You inherited a mansion and did a good job of restoring its garden to something beautiful! You won awards and praise however the inside stillYou inherited a mansion and did a good job of restoring its garden to something beautiful! You won awards and praise however the inside still needs to be restored. With the help of butler Austin go from room to room finding items to sell. Build up enough money from selling objects and every piece in your house can be restored. Austin has planned a house party so you’d better get to it before they arrive!
Not much to say here. With some success off the back of the original Gardenscapes (2009) developers Playrix Entertainment set to work on a sequel called Gardenscapes: Mansion Makeover (2012). As detailed in the plot synopsis above instead of restoring the garden you’re now restoring your house. Gameplay still involves finding specific items so you can sell them to people. This means as usual weirdness with people wanting objects such as random keys, a screw or a bar of soap. With enough money you can get buy specific types of restoration such as TVs, tiles, etc. Austin for some strange reason is a lot more passive aggressive and rude towards the player at points during this game. When I bought the TV I switched it on only for Austin to immediately switch it off. Other times he’ll make comments about the player under his breath about how useless they are or act generally more impatient than he did in the original. It’s just really off-putting considering we’re helping the idiot. There are also some clashes involving scripted action and the AI script as at one point Austin decides he needs to get outside for some fresh air which is right in the middle of a thunderstorm! Ultimately the big problem with this sequel is that it’s not really a sequel but more like the original Version 1.5. Similar assets are used (strange considering the gap in release between this and the original) which feels lazy. It might as well be DLC. There are no changes in gameplay apart from the fact that finding the camera viewer option is now scarcer in scenes. Restoring a house could have been fun but Playrix gives you the barebones to the point of boredom. Considering the gap between games the lack of enthusiasm by the developers is quite disappointing and confusing.
Mansion Makeover may have advertised itself as a sequel but if anything it’s an expansion pack to the original game. However, some odd issues and a lack of innovation by the developers mean it’s more of a chore this time around.… Expand
