Do you like to destroy things with a hammer and build it up again into something pretty and shiny? What about trash? Do you like to clean – at least virtually and no one cares about you? Arena Renovation might be something! Let’s renovate arenas, then.
Arena after Arena
The initial concept of this game was Stadium Renovator and they had big things in store for us! Huge stadiums, detailed cleaning, renovation and management! Yes! They planned to include scheduled games, visitors with metal detectors checking them out and then afterwards you had to go and clean up the mess they left. – Would have been something new, fresh, well… it was something to look forward to for years. *sigh* until they changed the game entirely, renamed it “Arena Renovation” and released it.
The game starts with you standing in the old, messed up “Table Tennis Hall”. This is the tutorial level, where you learn to renovate. Use the Hammer to smash everything you can’t pick up with your hands. Then pick up the trash and throw the full bags into the dumpster, move over to Floor Modification, where you can chose the patterns and colour of your floors, grab the trowel to scrape away the old wall and ceiling coverings, paint the new walls and ceilings with the brush and finally, wash away the graffiti that remains with the pressure washer. – Rinse and repeat. Fair enough, it’s a renovation game…
There is a percentage indicator that shows your progress in “Cleanliness”, “Renovation” and “Furnishing”. Achieve a total of 40% plus solve the arena specific quests so you can go on to the next arena. Those quests are not hard to find or to fulfil. Just keep renovating and you will stumble over the parts you need. To show you areas that you still have to renovate, you get a “scanner”, which is very useful, when you missed a bit or didn’t paint a patch long enough.
It was surprising to find out that it doesn’t matter what furniture you put inside a room as long as it fits the category. So you can easily put 6-7 computers into an office and nothing else to get a 100% in furniture. It doesn’t have to be useful. I even just put three classy sinks into the toilet to get 100% and get on with it.
Buying your own
Roughly two to three hours into gameplay – of course depending on how long you dwell in an area or how detailed and nice it should look like for you, you get to buy one of six buildings (2 small, 2 medium, 2 big) to renovate and resell. Good thing is, that there are some potential buyers telling you in detail what they would like in the building. How many locker rooms, toilets, if there should be a Sports Area, a gym or aerobic. This is the Early Access Endgame.
The Verdict
So first of all. Yes, I know it’s Early Access. But the whole previous concept about “Stadiums” initially planned doesn’t, in my view, do them any favour. To me it just shows that they probably bit off more than they could chew and then switched to the same old renovation engine Playway normally uses. So this game has nothing really new or inspired.
At the moment, the game only has 4 arenas that you can renovate. The Table Tennis Hall, the small Tennis Hall, the small Basketball Hall and the Football Field. With so much “small” here, it really makes me wonder, if there will ever be something “big”, given the time the developers have spend on this title already.
Additionally, the non-existent story is bugging me a bit. The game is a bit love- and soulless. It wouldn’t have been difficult to introduce a mailing system in the tablet to get you at least some feeling that someone cares for you as a renovator and contacts you with a job, a new tool or some advice. I actually feel sorry for my renovator character who just seems to hop from job to job. Task after task in – what it seems – an endless loop. – As if they know that they haven’t really delivered greatness, the price is relatively low compared to similar titles in the field. But I probably would feel more satisfied to have played another round of House Flipper or Power Wash Simulator. Won’t and wouldn’t play it again.