Gaming for the HGTV crowd.

With today’s review for Castle Renovator, I will be using some old elements from a previous review for a game from Ultimate Games. Since many of their releases are basically the same premise with a new skin, we may as well review them in like fashion.

Welcome to the wonderful world of castle renovation in the middle ages. In this action-packed session we will explore such riveting topics as Cleaning Up Stuff 101, Castle Repair for Beginners, Contracts: Sheldon Isn’t the Only One Who Can Be Tedious, and Driving a Horse Cart Without Running Over Yourself.

Actually, the first thing you learn in this game is how to pick up the yard. You are dropped into a primitive fortification in the middle of nowhere and get to clean up so you can start the real restoration work. Don’t get all hopeful with the pastoral environment and the sight of deer strolling through the place; there is almost nothing out here. But let’s talk about how Castle Renovator plays on the Switch.

The controls are easy enough to use. You get a fairly standard arrangement of L-stick to move and R-stick to change the camera angle. When you are driving your cart, the L-stick steers, ZL brakes, and ZR accelerates. Everything sound good so far? Most of the controls are “figure it out as you go,” not a lot by way of actual tutorials. The game will display your next objective, but it is a bit small and not always clear about what you really need to do.

As you move around, you may notice you can’t see very far. This seems to be just the limit of the environment you are allowed to explore. Apart from a deer or vulture, there isn’t much here but trees and you.

When you do get to work, it is easy stuff; just press A to pick up the trash or swing your hammer at things. The R-stick can be used to line up on small targets. You don’t have to just smash things, you get to carry things and climb on things, too.

When you are done with a task, you will be given a new one by the bulletin board. It will tell you where you need to go and what you need to do. Remember the instructions because the in-game map is not very good at highlighting your next objective. If you press the + button you get a map of the area. There are markers to indicate your position and some other points of interest, but they don’t have titles or tags.

If you want to take a walk around the hamlet, you are free to do so. There are some terrain obstacles to keep you within the bounds of the level, so you can only go so far. There are some places where you can see through the scenery. The level of detail on the non-critical game elements is also on the low side. If you walk up to something you don’t need to work on, the image looks like a skin from about 20 years ago.

There is one improvement Ultimate Games has made since the last game I reviewed. In the previous iteration of this code, if you happened to get off the official game grid and into the “background,” the only way to get unstuck was to restart the game. With this version, the developers have added a shepherd function. If you start to wander too far away from where the game thinks you should be, you will get a text message along the lines of “Maybe I should get back…” The game will then teleport you back to the center of the activity. Not exactly middle-ages transportation, but it keeps you from getting stuck.

Castle Renovator is visually dated, and most of the audio components are borderline annoying. The environment and execution of the first few objectives is sparse to the point of being a bit boring. Having to endure all this before even getting to any of what should be the cool stuff was very demotivational. The remaining game elements, like working out land buys, contracts, etc., may be interesting for some of the more dedicated gamers who really like managing those kinds of details, but this game is not much fun.