Farm Manager 2021
Ok, I’ve only played the launch version for 3 hours so far, so this is a very early post. However, I sunk a ton of time into the demo and prologue, so I think I’ve already got a decent take on how the game plays.
Firstly, I disagree that it’s the same as the 2018 version. The 2018 version required a player to micro-manage every aspect of the game, as almost nothing happened automatically. In the 2021 version most of the tasks happen seamlessly, with workers having a decent degree of intelligence as to the next task required. This is a huge improvement, as the 2018 version’s micro-management made it almost unplayable if you owned a very large farm. For example, I built a greenhouse, housed plenty of workers nearby with “plant” skills, set the production to strawberries, and then sat back and waited. From that moment, every task was fully automated and eventually the strawberries arrived in my warehouse, ready to sell. It’s the same with fields. Make a field, set up the crop required, buy all the necessary equipment, employ and house the correct workers nearby, then sit back and wait for the crop to be harvested and ready for sale. There is even a menu to auto-sell and auto-buy, for those that don’t wish to track the market prices for min/maxing best prices as they fluctuate.
– Real player with 383.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Agriculture Management Games.
I didn’t play 2018, so maybe that makes me like it more. It’s a good game, I finally finished the scenario after ~28 hours. Definitely worth the purchase price.
I did have a few times certain things got “stuck”. A tractor sitting in the middle of things not doing anything, two greenhouses who’s workers vanished in the middle of the harvest leaving me unable to do anything with the greenhouses, two animal pens not getting fed for reasons that mystify me. Saving, quitting and reload always resolved them though.
– Real player with 136.4 hrs in game
Assembly Planter
After 25 hours here are my thoughts.
This is my first assembly automation style game I’ve played that I can remember. Initially I was drawn to the fact it had a loose similarity to farming style games (ie: Stardew Valley). I wasn’t sure I was going to like it, but ended up kinda of digging the experience. I’ve watched people play Factorio, Satisfacory and Astroneer and this reminded me of those games in many aspects as far as the automation went.
The interface is a bit awkward in the game was the first thing that struck me as far as mechanics go. Your hotbar is a bit of a mess sometimes because you can’t lock items in place that you commonly use. It was a bit of a frustration to me, but one I got used to after about 30 minutes of playing it. The mechanics are straight-forward; pick something, pick a spot, execute the action.
– Real player with 33.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Agriculture Building Games.
TL;DR: Simple enough, but ends up being a numbers game where you’re constantly just reorganizing farms you’ve already set up slowing your progress.
The only bug I’ve noticed is that Packed Sand is not included in the filter splitter options. Devs, please fix.
So basically, you start out “farming” on your own. Then you unlock machines that plant and harvest for you as well as collect all the drops. Then you get an area to design a new machine where you can put the planters and harvesters so the new machine automatically produces items for you. Then, you can expand that area to allow you to produce even more items! (the reorganizing farms idea from above) The machines and setting them up are not that complicated either. There’s really no “fancy” setups. It’s really simple, but it then turns into a numbers game of “this machine produces 5/s, but this machine needs 6/s so I can waste 1/s or build 3 of this one and 4 of this one and split this output into 3 and then 2 and then divert these over to this machine….” and it’s just unfun at that point. You pretty much progress towards a “re inserter collector” and then you redo your machines. Then, you get a transmutation table that turns dirt into wood or wood into copper or copper into iron, etc and you have to redo your machines again. In my honest opinion, they need to get rid of the transmutation table. I think if you are to play this game, do not use the transmutation table and you will have more fun. I’m just going to do that on my next run.
– Real player with 28.9 hrs in game
Hundred Days - Winemaking Simulator
Time Played: 40Hrs
General Thoughts: Cute art, fun but unpolished niche game if you love spreadsheets, expensive for being unfinished
Pros:
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Art is cute
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Choices have consequences and you have to make adjustments every year
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Each wine has its own personality and quirks to how to create it
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I like having to make mistakes and suss out which wines have to be made which way
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I like taking notes and refining my process
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Chill game and late game is very relaxed
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Devs are patching and incorporating suggestions
– Real player with 60.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Agriculture Singleplayer Games.
