There’s a first time for everything in life. I remember my first time playing videogames and my life was never the same after that. I’ve seen a lot of games passing by and I went on a lot of different adventurers. What I never played however was a professional farming simulator game. Until now, is Farming Simulator any good? Time to find out.
Welcome to the farm
The game starts by pointing out a possible environment for your farm, this can be in Europe or America. It really doesn’t matter that much which farm you go with, both farms offer the same experience, being able to create the best possible farm. At first the game helps you on how you need to manage things but after the short introduction you’re really on your own. How do you want to continue? Are you going to harvest your crop or are you more interested in wood? It’s all up to you; the only ‘goal’ of the game is to gain profit out of what you do. A farm is a business so you really need to earn some money in order to make it until the end.
Tutorials will help you out
Since Farming Simulator is a rather popular franchise, the game doesn’t explain the basics to you. After you get started you’re free to do whatever you want. This can be a little bit too much for new gamers, such as myself. To help out new players, the game includes some great tutorials. There are a total of thirteen tutorials, all explaining a different aspect of the life on a farm. Most tutorials focuses on controlling the special vehicles and those are really necessary to master if you want to advance. The tutorials are really straightforward and easy to follow. Thanks to those tutorials, you’ll be able to learn the game in just a couple of hours. Once you managed the controls, you can enter the real mode in the campaign.
The campaign
As said before, the campaign is all about running your own farm. This sounds easy but it’s not like Harvest Moon or anything like that. If you want a successful farm, you’ll really need to work hard for it. This work mostly consists out of controlling several specialized machines. This isn’t like anything you controlled before. All machines demand another way of controlling and mastering. Getting the hang out of it is really rewarding. You won’t have access to all machines right from the start, if you want a truck to transport the logs, you’ll need to earn some money. Earning money isn’t easy at the start since you’ll need a lot of machines to keep your day job interesting and worth your time. The game has a good learning curve thanks to this however. Since you’re introduced to new machines at a steady pace, you’ll always have the time you need in order to master them.
Become the best farmer
Playing the campaign isn’t about time or fast work. Just like real farmers, you’ll need a lot of patience to get to the point where you want to be. It’s not a game for everybody since the low pace will frustrate a lot but it really is worth your time investing in it. The game gives you a great feeling of satisfaction if you’re doing things in the right way. Growing you business into the most important one of the area is rewarding without a doubt.
It all looks good
Just like any good simulation game, the game looks very good, especially if it comes to the most important elements of the simulator. In this case it means that all vehicles look incredibly good. All vehicles are made with a lot of details and they really look like the real deal. It’s great to see that Farming Simulator takes things serious and delivers when it comes to graphics.
Aside of the vehicles, the background and environment of your farm also look good. They are designed with ‘soft’ colors to give you a feeling of relaxation while playing. The environment while playing will never stress you out. Sure it doesn’t look as good as the vehicles but all in all the developers did a great job in creating a suitable environment for the game.
You control it your way
The last point we would like to talk about is how you control the game. We’ve tested the PlayStation 4 version and were able to control the machines using the shoulder buttons and touchpad. We had to get used of it at first but after we spend some time with it, the controls work like a charm. Every machine has its own way of controlling and learning to control them demands time. Thanks to the fluent controls it’s never too hard to get the hang out of it. The controls are great but some machines remain very hard to control precisely. Just like in the real life they need skill and experience to master completely.
Conclusion:
Farming Simulator 15 is another great entry in the franchise. It does everything what you’d expect from the game and delivers something none other game can give you. The controls are great and so are the graphics. It isn’t a game everybody will enjoy since it takes a lot of your time but it’s definitely worth it at the end. Becoming the best farmer step by step is a thrilling experience.
