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
Read More: Best Farming Time Management Games.
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
Gleaner Heights
Don’t mistake this for Stardew Valley
Well, it needed to be said. Gleaner Heights is a farming-rpg that does share a few common elements with Stardew Valley and other games inspired by Harvest Moon. But it has an unique style, charm and in short is a game you really want to experience. It isn’t without its flaws, but the developer keeps an ear to the community and has expressed a desire to keep working on the game. Even as is, it is a damn good game, well worth the asking price. That’s the short of things.
– Real player with 76.6 hrs in game
This review will not be short, but I’ll preface it with the colloquial ‘short of it’. This game is mostly a positive experience, with a couple solid, avoidable gripes- and one which I’d say needs to be fixed on principle.
Gleaner Heights is a farming sim that, at least in my experience, lies just outside the expected norms of it’s genre- this is not a bad thing. In an extremely short forty hours it has forced me to confront particular habits and reliances that have embedded themself into my psyche, and to bash them against the rocks until they’ve cracked wide open, allowing me access to the tender meat within. It’s been an admittedly love-hate relationship, as a consequence of how it’s made me rethink what it is I value in the games I play, and reminded me why I started to love this genre in the first place.
– Real player with 60.4 hrs in game
The Stillness of the Wind
I cant say as i regret playing this but if someone asked me if they should play it, i would say no and thats why i decided on a thumbs down.
Firstly if, like me, you expected a farm simulator of some kind you would be very wrong. Do not get if you have that in mind.
The only two things i enjoyed enough to note are the visual style and the writing. This game has a very nice visual style, simple but pleasant and enjoyable. The writing is very artsy and poetic.
There are many things i did not enjoy. Nothing about the game is explained at any point other than the blurb on the store page. Its easy enough to get the point and click controls though. The story is unclear, difficult to understand (due to the very poetic nature of the writing) and i couldnt figure out what was happening, political unrest maybe? The day to day routine or running of the little farm is mundane, nothing really changes at any point. The character you play is a little old lady and the movement is SO SLOW, i get shes old but moving around is a chore in itself and gets boring very quick. It looks like there are place outside the farm to explore but after walking about 5 metres out the fence its night time so no idea what they are. The days go so fast that you cant get anything done. Your food does go off but there are no indicators at all as to how long before this happens. I dont know if i did something wrong or not enough of something. There is no indication how much things are worth when the trader shows up so you just have to click stuff until a tick appears. Wolves attack but they move so fast and you move so slow its impossible to stop them (i never managed to at least but i did shoot my own goat apparently). Eventually everything kinda stops for a few days yet again with no explanation or idea on what to do about it.
– Real player with 6.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Farming Female Protagonist Games.
In The Stillness of the Wind you control an old lady living quietly in solitude.You do minimal task everyday to survive and sustain. You can trade your artisan cheese, goat, chicken, harvested crops for resources you don’t have or need more of. As your family goes far away from town, you receive heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking letters.
You may like this game if you are okay with or want to…
- in-depth letters with emotions of a roller coaster and steadily dealing with some grief/loss (you can’t reply and that can make it harder to endure feeling uneasy like prisoner in chains - at least it was for me)
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game