This game is everything you’re looking for in a wine management sim, with some fatal UI and design flaws that prevent it from being good. It is a highly complex game with a nuanced engine for deciding the quality of your wines - so many variables both plannable and random have to be contended with to make great wine. Even the progression as you get familiar with winemaking and grow your winery and its capacity is interesting. The game introduces you to its mechanisms via a cute little campaign that is enjoyable but unfortunately only does the most basic job of informing you how to work things. And now the flaw…
– Real player with 23.9 hrs in game
Chicken Defender
Fun and short game. The game consists only of a couple levels which vary in difficulty. For the price just perfect, pretty polished tbh.
I would say there was a lack of weapons, a couple more would be fun. Also, the goal for the last level was 100, I got 26,000, that can probably be tweaked. But overall fun time, thanks developers.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
A $A1.50 well spent. Good graphics and sound.
Thought this Tower Defense title could be a walk in the park - after getting my bottom spanked my first 4 tries, I am happy to amend that thought. I particularly like the fact that the game advises you, and shuts the level down when you are not going to be able to meet the level requirements. I can see that I am really going to have to think the levels right through.
A terrific value for money title.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Farm Frenzy 4
This is NOT a farming game. It is, in fact, a factory game, the use of farm products as widgets notwithstanding.
If that’s fine with you, then great. Personally I want a FARMING game - without the “social” junk imposed by Farmville.
There is no continuity in this game whatsoever. You are not building a farm, you are not planting crops, you are not able to choose for yourself which farm buildings you want or where they will be placed.
It’s a series of hoops you have to jump through with a set goal, imposed by the game, and totally linear. The only thing that is valued is how fast you can do things. They place the buildings at random so at each new “level”, none of which last more than a few minutes, you are starting over with some random initial conditions. Within each level, the initial settings will be the same, but from one level to the next, you are starting with different buildings placed in varying and seemingly random locations, and with a variable number of farm animals and varying amounts of startup cash.
– Real player with 341.3 hrs in game
I have never played any of the prior Farm Frenzy games except the demos. FF4 is a surprisingly addictive game. I am used to buying and playing high-budget AAA games and playing a “casual” game like FF4 is a different experience for me.
I was introduced to “time-management” games recently and I am enjoying this genre because it requires a bit of fast-paced thinking, not just clicking. FF4 can get a little hectic and it takes a while to get through the entire campaign. It is very difficult to collect all the Steam Achievements due to how many rounds there are in the entire campaign.
– Real player with 76.6 hrs in game
Farm Manager 2018
As someone who absolutely loves Farming Sims, I can say this is my favorite. I should add, my kind of Farming Sim is the game that puts you in the place of the farm owner or the farm manager, not the guy physically out there driving the harvester. If you want a game where you get in the machine and drive through the fields, this one isn’t it. But this one is the best one out there that is following in the footsteps of the original SimFarm. You buy the land, lay out the roads, plan the fields, and hire the help to work the crops. Then, most importantly, you balance the budget and watch the market to make sure the farm stays in the black. There are a few annoying bugs that have gotten better since the game was released, but they still exist.
– Real player with 388.4 hrs in game
Review as of 2018-09-09
I like this game and am getting my money’s worth out of it. I’ve seen it compared to SimFarm in other reviews, which I find to be a fair comparison. It has most of the features I expect from a modern business simulator game.
That said, it is not without its fair share of problems, and, at this point, feels like an early access or brand new product that needs polish. It was released in April with major updates in June and August, so I’m hopeful that some of the issues I’ve run into get resolved in time.
– Real player with 216.5 hrs in game
Gardens Inc. – From Rakes to Riches
Summary:
Pros: Frantic gameplay after the first couple levels. Great art style. Pretty challenging to get gold for more gamer-y gamers. Not as “linear” as some might make it out to be in terms of gameplay.
Cons: Soundtrack is droll and repetitive (turned the music off after 3 levels). Could have added a little more identification of clickables in the busy background art (I might just suck at the game as well and blame not having an attention span).
