Deiland: Pocket Planet

Deiland: Pocket Planet

Deiland: Pocket Planet is a relaxing farming adventure where you will have to take care of your tiny planet. Farm, craft and fight monsters to make your home a special place and help others with their quest.

Discover the story of Arco in this single-player experience, a tale about growing up, helping others and revealing the secrets that lie on the heart of your planet. We’ve crafted a relaxing game, with a strong narrative and a cast of diverse characters for you to meet.

Customize your planet with trees, plants, crops, flowers or structures, and take care of your farm animals.Discover how the whole planet changes through Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Each crop will only be available in the right seasons.

Play and relax. Smooth and cute graphics as well as relaxing soundtrack to ease up the bustling everyday routine with over 12 characters to meet and befriend and more than 100 quests to uncover the secrets that the heart of your planet holds.


Read More: Best Nature Relaxing Games.


Deiland: Pocket Planet on Steam

Lumberjack Simulator

Lumberjack Simulator

Well, after playing Lumberjack Simulator for over 44 hours now I feel I can wholeheartedly recommend it. It may have a tough learning curve due to the large amount of different vehicles and the unusual key commands, but it is so worth it after you learn the basics of a few machines. I had enough fun in the beginning of career just cutting down a few trees and running them through a chipper to make a few bucks but then you can advance through much more complex machines. There is also ‘open world’ play with easy, medium, and hard levels.

Real player with 141.3 hrs in game


Read More: Best Nature Driving Games.


Let me first start off by saying the product I am reviewing is the Steam Early Access!

No, I was not paid to say any of this, this is all 100% my personal opinions of what I think about the game.

Detailed review or SKIP to TLDR

Who is this game for?

If you love forestry or any sort of logging or have a curiosity for it, or just would like to give yourself a challenge out in the forest, then I believe this game will be for you!

(Now, not to compare, but I am doing so purely from a review point to point out the key features that Lumberjack Simulator has over other games!)

Real player with 54.1 hrs in game

Lumberjack Simulator on Steam

Staxel

Staxel

I really want to like Staxel. I know I could love it. But, it’s an agonisingly frustrating experience to play. I don’t feel I’m exaggerating when I say most, if not all, of the game’s content is a good idea implemented in the worst possible way.

Every time I want to do something, I run into a frustration that doesn’t need to be there. There isn’t one major issue. Everything is wrapped up in so many minor issues it’s almost worse. I could deal with some singular huge flaw. But that’s not it. It’s just so universally flawed all over.

Real player with 346.4 hrs in game


Read More: Best Nature Character Customization Games.


Let me start off by saying that Steam really needs to consider a 3rd option when recommending games to people. This game is fun, and I kind of enjoy playing it, but there are some major things (imo) that warrant a “do not recommend” review, or rather a “recommend this game unless…”

Pros:

Graphics: 9/10

The graphics are cute and colorful and the 3D pixel character designs are fun. Some blocks' graphics glitch through other blocks which can sometimes ruin a certain look the player is trying to achieve with his/her build. There’s quite a large selection of blocks to use in your builds, and I’m sure through modding there are vastly more blocks to pick from. You can also rotate some blocks.

Real player with 160.3 hrs in game

Staxel on Steam

Instant Farmer - Logic Puzzle

Instant Farmer - Logic Puzzle

Stars received: 2.2/10 _ Note: v.5 [0.0 to 1] = personal impressions

[0.4] Controls & Training & Help

[0.2] Menu & Settings

[0.3] Sound & Music

[0.3] Graphics

[0.4] Game Design

[0] Game Story

[0.3] Game Content

[0.3] Completion time (level/game)?

[0] is it Enjoyable & Fun?

[0] Could it hold a spot in Favorites? (& if the Game can be repeatedly played again)

[0] BONUS point: Multi-Player related

[0] BONUS point: Review for VR

[N] - if Registration is required with providing PII

Game description key-points: water for plants

Real player with 5.2 hrs in game

i normally wouldn’t write a review if i have no strong feelings on a game, but i’ll make an exception this time. this game is visually appealing and not too difficult overall but there are a few levels that feel almost impossible (and i’ll admit i had to look at a guide for one of them). it was a little clunky and didn’t run super well on my pc despite it definitely meeting the minimum running requirements. the lack of a “reset puzzle” button was also downsides for me.

i went into this game hoping to love it but i just don’t think my brain was built for it, which sucks, but that’s definitely a “me” thing. just because i personally didn’t have a super relaxing and fun time with it doesn’t mean that i don’t get why others do! it really is cute and watching your farm grow in the background as you progress is nice. i feel neutral about it but honestly if you like puzzles and have some free time to kill this will probably be worth it to you.

Real player with 3.8 hrs in game

Instant Farmer - Logic Puzzle on Steam

Terroir

Terroir

DO NOT BUY! This game can be fun but…only for the first hour when your small i thought it was a tycoon game and it doesn’t feel the way. It feels like Rimworld except the challenge is the weather and the “supply and demand system” so i will explain

Weather: Its too unpredictable it feels like some years your in Arizona where it hardly rains and the next year you’re set down in Washington and it rains all the time and sometimes not enough for crops to get ripe, even with no foliage. I enjoy challenging games but tycoon games don’t come to mind unless there is AI and ill get to that later. There is absolutely no research for predicting the weather if they get too ripe you can usually bring them down but if rains so much they don’t grow it is almost a guaranteed FAIL. In the start of the game its easy to deal with but in later stages two bad years you will spend almost a half a million in maintenance and if you can’t produce anything with the rain never stopping and rot eating into you’re yield you are doomed. There needs to be a way less RNG, I want a challenge, not a game based on luck, it just feels very lazy, even for such a cheap game.

