I will freely admit that, having pretty much no interest in trains and by extension train stations, I am likely not the target audience for a game named train station renovation. Despite this, I do quite like games that I can idly potter away at while listening to a podcast or video and I just think TSR is pretty mediocre in that regard.

The cleaning is fairly simple and dull and the renovation doesn't have enough assets to really function properly. Each area you renovate requires a minimum of a few different object classes. One of the most common of these classes is the broadly name "decorations" class. The problem is that pretty much the only objects the game provides you in this category are pot plants and office supplies so I had to keep filling my bathrooms with birds of paradise (which despite probably helping with the smell after someone's had a train station bean burrito, didn't really meet the aesthetic I was going for).

I haven't played house flipper so I can't compare it to that so I'll just say if you like trains you'll probably like this and if you don't then you probably wont.

As charming as this game is, it's very middle of the road. I can't help but appreciate the love and care the developers have for trains, with the loading screen being full of fun train facts, to your room having a small replica of the map you go along in the game that you can make your own custom tiny train to drive on.

I think the biggest problem this game has is a lack of feedback. The last thing you'll most likely do in any stage is renovate and make the place look nice again, which has no real impact on the player as to how you place the items. The game has a broad checklist of items you can put on the ground or the walls, and that's it. You don't get any bonus for going with a certain theme, or putting down certain items in a certain way, or anything that would make the decorating any fun. After the first level I stopped caring and just bought the cheapest items from each category and placed them haphazardly, and that really kills the flow for me.

I like cleaning and completing the checklist the game gives for each level, I like how it allows you to explore the level even after 100% completion (even though there's usually nothing to see after you're all done.) It's a very cozy game, and I'm sure some people will gel to the free form, fully independent renovation more than I did. I feel like it'd be more satisfying if the decorating we did was tangible in some way, like we could see people actually using the station, or trying to and failing because you made a shitty one. I'm not saying the devs HAVE to do this to make their game better, it's clearly not what they're going for, but it'd help bring a lot of personality and a feeling of progression and pride to see the stations in use. As for now, I do quite enjoy this game, but if you're looking for something with a more solid progression system or more tangible, satisfying gameplay, I'd just check out House Flipper.