The Tenants, a landlord game for PC, is pure video game fantasy

Do you enjoy playing video games as a form of escapism? As a place to leave behind the expected norms and rules of the real world and venture into fantastic lands? If this is you, then maybe you should check it out The tenants.

Recently Released on PC, The tenants is a management game where you play as a landlord, the whole point being that you constantly work on your buildings and interact with the needs of the tenants. Make improvements, fix things, buy new furniture and just generally make sure everything is fine and everyone is fine.

As anyone who has ever rented an apartment to live in *checks civilization* would even know most places these days Skyrim is more realistic than this. There is a “rent crisis” in the USAcaused by everything from rising income inequality to property speculation to the AirBnB craze, while here in Australia it’s, uh, also a “rent crisis” caused by … rising income inequality and real estate speculation.

A realistic game about being a landlord, so would imply that you are the most disgusting piece of shit on the planet, someone who will happily charge you more than half your monthly wages for a roach-infested apartment with damp walls and fungus growing out of the bathroom floor. They would be penalized for making repairs, and answering a tenant’s phone call would result in instant death.

Luckily, by striking a less realistic tone, The tenants

is quite a lot of fun! Somewhere between a building management game (ala the Two points series) and The SimsNot only do you have to spend a lot of time setting up furniture, making repairs, and arranging things (both residential and commercial) but you also have to deal with neighbors, cops, loud music, drugs, neighborhood thugs, and your own deal with tenants.

There are two game modes to play, one that’s sandbox only and the other that’s more campaign-style, although as with most of these games, you’ll invariably spend more time playing the former and agonize over exactly where you’re putting that for hours will couch and what color tiles you put in the bathroom.

My favorite things about the game are the item placement system, which is a delight (items squeeze and pop and slide around beautifully), and the fact that it has two content filters at launch, one to remove drugs from the game remove, the other to remove bugs. no software bugs, indeed Mistake.

My least favorite things are that you spend all your time on this game doing fun and happy chores, two things that real landlords should absolutely not be associated with, and that as cool as the renovation and construction work can be, the tone of the game can sometimes be a little bit more…out.

The tenants is now available on Steam.