subject matter more justice and with a hell of a lot more to offer. This has been a EAW PSA.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 20, 2018

  Very basic. Not what I was expecting.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 19, 2018

  The game is a very big dissappointment to me in terms of features the game has not met the expectations I was hoping for like you can't build your own real estate and this is far below expectations. This game could have been a very great game but fell well short. For those who thought that this game was going to be great don't bother buying It. All you do is buy homes and fix them up and collect rent and that's all you can do. is The game lacks in so many levels that It is beyond a disgrace. If you love owning real estate then the game is for you. For the price the game misses the complete package. There are still so many issues that need to be addressed It's not even funny. I have already uininstalled this game and have no reason to play It ever again what a waste of money to buy It.
• gamedeal user

  May 6, 2018

  It is a fun game with a lot of potential.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 7, 2019

  It is an alright game. could deffinetly be more exciting. Like if things broke on the game actually show them broken. maybe have a stove fire. a bed bug infestaion. instead of just somethings broken, and theres a red light over it. I would also like to be able to interact with characters around town, and in the houses I own. They could tell me what they need. like if rent is to high, or if it is a steal. The ability to add on things to the building to bring up rent. like a new room, a pool, a backyard. Pets. If someone wants a pet they have to pay a fee. Also my landlord is so boring. Not stlish at all. I want them to wear a fancy dress. lol! I hope you make this game better because it is really bare bones to me. My roommate told me I should get into game design. He himself has worked on video games. Thank you!
• gamedeal user

  Dec 23, 2018

  just too boring
• gamedeal user

  Aug 24, 2021

  This is weirdly enjoyable if you spend a few hours with it, but the negative reviews are fairly spot on in that there's not much of a game here. Were Valve ever to add a Neutral option to reviews Landlord Simulator would get one from me. LS really does feel like a spreadsheet in many ways, an asset flip in others...and yet I still sort of liked playing it. Buying and renting out houses is viable if you don't mind constantly fast-forwarding time to barely earn your initial investment back over an extended period. Stores on the other hand are money pits, depending on item pricing and staff wages you can easily rake in $100k in less than twenty minutes with one store by abusing the game time speed option. There are optional minigames aside from the necessary (or not if you hire a worker) ones of repairing broken objects in your owned homes, but these earn little and are somewhat tedious due to collision issues with AI characters. I can respect the developer for trying to flesh out his game but these never quite manage to ditch that tacked-on feeling to expand game time. If you can pick this up for around $2.50 and have a soft spot for really offbeat titles, Landlord Simulator could be your jam. Depending on your own goals, completing this could take one or several hours.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 9, 2018

  I have never played such a boring game. if i knew it was going to be this bad , i would not have paid for it.