Hands down, Landlord’s Super has one of the best music intros… in decades. That isn’t usually a selling point for a title, but there’s a great whiff of nostalgia for gamers from the Sensible Software days, particularly Cannon Fodder. Landlord’s Super shares nothing in common with gameplay, however.
We’re looking at a building simulator but with a different approach. Unlike House Flipper, the focus is on one site you’ve recently secured and owe £5000 on, with added leg-breaker interest. In other words, you’ll want to repay the loan as soon as possible. Alas, as the game is set in England in the 1980s, there’s little cash flow, so you must scrimp and survive.
The goal in Landlord’s Super is to fix up a home and flip it for a profit. For all the money you earn, you’ll need to invest in tools, and building supplies, chip at that loan, pay for bus fares and stock up on pies at the local greasy spoon. Oh yeah, there’s a local pub you can loiter in, spunk your money up the wall, get shit-faced, and then spend a night in the cell. Happy days.
Landlord’s Super Review
Living on a caravan off-site from your property, you’ll start heading off to the Job Centre each day for some mediocre task, sell scrap, or throw items from other properties to make some dough. Alternatively, you can do the classic Brit pastime and sign on for benefits while earning money on the side. For those inclined, they’ll receive a steady flow of coins in an envelope each morning, as well as any cash paid for the scrap you leave outside. Living the life, eh?
But with all this dough, it still takes time to pay for stuff and then learn how to use them. An early encounter with a dodgy Scouser paves the way for some tutorials. Go see him in the pub and he’ll tell you the materials you need and the steps required. All of this is written in your journal, accessible by looking at your chest, where it stores tasks, a manual, stats, and whatnot. It’s a beneficial device, but it is peculiar that there isn’t a hotkey (only for your current status), so you have to hover over your available tools, journal, and your other tool, accessible via a zipper.
Yep, in Landlord’s Super, you can pull out your wang and pee on command. It’s not that type of game, but you have bladder needs, so if using your toilet is too sophisticated, you can leave your manly scent anywhere you go. Other stats include energy levels, hygiene and calories. If you don’t pay attention to these, you’ll pass out and get robbed, be ignored by Johnny Public, and be unable to sprint, as I found out most frustratingly.
Friends On Benefits
The journal in Landlord’s Super is a good reference point, but there’s a lot of trial and error in the game, and it does feel a little too Early Access in some areas. Perhaps it was an error on my part, but I hadn’t realised that food affects your ability to sprint – a necessity when you’re dashing back and forth into town with a wheelbarrow full of crap. There’s so much of this that the game can feel incredibly tedious and much of the same throughout.
Now, that sounds like a diss, but aside from some evident glitches where items disappear/reappear, delivery drivers spawn in awkward places, and generally having to wing it a lot, I am very fond of Landlord’s Super. It’s a bit of a hard sell due to the repetitiveness, but I found the building element refreshing and the world engaging. I was born in the 80s, so there’s a bit of nostalgia here, but put that to one side, the gameplay was very moreish.
Visually, Landlord’s Super resembles Paratopic, with a slight hint of Say No More!, but with a grey/beige colour palette – you know, the kind of colours synonymous with Pudding Island and the bleakness of queuing at the Job Centre. It’s done all rather well, and again, it was very enjoyable – albeit for a couple of resets due to equipment disappearing.
Verdict
Landlord’s Super is fresh out of Early Access, but to tell the truth, it does feel like it is still in it, as there are quite a few gameplay issues. I must stress that I could happily play this for a large amount of my time, but objectively, I could see this irritating some. Please check other reviews, as I think it’s ace but a bit tricky to recommend for some of the reasons above.
