Housing has always been a staple of more open-ended, slower-paced games, whether they be in-depth RPGs orcozy farming simulators. A place to personalize and call one’s own never goes amiss in titles that are taking a slower approach, but even within this subgenre of titles there’s variation among the purposes of housing.
Are players building housing to have a place to call their own? Or to shelteragainst a hostile environment? Are they living off the land in a cozy cottage? Or making the beginnings of a retail empire? Open-world titles, with such a wide variation in their genre, offer plenty of ways to play the housing game.
5Balrum
Old-School RPG With House Building
Balrum is an old-school isometric RPG that wears its influences proudly on its sleeve. Likemany modern CRPGs, it takes inspiration from the monolithic titles of the past while factoring in modern convenience and quality of life changes to ensure the smoothest possible play. On top of this,Balrumhosts a level of customization the could only be dreamed of in older titles through the incredibly expansive housing system.
While optional to the story overall, there is an incredibly in-depth house building facet ofBalrumwhich allows players to customize their plot of land with modular building in a fashion that feels very well-connected to the isometric style. This modular house serves as a base of operations for the majority of the title.
Kenshi has the option for players to either purchase housing or build a settlement of their own out in the wilderness, with each providing its own set of pros and cons.House management in Kenshiis especially useful considering the sheer number of characters that a player can cycle between at any one time, as well as the obvious benefits of having a place to hunker down from the horrors of Kenshi’s surreal, post apocalyptic world.
While purchasing a house in a town means that players will have a ready-built place to stay and be in proximity to various services, such as shopkeepers, building a settlement of one’s own offers much more freedom in the overall layout and design of the housing. It also means players can build workshops for items they normally couldn’t in town, such as distilleries to make alcoholic products that can then be sold at a premium.
Terrariais a monumental gamestill being updated today, offering a staggering amount of items and potential loot for players to happen across while exploring their procedurally generated world. What all the loot and wealth of items is in service of, arguably, is the building up of a hub world of sorts where various NPCs can settle. With a very lax definition of what constitutes a house, players can get as creative as they wish, building a settlement of houses, or perhaps a single colossal tower of apartments, for NPCs to rest in.
Designating houses to specific NPCs, and NPCs that can only live in certain biomes, means it’s easy to coordinate multiple collections of houses at once, and create real estate whenever the demand for more housing starts to appear from NPCs wishing to settle with the player but having nowhere to do it.
2Skyrim
Purchase Or Build An Idyllic Home
With a level of longevity and endurance that Bethesda isstill trying to recaptureto this day,Skyrimis a game that flourishes on player freedom and exploration. But when the day of adventuring is done, it’s always good to have a place to return to besides a stuffy inn room. Each of the major holds in Skyrim offer a house for players to purchase, though some require quests to be completed before they will present themselves as an option.
With the Hearthfire DLC, the smaller holds offer land as property that players can purchase and build a house up to their own specifications on. Building a house is far more taxing in terms of resources and time, but the end result is a much more modular and rewarding experience. Creation Club content also adds a plethora of customizable real estate for the player to utilize.
As Fable 4 continues on its path of hype and expectationto a 2025 launch, it’s continued presence in the media has made people look back on the games before it. In particular,Fable 2lacks the same depth as its predecessor, but also keeps many features that made the series so loved. Almost every house in Fable 2 is available for purchase, if one has the money for it. Starting up with a small caravan the player owns, the protagonist is setting up a small real estate empire.
It’s not just houses for sale too, with every shop able to come under the player’s real estate umbrella too.Fable 2adds to the classic warrior, rogue, mage archetypes with the inclusion of “real estate baron” to round out the classes on display.
