Hotels – in gaming they generally aren’t the comfy restful places that you’ll want to spend some time in. They are normally either full of ghosts, in utter ruins or the homes of a sadistic monster roaming the halls with a sledgehammer. When did you last see Lenny Henry making his way through a nice virtual Premier Inn?
But now all that might change, thanks to Hotel Renovator. You see, you aren’t being haunted by ghosts or running scared from monsters. Unless you include the ghosts of bad design choices from interior designers of the past. Are you ready to grab your broom and get your best creative designs out as you tackle a bit of Hotel Renovator?
You get a choice at the beginning of Hotel Renovator as to whether to go for Story or Sandbox in how you want to play. Both modes will give you a tutorial so don’t worry if you feel you’re jumping head-first into the deep end. There is a story here about you inheriting a hotel from your grandfather as you and a sibling/assistant will get to do up this terrible hole of a hotel, hoping to turn it into something upmarket and full of life.
You can choose your assistant from a small choice of people, including a robot if you want to. That’s the tone of the game in a nutshell, as Hotel Renovator isn’t a serious study of the hotel management industry. Instead you will be playing around with a chicken and designing a lightless room for a vampire.
The game is mainly inspired by House Flipper as you head into a terrible room in the hotel, one that has seen better days. Here you have to take everything apart before you can unleash your creative genius. Every time you get into a space you have to utilise a trusty crowbar to take apart the walls and the floors, before ridding the place of all the rubbish and old fixtures. You do this by clicking, tile by tile with a light attack on the crowbar. With a heavy attack you can do whole areas in one swoop. The lack of instructions with these controls is a bit worrying at first, and Hotel Renovator doesn’t do the best job of talking you through the actions.
When everything is clear and you’ve swept up the rubble and rubbish then you have an empty canvas; one ready to paint and design. Here you can choose the right colour wallpaper or textures for your room. There might be some notes or instructions in the story to follow, but mostly it’s up to you. When you have done the painting, the re-tiling and the like, you can then add the finishing touches, adding pieces of furniture and all the fixtures and fittings. In Hotel Renovator, these range from lush sofas and beds, to mirror balls hanging from the ceiling.
When you first head in to Hotel Renovator, the process will feel new and exciting. But as you start to move from room to room the repetitive nature of the game settles in and it does become a bit tiresome, even as you get to enjoy upgrades, gaining skill points to turn your broom into a hoover for example. You might have other jobs around the hotel too, helping break things up a little from the designing, but that is the crux of the game.
There’s no doubt that Hotel Renovator does interior design well, with a great deal of detail and textures available. However, it won’t blow your socks off visually, instead sitting back to do a solid enough job throughout. There isn’t much in the sound department to talk about either, but you should already know the drill for these type of games – bring your own soundtrack for hours of designing.
If you’re creative or are happy to dip into design, you should find Hotel Renovator to be enjoyable. The story is light and a bit madcap, but it works well, however the control systems aren’t particularly easy to get to grips with.
You have to give credit for the sheer amount of options available, as you look to utilise a range of ideas and design elements, all in hope of ensuring that your hotel rooms are the best they can be. But Hotel Renovator may appeal more to a certain niche. Those who like to have dice battles with chickens, perhaps…
