House Flipper 2: Steam Deck Recommended Settings and Performance

As someone who played the original House Flipper to death, testing out House Flipper 2 was always a given. But how does it run on the Steam Deck? Let’s find out!

Alternatively, feel free to check out my video below to see House Flipper 2 in action on Steam Deck.

Performance.

The first thing you want to do before anything else is turn FSR off and back on. For some reason, loading into House Flipper 2 on the Steam Deck results in some seriously ugly, blurry visuals. It feels like it’s taken FSR and multiplied it by 10. It is fixable, though. The moment I turned FSR off and back on, the visuals went back to looking normal.

Performance across the board is a mixed bag, but it’s not problematic. The game uses the full range of 30 to 60 frames per second. I averaged 42 frames during testing but it’s not steady. Outdoor areas can cause frame drops, as can running. And walking for that matter. Basically, almost everything can cause frame drops.

If you sit staring at the frame counter, you’ll see it fluctuates constantly. How much of a problem is it?  Normally with other games, this level of constant change would result in a shaky mess. But somehow, House Flipper 2 doesn’t feel like it’s struggling to keep up. When you drop from 55 to 30, that’s felt. But the changes are often in incremental changes, so they’re rarely felt to any major degree.

One helpful tip I have: If you do find yourself getting motion sick, open the Steam Deck’s quick access menu ( “…” button) and lock the framerate to 30. Most owners agree that 30 frames per second on a Steam Deck feels very similar to 60 frames per second on the big screen. The smaller the screen, the fewer frames you need to have a good experience.

Moving on, as with the original game, using the sledgehammer to decimate walls causes the framerate to plummet below 30. This isn’t a problem, though. When you’re breaking something into pieces and removing sections of the game world, it’s going to take a toll on the CPU or GPU, so it’s understandable. And, if I’m being honest, the slowdown kind of adds to the feeling of the destruction. If the game didn’t recover quickly, it would be an issue worth keeping in mind, but as it rights itself fast, I don’t think it’s enough of a problem to complain about.

One area of concern is the GPU throttling. The usage percentage fluctuates as much as the framerate. Every half a second the usage switches from the 80s to the 90s. Sometimes it’s the middle of the 90s, other times it’s the full 99 percent. That’s concerning to say the least, and I’m hoping more Steam Deck optimizations are coming as I’ve never seen a game react like this.

The bottom line: Performance isn’t solid, but it’s more than playable. If you come to House Flipper 2 expecting a smooth 60 frames per second, then you’ll be disappointed. If, however, you know 30 frames per second is perfectly playable on the Steam Deck, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how well put together the game is. It not only works, it’s playable with minimal tinkering.

Settings Explained.

I’ll tell you this now, there isn’t going to be a best overall settings that will serve everyone. That’s because your choice is either blurred visuals with a steady framerate that rarely dips below 30, or great visuals with dips into the high 20s.

The settings below will keep the framerate above 30, but the trade-off is textures look a little blurry and the edges aren’t as smooth. If you prefer a solid framerate, go with this.

For me, I didn’t have a problem with the game dipping into the high 20s. If this were a first-person shooter, sure, that would be a problem. But as the player character is stationary a lot of the time, it’s less of an issue, and the increase in visuals really makes the game shine.

If that sounds like you, turn off FSR and crank the texture resolution up to full. It’s imperfect, but I think it’s still enoyable. If you want, you can also set a framerate cap in the settings menu, but I didn’t feel like that was needed.

Bugs and Issues.

There are minor bugs in House Flipper 2, but not enough that I recommend against playing or waiting for a patch. The most noticeable one is how sometimes when you bring the in-game selection wheel up you need to press the A button to select it rather than just releasing the trigger.

It’s a minor annoyance, but it’s something it’s safe to say will be fixed later down the line.

Verdict.

It’s hard not to feel a little short-changed by House Flipper 2. Coming from the first game with all the downloadable content, House Flipper 2 feels empty by comparison. But then the flipside of that is developers Frozen District and Empyrean have been good with post-release support. We could get new homes and missions to bridge the gap as time goes on.

Overall, I’ve had a blast with House Flipper 2. The visuals have seen a massive upgrade – anti-aliasing is now under control, texture quality feels cleaner, and having lights on doesn’t tank the framerate anymore. It is, essentially, everything I could have wanted from a sequel.

I will admit the Steam Deck version still needs some optimization work. I’d say it’s a good start, but that fluctuating GPU usage leaves me feeling a little uneasy.

Should you play it now or wait for a price drop? Given how strong performance is on the Steam Deck despite the game having only recently been released, if you’re a fan of House Flipper and want more of the same but with killer new graphics, House Flipper 2 comes easy to recommend.