Real player with 14.4 hrs in game

Fair warning, I know nothing about wine but I am a big fan of tycoon games so I thought I would give this a try. I’ll deal with the positive first, the game’s graphics are attractive if minimalistic, and serve their purpose nicely. I appreciate the option to pretty up your vinyard with assorted items to create a nice looking creation. The full voice acting is also nice, if somewhat unneccesary. The problem though is with the core meat of the game, the winemaking and tycoon-ing. Making wines is initially a huge challenge, and you will barely scrape through the start of the game with no real knowledge of how to create each wine or the facilities to do so. Slowly, you learn the ‘recipe’ for each strain and can begin to make a 5-star wine every time, quickly accumulating vast amounts of money. Initially, I was stumped by how to increase my renown enough to upgrade my estate or unlock helpful worker tools, but then I realised that the Tavern, a relatively cheap building which also makes tons of cash, earns you an absurd 6 renown per month (for context, a month is about 30 seconds uninterrupted). Once I knew that, the difficulty curve completely reversed and there was no challenge whatsoever. I upgraded to the maximum and researched all tools and techniques within a couple of years, and hadn’t really needed to use any of them to get to a point where I was a millionaire with maximum reputation and totally bored stiff.

Real player with 12.1 hrs in game

Terroir on Steam

Vilmonic

Vilmonic

Vilmonic is a sandbox game which focuses on the evolution of alien species called anims; they adapt to environments, go extinct, go through periods of population peaks… Anims change shape as they try to find a way to fulfil their role in a niche, when faced with competition from other anims. I have high hopes for this game, and I believe the developer will continue to grow it.

Vilmonic for me is a concept game, it is still in beta as I write this, the game has potential to inspire many into pursuing perhaps even careers in genetics, or simply educating people in times where evolution has been considered controversial. It has a friendly aesthetic for new users, the control schemes can be somewhat clunky.

Real player with 151.7 hrs in game

The ONLY modern A-Life game you can do a successful Wolfing Run.

For the young ones, that is a term coined by the Creatures series community, which has been on the net since 1999.

Wolfing is leaving your artificial lifeforms to their own devices for several hours, maybe while at work or sleeping, and coming back to a population that has changed, persisted, and survived natural selection factors. Mods are needed for Creatures 2’s bugs but the three games can theoretically support a “wild” population of creatures without player input for extended periods.

Real player with 30.8 hrs in game

Vilmonic on Steam

Reiterland - Meine Rennpferde

Reiterland - Meine Rennpferde

Amazing game!

Real player with 0.9 hrs in game

Amazing game!

Real player with 0.1 hrs in game

Reiterland - Meine Rennpferde on Steam

Cave Confectioner

Cave Confectioner

This product was provided for free to review by a friend of a friend.

The game initially reminded me of the classic Kings Quest game on the Apple II. You wander around a bit looking for the next thing to pick up. Kind of just wandering and clicking around with very little direction, but there are some occasional tips by talking to the characters. It was probably inspired at least some by MineCraft, since the player starts with nothing and has to pick up items and then use them with other items in inventory or objects on the ground to try to get make else. It also has similarities to One Hour One Life. There’s a lot of experimentation required to get anything going.

Real player with 2.4 hrs in game

The game seems really nice, and I like the concept a lot. Thing is, I am having some issues with saving. However, as far as I understand the game is early in development and possibly being made by one person so issues like these are understandable. Can’t wait for future updates!

P.S A little help with saving would be much appreciated! :D

Edit: Save function in now working. Also, the controls are fine, that was a mistake on my part. Big thanks to the developer for the fast fix and the kindness!

Real player with 2.2 hrs in game

Cave Confectioner on Steam

Mendel’s Garden

Mendel’s Garden

I love this game. It’s cute, it’s funny, it’s relaxing, it’s a great idea. I want more games like this.

Real player with 3.9 hrs in game

It is a very fun game, I recommend it if you like Mendel and his study of pea’s…just without peas.

Real player with 3.9 hrs in game

Mendel's Garden on Steam

Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands

Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands

(Summary at the end of this review for easier, faster reading)

UPDATED FOR THE COMPLETION UPDATE (Dec. 2020)

Having had fond memories of The Sims: Castaway in my childhood, I was quite ecstatic when I found a game that sounded similar. There are a great deal of differences between the aforementioned Sims spin-off and this indie game, and it more easily compares to Yonder: the Cloudcatcher Chronicles in regards to progression. Instead of simply relying on the tired “get better tool to get next material” method of game progression, you get access to new locations by acquiring new tools (an axe to cut down bushes that block your path, a raft to row to different islands, etc.) or by learning new crafting recipes (like ladders, and bridges) to cross previously impassible obstacles.

Real player with 106.9 hrs in game

Update October 2020 - I quit playing this game because the fishing became VERY UNPLEASANT. The fishing was fairly fun before the 2nd update. Now it is a CHORE and this added difficulty adds nothing to the game. Many food buffs rely on the fish that are now so difficult to catch that it actually spoils the game. Several players have commented on this only to fall on deaf ears. Too bad…. there are many other aspects of the game that are enjoyable.

Here is a January update since the fixes in December. Note I did not start a new game but continued with the added update.

Real player with 58.9 hrs in game

Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands on Steam