Welcome to our review of the unholy abomination of Harvest Moon and The Binding of Isaac – yes, there is such a thing out there. Atomicrops promised three things, farm, marry, and kill. Well, that should be an interesting combo.
Modern city life got you down? Well, you’ve just inherited your late uncle’s farm. Time to pack your bags and start fresh in the peaceful countryside (sounds familiar, I’m looking at you, Stardew). What could go wrong? Maybe not a global pandemic, but how about some Fallout-action? Yes, you guessed it right, a nuclear apocalypse, that’s what. Now you’re in a hellscape wasteland defending the last surviving source of sustenance – your crops. And every mutant wants a piece. Do as any self-respecting farmer would: Farm. Marry. Kill.
Atomicrops:
Now we covered the basics, let’s dive into the game itself. Atomicrops is an action rogue-lite farming simulator. Armed with your hoe, a watering pail, and a simple peashooter, you must grow mutated crops – Atomicrops – to feed the local town… and make a hefty profit. Oh, and the currency? Cashews.. for some reason. Defend your land from the mutant pests and bandits that invade nightly to ravage your fields. Court and wed townsfolk to fight and farm by your side. Gather upgrades and rescue captured farm animals to increase productivity, profits, and power. Develop your farmhouse for persistent bonuses across playthroughs to help secure your place on the leaderboards.
The game starts with a basic tutorial, in which you get some explanation about the ‘farming’ part of the game. This is all standard farm simulator stuff, creating new plots, tilling the soil, and planting seeds. Once you planted the seeds, bees will come and do their.. thing. Water your crops, harvest them when the time is right, and sell them for a profit. Sounds easy enough, right? The controls aren’t that hard since most of the controls are mapped on the shoulder buttons of the Switch. This caused a lot of finger cramps, however, since most of the time, I was digging and shooting at the same time (ZR & ZL) plus using the triggers to control my fire to fend off bugs. Yes, it’s a lot, and it’s happening at the same time – so buckle up.
Annoyances:
Although the game starts with a tutorial, Atomicrops then begins with the new game-mode, which can be compared to a Binding of Isaac run. It gives you a few seeds to start, but after planting and tending to my post-apocalyptic potatoes, it gave me no indication of what I should do next. The first few runs, I managed to my crops, hoped for a few more seeds during the slaying of the beasts, and tried to make the best of the situation. I ended up with too little cashews to buy new seeds and often ended my runs at the beginning of Summer. Don’t get me wrong; roguelike games always have steep learning curves. But games like the Binding of Isaac, at least, have a sense of purpose when you first boot it up. Atomicrops throws so much at you so fast and mixes so many elements from other genres, that a more detailed tutorial (or level system) would have been more.. practical (and would have bumped up my score).
Fingercramps:
So, let’s summarize – I had not enough cashews to buy new weapons (which break after one.. level..) and could not acquire any more seeds. But then it hit me; I gained a bridge extension after completing the ‘Spring’ element of the game, and there laid the key. I was able to traverse into the tundra, desserts and much more Atomicrops gained its full potential in these area’s, but due to the timer and farming elements, you’ll have to time everything about right. Without proper instruction, this can rack up frustration instead of pleasure. In these wildlands, distinctive enemies fire off bullets that, when multiplied, turn the screen into a simplified bullet hell. There’s no dodge button à la Enter the Gungeon and Exit the Gungeon, so tactical movement is key to surviving your trips outside the farm. Every so often, flags stuck in the ground indicate a zone of enemy control. Defeating every enemy around the flag unlocks the area, earning you seeds, equipment, and other items. A nice touch, but not enough to compensate for the finger cramps the game gave most of my playthroughs.
Conclusion:
To conclude this atomic farming adventure, we can state that I like roguelikes. I love the challenge they offer, and the easy to learn hard to master concepts. It’s not like Dark Souls, which is not easy to learn and even harder to master. Atomicrops could have been among the like of Binding of Isaac, but there is just too much going on at the same time. The game could have significantly benefited from the developers honing their efforts on improving farming or shooting or looting rather than this jack-of-all-trades approach that makes each facet of the gameplay decent but confusing and uninteresting. In this state, Atomicrops is just not … there yet.
