Review of Sports: Renovations on PC available via Steam

Sports: Renovations is one of those rare indie titles that takes a bizarre concept—restoring old, abandoned sports facilities—and turns it into a surprisingly therapeutic, charming, and occasionally hilarious experience. Developed by Goat Gamez and published by Dear Villagers, the game combines the satisfaction of cleanup simulators with a love for athletic history, offering players a low-stakes, feel-good loop that’s oddly addictive.

At its core, Sports: Renovations is a first-person renovation sim where you clean up and repair various dilapidated sports venues around the world. Think basketball courts overtaken by nature, forgotten Olympic arenas covered in graffiti, and neglected high school gyms littered with broken equipment. Your job is to bring them back to life—scraping rust, fixing bleachers, repainting lines, and sometimes dealing with some rather… creative messes.

Gameplay & Mechanics

The gameplay will feel familiar to fans of PowerWash Simulator, House Flipper, or Viscera Cleanup Detail. You’re armed with a set of tools—brooms, mops, paint rollers, welding torches, and more—and a checklist of objectives for each level. The cleaning and fixing mechanics are satisfyingly tactile. Rust scrapes off with a satisfying metallic hiss, paint glides smoothly over walls, and cleaning grime off surfaces gives that endorphin kick similar to tidying up a messy room in real life.

There’s a mild puzzle aspect as well: sometimes, before you can repair a scoreboard or fix a floor, you need to find missing pieces or figure out what’s safe to remove. The game introduces just enough variation to keep the process from feeling monotonous. You’re also rewarded with before-and-after photos, which are great for that dopamine hit when a once-disgusting gym becomes pristine and playable.

Each renovation is themed around a sport—basketball, tennis, soccer, boxing, etc.—and as you progress, the locations become more exotic and challenging. One minute you’re fixing a suburban baseball field, the next you’re restoring a mountaintop ski lodge. The environments are detailed and occasionally include fun Easter eggs, such as fan graffiti referencing obscure sports moments or trophies from fictional tournaments.

Visuals & Audio

The graphics aren’t cutting edge, but they’re serviceable and charming. The environments are well-designed and tell a story, often showing decades of decay through clever environmental storytelling. One gym is taken over by vines and birds; another has been turned into a graffiti-covered skate park. These details give each level a distinct personality.

The sound design is minimal but effective. There’s a relaxing soundtrack that loops quietly in the background, accompanied by realistic ambient sounds—birds chirping, tools clanking, and distant echoes of what once was. The audio cues for cleaning, scraping, and fixing are crisp and deeply satisfying.

Narrative & Humor

Surprisingly, Sports: Renovations has a light narrative layer that ties everything together. You play as a former pro athlete turned renovator, and each level is introduced with a short comic-style cutscene or voicemail from quirky clients reminiscing about the glory days. The writing is breezy and occasionally very funny—there’s a tongue-in-cheek tone that never takes itself too seriously, with jabs at sports clichés, overzealous coaches, and ridiculous athletic rituals.

Final Verdict

Sports: Renovations isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, but what it does, it does very well. It’s a cozy, cathartic experience for players who enjoy methodical gameplay and the joy of seeing something old become new again. It’s not a high-octane sports sim—it’s more about the love of the game, told through paint cans and toolboxes rather than tournaments and trophies.

Whether you’re a fan of cleaning sims or just someone who finds peace in order and restoration, Sports: Renovations is an easy recommendation. It’s wholesome, weirdly emotional, and surprisingly hard to put down.