For a casual game it is actually pretty good. The basic mechanic is that you have to decide in which order you are going to click things in order to achieve maximum efficiency. It sounds like this might be rather simple and the first couple of levels are (tutorial levels essentially). But after a few levels the difficulty ramps up if you are trying to achieve a gold rating on each level. I have only managed to get a gold on the tutorial levels . .
– Real player with 36.7 hrs in game
This is the most bafflingly charming casual time-management gardening sim / stealth infiltration mystery RPG with visual novel cutscenes that I’ve ever run across. I sincerely hope there’s more, and I enjoy the sequel to this game just as much.
Every level in the game is timed, but how much time you take determines whether you get a bronze medal (no time limit), silver medal (whether you get this or narrowly miss it will usually depend on your skill, and the game balance is very good), or a gold medal (usually memorably difficult – but again, doable). The same handful of game mechanics are used for both the time-management gardening levels, and the stealth infiltration or puzzle exploration levels, in a seamless way that I find frankly impressive.
– Real player with 29.9 hrs in game
Grandiose
Played for 7 hours was more than enough. Good try for a 16 year old. Gets boring fast.
- Fly traps don’t work is always 0 flies.
-Drill does nothing when right clicked on
-Door does nothing when right clicked on and never closes anyway
-Chicken coops don’t give more chickens even if bar is kept in the middle. Easier to just pick it up and place it again for full restock.
-Trees stay fallen 50% of the time and need more chopping before they disappear.
-Wheat has no icon in inventory when fully grown and picked.
– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game
Not ready for release. Needs an intro reading book or small help window, not some guy speaking in french, (which I do not speak or understand), to give a long video explaining mechanics and needs more content and building/crafting details per item so people understand what the item is, purpose its for, etc… Also the first day I had four men show up and had no weapon to craft to attack them. They destroyed everything.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
Herder
I had access to Beta release, it’s a fun unique take on farming, score attack, and tower-defence style games. Easy to pick up and play or sink a few hours into. Great fun!
It’s not a massive sprawling game, but you’ll easily get some hours of playtime in, well worth the $5.
– Real player with 46.1 hrs in game
Full play through w/ all achievements here when it uploads: https://youtu.be/HZTvax6dNbc
First Off Pro tip I didn’t find out until 5 hours into the game if you hit the R key the dog will run the sheep into the starting area and consolidate them The Concept of this game is actually really well executed, but first let me talk about the main thing that ruins the game a good amount for me. My little herder dude likes to target rocks walls trees EVERYTHING so I could be facing forward hit the w and go backwards cause he’s targeting some random object it makes your character herk and jerk around and it’s tragic. The sheep are dumb they literally run TOWARDS the danger instead of away. Whoever made this game has a really good understanding of animals the disease from having too many and the problems that can come from not thinning the herd can cause a huge problem and this mechanic is really well done and makes getting some of the achievements very difficult even on casual mode. The shooting works really well when my dudes not focused on a rock or a wall. The upgrades are super cool I was actually very amused when my sheep went face first into one of the land mines I planted. Definitely recommend this game for the price.
– Real player with 5.4 hrs in game
Farm Manager 2021: Prologue
As a whole, I found the game quit enjoyable to play. It was somewhat confusing… at first… especially with the placement of the power lines. With the game, Youtube is your best friend.
Would I recommend this game to play… The graphics are very good. There are plenty of tasks and challenges to complete. I am physically disabled and only have the use of my left hand. This is the first game I’ve played in a long while, that doesn’t end-up frustrating me after 5 minutes of play… and I quit the game. I have over 7 hours of play in the game, and I’ve just begun to scratch the surface of the game.
– Real player with 23.7 hrs in game
Great concept but cheap and buggy implementation. Not sure if i want to buy full game.
Even in this relatively content-poor demo i’ve encountered too much problems (both bugs and game design flaws) and in the full game with much more content there will be much more problems.
What i’ve seen so far:
1)Bugs:
-Saved game doesn’t load
-Some fields are only being plowed and cultivated but never sown for unknown reason no matter how long i wait, while adjacent field works fine
-So called “organic” weed isn’t being produced. Despite sowing organic seed i still harvest casual weed
– Real player with 17.6 hrs in game