I’m a bit confused as to what exactly is going on with House Builder 2.
The first House Builder was apparently pretty solid. I never played it, but people seemed to like it. Had actual construction mechanics, realistic building processes, that whole thing. So when the sequel launched into Early Access, it would seem perfectly understandable to think that this could be a chill building sim to mess around with.
Instead, in its current state, it feels like someone described elements of the original House Builder over the phone to a developer who had never actually seen it, and this was their interpretation.
Let me start with the actual building, since ideally that would be the focal point. The Steam page talks about “advanced building mechanics” and “greater precision and control.” At the moment, that is not present in any form. Building in this game is literally just pointing your mouse at glowing green spots and holding left click. That’s it. It makes this rapid-fire staple gun sound effect and the wall materializes. No measuring, no cutting, no placing individual boards. Just click the green spot until it’s done; hardly advanced.
I spent my first contract building a fence for some guy across the street. Normal tutorial stuff. My second contract was to build an entire house. And by “build” I mean click on the foundation spots, click on the wall spots, click on the roof spots. There’s no satisfaction to it. It’s an idle clicker pretending to be a construction sim.
The open world setup sounded promising in theory. You get contracts, drive to the warehouse, buy materials, load them in your truck, drive to the job site. Except the truck physics are completely broken. Materials slide off while you’re driving. I lost three pallets of bricks on the way to my second job because they just… fell through the truck bed into the void. Had to buy them again.
After a few contracts, the game apparently realizes the mechanic doesn’t work too well, because it just starts spawning materials at the job site. Like it’s admitting defeat. Why make me drive to the warehouse if you’re just going to give up on that loop?
The bugs are insane. I’ve fallen through the map many times. Once while carrying a toolbox, which disappeared into the ground and I couldn’t complete the job until I bought a new one. My truck got stuck on a tiny incline, literally like slight slope, so I hit the “unstuck vehicle” button. It teleported me to safety but left the truck behind. I had to walk back, get in, hit unstuck again, repeat this three times before it actually worked.
Vehicles randomly launch into space if you hit them. Not kidding. I tapped a parked car and it rocketed into the air like Team Rocket. The patch notes mention they fixed vehicles flying into space “less often” which means it still happens, they just reduced the frequency.
The open world itself is weirdly empty. There are procedurally generated NPCs that follow set paths like robots. If you hit them they make a play a voice line, but otherwise they’re lifeless. The roads are way too steep for your starting truck to handle. I’m grinding in first gear up these hills that look flat but apparently have a 60-degree incline.
Progression is bizarre. You unlock stuff as you complete jobs—plastering, painting, furniture placement eventually. But there’s no depth. Everything is point-and-click. I unlocked painting and it’s the same mechanic. Click the green spots. Done. No texture, no technique, no skill involved.
The game crashes a lot. I’ve had three crashes in four hours, losing progress each time because remember, you need a bed to save, and beds are apparently a luxury item in this construction simulator. One crash happened right as I finished a house. Loaded back in, all my materials were gone, the house was half-built, I had to rebuy everything.
Contract variety is minimal. Build fence, build house, build another house. There’s some stuff about mowing lawns and building pools that supposedly comes later, but I haven’t gotten there yet. Right now it’s just clicking green spots on different structures.
The English translation is rough. Menu items are called one thing in the blueprint, something different in the shop. I spent five minutes looking for “wall panels” when they were listed as “siding” in the store. Stuff like that constantly.
Look, I get it. Early Access is supposed to be rough. Games evolve, bugs get fixed, features get added. But there’s a difference between a game that needs polish and a game that needs a complete rethink of its core mechanics. This feels like the latter.
If you loved the first House Builder, I’d probably stay away until this gets way more development. If you’re just looking for a relaxing building sim, there are currently plenty of better options available. This is rough, frustrating, and honestly kind of boring despite being about construction. Hopefully it gets some much-needed love in the coming months before its 1.0 release.
