REVIEW – Are you not entertained by Geralt? Do you think, that you have a different „Destiny”? Do you avoid the adventures of Max and Chloe in Life is Strange? Then, the only new release in mid-May that is left is Farming Simulator 15, which is back after the „average” 2013 version, although now on the PS4. Now you can keep a farm going with up to 15 others!

Although I admit that I’m not from the countryside (I’m the exact opposite, I’m from an apartment block, being an urban), I still managed to take some time to enjoy Farming Simulator 2015. My first impressions were surprisingly positive: the calm – mainly because of the music – title screen showed a clean, but a bit unstylish menu, which immediately had a Tutorials option in order to make those first steps to create a successful micro-economy. (This is basically the single target to achieve in the Career mode.)

Career

Thankfully, the game offers three difficulties, changing several factors in the game: on Easy, you will have a bigger wallet in your hand and the loan from the bank won’t be that much, the successful missions reap more money and the employees will have a low wage. You can figure out the rest in Normal and Hard – the finances will be tough.

You can also pick a starting location too, because Giants Software didn’t just lazily built one place and be done with it. Instead, for example, you can either go to the United States to be a successful farmer in Westbridge Hills, or you can go for the Scandinavian area of Bjornholm, which will also offer you a quick tutorial tour too. The controls are alright, there’s no need to practice it much: jump with X, duck with Square, L1+L3 toggles the map view and so on. You can also drive vehicles as well, so if you ever wanted to get on board of a harvester, your dreams can come true.

This might be a bit of an issue – the handling doesn’t seem… on spot for me, but it might have been just me taking a too sharp turn while harvesting… although this doesn’t explain the presence of those invisble walls. I managed to run into some several times, which is kinda sad to see in 2015. Why? There should have been some rails or something, so I wouldn’t end up running into the invisble wall. But on another note: the game isn’t that arcade, so you have to connect the harvester’s header too.

Statistics

Luckily, the game will offer you a one-week weather forecast, giving you news stories to look out for, you can look at your profits, the costs of upkeeping, the wages, the construction and so forth. Potato, wheat, barley, sugar beet, silage, wood chips; storage costs from milk to wool, seeds, fuel; a big – really, roughly around 140 to choose from – line-up of vehicles, animals (sheep, chicken and cows), and of course the statistics of how we used our tools – the last one is really detailed. This is really great to see how much the developers have crammed into eight menu points, and you can move around these using L1 and R1. The numbers aren’t really lively, but it’s alright, because you can’t go any other way than this.

What’s the problem?

Do not expect an adrenaline-filled gameplay because of the genre of genre, plus this simulator is really a niche title. It’s a good idea to put some background music in, because your thoughts can really fly off the game during harvesting or such. There should be more music like the title screen one, because that’s not bad. What about the visuals? Average, but the vehicles look much more detailed than the areas themselves, similar to Milestone’s Ride. The game’s graphics are not that important though. On top of these, I can only say that the game can be a bit boring after a while.

Monopoly?

The game’s not bad. Beginners will receive a lot of help, so they can also be successful farmers, who will require to manage finances, vehicles, employees and the animals very well. The game is a bit abstract in the current times, but it’s an okay title nevertheless – it’s a good, albeit niche addition to the line-up of games. I don’t recommend it, but giving it a look won’t hurt much.

-V-

Publisher: Focus Home Interactive

Developer: Giants Software

Genres: simulator, management, economy

Publication: May 19, 2015