Hozy Review - Let's Get Cozy With Hozy!

ScrambledAshton
19 hours ago
6 min read

Hozy

Steam/PC

3/30/26

Come on Studio/tinyBuild

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6myhhMtgzYs

We have all moved house at least once in our lives, so we all know what a slog it is to clean up after previous tenants, repaint walls, and unpack big heavy pieces of furniture up multiple flights of stairs. So, when Hozy told me this sandbox house decorating sim was going to be ‘cosy,’ I got flashbacks to my student housing and felt a shiver go down my spine. BUT the game does somehow manage to make the horrible tasks of moving a satisfying (and quite beautiful) experience. But is it stylish enough that it doesn’t need too much substance?

Hozy is a casual and relaxing decorating sim that features 9 different diorama-like rooms, all with their own vibes and stories, which require a certain amount of TLC to get looking their best. The entire game took me just under 3 hours to finish, so this one certainly is bite-sized, but what it perhaps lacks in depth it certainly makes up for in its visual appeal.

Gameplay is pretty simple to explain. You are shown a room that is normally filthy, covered in rubbish (or leaves), and empty of all furniture and personality. So you must gather up the trash using what is essentially an object magnet (which makes for some fun physics), sweep the floor, squeegee the windows, and paint (or tile) the walls and floors before plonking down the assortment of furniture to make the best room, take a picture of it to post online, and show your friends what a fantastic interior designer you are.

Though to just explain it like that may be selling it short, as every aspect of the process has been meticulously crafted to be the MOST satisfying it can be. Pulling up floor tiles is easy and scratches that itch in your brain perfectly, plus the sound effects, oh BOY, the sound effects are so good! Much like Unpacking, everything has its own noise, every item THUNKS onto the ground, tiles satisfyingly clatter onto the wall, and anything that would make noise can be clicked on to bring it to life and fill the spaces with little snippets of music or ambience.

There are a few choices to make, mainly focusing on which of 3 colors you’d like to paint the walls and where you’d like to plonk the many items of furniture that you pull out of boxes. You don’t, however, get to choose from an endless list of furniture or dictate what kind of wall covering or paint you want, so if you’re looking for total creative freedom, this one isn’t going to give you that. Though there is still lots of furniture in each location to choose from, so it doesn’t feel like you’re missing too much by not having the freedom of choice.

Items can be placed on top of one another and rotated and adjusted to give the scenes and rooms some depth and levels, making them just a little bit more realistic… well, apart from the kooky dream level where walls and floors are the same, that level is anything but realistic! The game tells you that there is no correct way to decorate each space, but with the furniture offered, it can feel like you don’t get loads of creative freedom, and occasionally you are left with more chairs and tables than you thought you needed… though if you are looking for something a bit less overwhelming than other similar games with a big ol’ inventory of furniture, perhaps you’d enjoy that.

The 9 levels are apparently all part of the same story, though to be honest, the story is kind of a nothing part of the game. It is ‘told’ in speech bubbles that pop up over certain objects and in brief little sentences before and after finishing the levels. I think the plot follows various people who knew ‘our’ father, and each room we decorate seems to bring us back to the life he led, and then we ultimately build him a place to spend his time. The story is kind of unimportant and makes almost no difference to how you craft the rooms, so if you’re hoping for a subtle story to the same level as Unpacking, Hozy does not have it.

I’ve already mentioned the lovely sound design for the objects and their interactions, but off the back of that, I feel it would be a miss to not mention the fantastic soundtrack that accompanies the game. Yann van der Cruyssen returns to the cosy genre, having previously composed incredible backing for Stray and Seasons After the Fall, and it is thanks to him that you can chill out, decorate, and enjoy what you’re cleaning while stunning music plays. Each room has its own vibe, just like its decorating style; our artist's paradise is calm, our spooky musician’s loft has some eerie vibes, and lots more.

Adding so perfectly to the soundtrack for each room is the incredible ambience that flows through the spaces, giving you glimpses at the world outside. Wind howls, church bells toll, and your neighbor's annoying dog barks up a frenzy. Each soundtrack is layers upon layers of carefully crafted noise and music that brings the game to life and really shows how much the dev team loved and cared for this game!

On that, one of Hozy’s standout features and truly the main reason you should play this game is how truly gorgeous it is. Unlike other similar games, Come On Studio has leaned into the realism, crafting each piece of furniture as carefully and beautifully as can be. But it isn’t just the objects you can interact with that add so much to the game. Leaves blow in from the window, dust particles float in beams of light, UV lights reveal ghostly scrawling's on walls and windows, and every small element has been thought through to the nth degree. These little details don’t go unnoticed, not least because they look gorgeous, but because you can’t help but spot how much these developers wanted to make their game beautiful!

Truly my only issue with Hozy, because it is so damn satisfying, is that occasionally it feels like the mouse controls are a bit unresponsive, primarily during the cleaning and decorating phase. Once you’ve picked up an item or an object, your mouse obviously disappears, and occasionally it feels like the items get stuck on nothing or ping about the place. Also, once you’ve picked an item up, you can’t zoom in anymore as the mouse wheel is both the rotate and the zoom, so if you’re looking to do some high-detail designing, it can get a little annoying. HOWEVER, I am sure that these little issues I’ve picked out are only standing out to me because of how much I enjoyed the game overall.

Other than those little issues, the game runs really well on PC, and while not Steam Deck verified yet, it does also run well on the handheld, though doing the finicky details can be a bit challenging with controller controls, so I wouldn’t necessarily say that is the best way to play.

Hozy is exactly what it sets out to be: a cozy, relaxing, and low-stakes satisfying game. It is beautiful, well put together, and has been crafted perfectly to lower your blood pressure and ensure you’re having a good time! If you’re looking for a game that has a deep and meaningful story that causes you to think or take away a message, this is not it. As far as story goes, it is minimal at best. BUT if you’re wanting to spend a few hours hunkered down under a blanket with a hot drink just designing little rooms, then HOZY WILL bring you lots of joy. Honestly, I think it brings too much joy for how short it is, because I was left wanting more… so we can only hope that Come On Studio has some more levels planned for the future.

SILVER/GREAT