I should know, considering my family primarily comes from a farming background, but even so, I can’t help but see the game as a rather hollow rendition of a lived experience. Maybe the real message in the game is how hard it is to be a farmer. Maybe it’s part of the simulation experience to struggle to learn how to plant new crops and harvest while constrained by your bank balance. While controls and concepts appear simple, there’s a learning curve to the game that feels ridiculous and this entry in the series offers no hand-holding. Games like Goat Simulator provide the simulator aspect while still allowing the player some semblance of agency and, well, fun.įarming Simulator 22 gives you player agency but it feels rigid. My exposure to simulator games has usually been those quirky ones that are less about realistic situations and more based on awkward impositions.

But what does the “simulator” part bring to the table that makes it a worthy play over other farming titles with a less realistic approach? Surely the harvest is just as bountiful, but the grind of learning how a realistic simulator game works is a lot more involved than many give it credit for.Īs a gamer, I pride myself on being keen to try games from any genre. Spanning an impressive fifteen mainline game releases, some mobile entries, and even a real-life tractor controller, the franchise has certainly grown a lot over the years. The Farming Simulator series has been growing its crops for quite a while.

Far manager 2021