The Tenants – Review

Make a name for yourself as the ultimate villain—a landlord. My initial thought upon starting The Tenants, a simulation game centred on, surprise!, landlording, was precisely that. Certainly in most cases. In my opinion, games of this type can either be boring and familiar or innovative and intriguing. In this essay, I will explain why The Tenants primarily belongs to the second group.

To begin, the main focus of The Tenants is on expanding your real estate portfolio and relocating to different neighbourhoods. But you also take on tasks like renovating properties, finding tenants for clients, and watching over the tenants of other landlords while they are away, so it’s not just a matter of spying on your troublesome tenants. Never before have I played a simulation game with so many moving parts and moving parts to consider and look at.

I’d like to preface this review by saying that I got my start with The Tenants during its Early Access phase, and that I was very impressed by how receptive the developers, Ancient Forge Studio, were to player feedback, as evidenced by the game’s frequent updates leading up to its full release. The Tenants was remarkably complete, well-crafted, and polished for an Early Access release. Despite the fact that the final product has been out for some time, I was impressed to see that the developers were already hard at work on patches and enhancements.

Landlord mode is the standard experience, while Creative mode allows you to focus on more imaginative renovations without having to worry about the game’s timer. My review of The Tenants is based on a playthrough in Landlord mode. The number of available features is so extensive that discussing each one in depth would consume this entire review. Briefly mentioned above are the various side jobs in your job book that you can complete in addition to collecting rent from your tenants and advancing the main story. These jobs range from “babysitting” the tenants of other landlords to assisting them with renovations and tenant placement during Open House events. When you finish a job for a client, they will rate your performance and provide feedback; these ratings and comments will be used to determine whether or not you are promoted to the next level and given as rewards. As you gain experience, you’ll be able to use the skill tree to access new abilities and enhancements that will speed up and simplify your playthrough. A tenant, a landlord, and an uncle are the three main types (who carries out a lot of tasks on your behalf).

Despite the fact that The Tenants gives you a tonne of freedom to tackle tasks at your own pace and engage in some learn-as-you-go exploration, I sometimes struggled to find my bearings and determine the best way to get things done, and as a result, I lingered on some main story objectives for what felt like an absurdly long period of time. Similarly, I was never able to fully grasp the preferred prestige system or appreciate its function. Perhaps I missed it in the tutorial, but I never saw this part explained. This is why I think it would be helpful if there were little reminders and reassurances sprinkled throughout the day. That being said, there is a lot to do, and it’s easy to lose track of time while playing. While I can see the appeal of The Tenants at first, I can also see it wearing thin after a while due to the similarities between many of the jobs featured.

Some items wouldn’t register that I put them down when I was finished with a renovation job, but other than that, I didn’t run into any bugs or glitches during my playthrough. The incident occurred as I was installing an amplifier in the newly renovated music practise space. Some level-ups took so long to load that I worried the game had frozen, but this is a relatively minor issue. In addition, I often found that I was unable to move on to the next camera and would remain there until I switched jobs.

I found the titular tenants to be incredibly well-detailed, with many avenues open to you for influencing their opinion of you and the property. By sabotaging, rewarding, or providing services to tenants, you can affect their social lives and overall satisfaction. You can keep an eye on their age, personality, occupation, and salary to better tailor your services to their needs as you make the improvements they’ve requested. In a sizable chunk of The Tenants, you play the role of landlord, seeing to it that your tenants are satisfied and always pay their rent on time. You can learn a lot about their personalities, like if they are reliable rent payers or if they are up to anything fishy. It turns out that one of my tenants was actually a meth cook; I thought I was in a Breaking Bad simulation at first. Aside from that, I had no complaints from tenants, although I did find it odd that the apartments couldn’t be furnished after tenants moved in. Also, I may have found a bug: after evicting one tenant, the other continued to live in the apartment, making it impossible to find a new roommate.

Renovating-wise, it goes into a lot of depth! All of the constructing and repairing felt very much like The Sims, and the constructing menu even looked nearly identical to the one in that game. My favourite part about clearing out the apartments before renovation was the ability to form a line and avoid having to wait around for Uncle to clear or fix every item. You’re also very proactive because you get to choose whether to repair them or throw them away. To fulfil the goals listed on the right side of the screen, you can get quite creative with your renovations. It’s also important to consider the client’s preferences and budget constraints when undertaking such a project. When you’ve finished a project like this and the space looks and feels completely different, it’s easy to forget about the stresses of everyday life and relax. It’s true that the renovation projects are surprisingly detailed, with the addition of utilities like water, electricity, and heating being required to finish the task. Security cameras, cable, Wi-Fi, and other services are optional but can prevent unpleasant surprises in the event of a break-in or other incident at your rental properties. Elite contracts are also a possibility, and they often come with additional perks and a higher salary. As I mentioned, however, renovation contracts can get boring.

Since most of your time in The Tenants will be spent expanding your real estate empire and moving to new neighbourhoods, don’t expect much in the way of a narrative. That is to say, the game is ruled by the gameplay and life simulation elements. Regarding the visuals and music, I appreciated the original blocky design of the characters, which avoided looking like pixelated relics from the past. The music wasn’t intrusive, and it worked well with The Tenants’ positive vibe. While I did notice some strange animations occurring occasionally when characters interacted, I have faith that these issues will be resolved given how on top of the game the developers have been.

If you’re a fan of The Sims as well as simulation, management, or design games, you’re going to adore this one. There’s a lot to savour here!