The Tenants - Preview (Closed Beta)
Build up your portfolio, renovate properties and become the perfect landlord
in upcoming management game The Tenants from Polish developers Ancient Forge
Studio and published by Frozen District of House Flipper fame. Currently
with a release window to be released, the game is currently in a closed
beta. Thanks to the publisher for providing me with access to the closed
beta and allowing me to do a write up.
Disclaimer - This game is still in beta phase and any elements discussed in
this article may change prior to release, based on player feedback.
The premise of the game is fairly simple - buy properties, renovate them and
lease them out whilst keeping your tenants happy. Thankfully you're
not alone though. Your Uncle Steve is there to hold your hand whilst
you find your feet! He will guide you through the basics from finding
your first renovation job, to establishing your first rental property.
Before you can start on your own properties, you'll need to get some money
in the bank, more than the $500 you have to your name anyway. In the
first part of the game you will carry out some renovation jobs for other
citizens in the city. You will find these jobs on your cell
phone. The listings will detail some information about the job and
what the pay for a successful job will be. You can choose more than
one job at a time, however be aware that they do have time limits associated
with them.
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The job selection screen on your cellphone, as we are starting out
there is just the one job |
Your first job will be to fix up Steve's trailer which his previous tenant
has trashed. Each job will list the requirements for the room such as
wall colour, flooring type and any furniture requirements. There are
also additional desires for the room which may be for specific luxury or
decor items, although these don't seem to affect your performance. You
also have a set budget for the job, displayed in the top left where your own
balance would be displayed in 'normal' play, although I feel that these have
been very generous and not much of a challenge to meet the briefs in the
early game, so could maybe do with a balance pass. When you start out
you have a good, but limited, selection of materials and furnishings at your
disposal, however, as you gain experience and level up you will gain access
to further items allowing more creativity in your design. After this
you will find that your helpful aunt has given you an empty property to get
you started.
After successfully completing a number of renovation jobs (the number will
depend on the payout for each job), you will be able to start fixing up this
property. Once you have connected utilities you will design your
apartment in terms of internal walls, doors and decor. Now it's time
for an open house! Potential tenants will come and visit your property
and you can decide whether to offer them a tenancy off the bat, or whether
to carry out some background checks, for a price.
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Uncle Steve's last tenant left the place in a mess. Tidy it up and redecorate for your uncle. |
The game provides you with feedback on your performance in the form of
client reviews which are pinged to your phone and also note how much you
have received in payment. Sometimes these reviews can be a bit
repetitive (I had two consecutive reviews which had very similar strings)
but I expect this is due to the current beta state of the game and would
hope to see more of these when the game proceeds to release. These
will give you an idea of how well you met your brief, although are not
listed in chronological order which makes it tricky to keep on top of them
as you complete more jobs.
The game does a good job at keeping you engaged due to the variety of
items available and design briefs from clients. It also unlocks new
features regularly during your play meaning that you aren't getting bored
with placing the same objects over and over. There is enough variety
between the types of jobs from simple room decorating, to full remodelling
jobs and looking after your tenants. You need to keep on top of your
personal finances to make sure that relevant landlord fees (utilities
etc.) are paid and that you can afford to expand your portfolio, and also
be aware of the budget for each renovation job. You also need to
keep an eye on your tenants who may contact you with issues which need
addressed and make sure they are paying their rent.
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Our first tenant moves in |
For being in a closed beta I feel that the game is really shaping up
nicely. The game runs well and I've not noticed any glaring
bugs. The only feedback I have, other than the difficulty balancing
and repetitive reviews which I noted previously, is that it would be nice
if the cancel build could be more apparent. It took me a while of
clicking buttons to work out that it is bound to middle mouse
button. This is also a camera control button which can be slightly
annoying when trying to move the camera to get the camera aligned for
placement. It would also be nice if you could see the length of time
remaining on a particular tenancy to allow renovations of your properties
and it seems that the option to terminate a lease is not currently
implemented which meant that I got to a point where I was unable to
progress with the campaign missions. All of these I can overlook,
however, due to the game still being in a development state and I've had a
couple of hours of enjoyment from it so far.
The Tenants - Preview (Closed Beta)
Reviewed by Parcival
on
September 06, 2020
Rating:

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