Very rarely do you hear the words ‘farming simulator’ and ‘endless fun’ thrown together in the same sentence. Well disregard that first sentence, because you’re about to hear it for the first time. Stardew Valley is a farming simulator that provides endless fun, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Heavily inspired by games like Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley puts its own unique spin on the genre and gives PC owners a chance to get involved with the virtual crop growing craze. Let me say upfront, Stardew Valley is an RPG in disguise as a farming simulator, and is all about resource management. Don’t let this turn you off though if managing fake vegetables isn’t how you imagined you’d be spending your free time. Because of the way the game is structured, you never feel stressed when it comes to managing your time, money or energy.

Orange You Glad I Didn’t Say Apple?

Stardew Valley is all about creating your story, by playing the game however the hell you want to do that. The only story the game gives you is that you have a Grandfather, he had a farm, and now you have that farm. That’s it. The Last of Us this is not. There is a story however, it is just hidden within other elements inside the game. Whether you want to explore and find out what those stories are or not, that’s entirely up to you. Sure you could just spend each and every day buying, growing and selling crops, but you could just become a farmer and do that in real life. Why not spend your time doing something you can’t do in real life? Like talking to other people and getting married? This is just one of the marvellous, out-of-this-world activities that this game is full of. You can fish, mine, fight monsters, cook and raise livestock, just to name a few things. This is how you start creating your own narrative and truly make it your own. It’s the sort of game that you go and talk with your friends about and see how differently you’re playing the game. My partner and I (yes, I have a girlfriend, winning) have each put about 20 hours into the game, and have both focused on very different skills. Rather than sharing the same experience, it has turned into more of a ‘How have you not found that yet, I found it in my first month!’ with a bit of ‘Um, because I was to busy becoming a badass fisherman. Whose level 4 now you piece of…’ for good measure (it is possible I won’t have a girlfriend for much longer). It is always satisfying sinking hours into a game and making so many different decisions, to then see that it actually has different results down the track.

The thing that holds Stardew Valley short of amazing for the most part are some (at times) clunky controls. For a farming simulator that is so reliant on planning out where crops, buildings and expansions are going to go, you spend a little too much time placing things in the wrong spot. This is particularly annoying since it means having to destroy items and repurchase them if you want it in the right place. This also carries across to the combat. There is a pretty steep death penalty in the game, so when you attack to the left and your sword swings to the right, its kind of not cool. It definitely isn’t a deal breaker, and it happens less and less as you adjust to the controls of the game, but overall it could definitely be much smoother. My only other gripe was the friendship system, which requires a lot of trial and error and wasted gifts before you start finding out what people like. Just like real life, people have different interests, and the game never just tells you what they are. On one hand it’s good for realism, but on the other hand the game also has slime monsters. I can’t say for certain but that’s probably not super realistic.

A Link Between Two Farms

The game itself is very nice to look at, which you will be doing quite a bit of as you get more and more addicted to playing. It’s charming, 16-bit art style is very reminiscent of early Zelda games, when you carry items you even hold them directly above your head. Although you won’t be getting the visuals confused between this and Call of Duty, a lot of care and thought has gone into the design of this world, and it clearly shows. The game is played out in years, with each year containing four seasons which each last for a month. As soon as the environment feels a little too repetitive, you’ll probably find that the season is about to change. When it does, the landscape will adapt to match it. Colours will change, plants will appear and disappear, snow falls, you catch my drift. The environment itself isn’t particularly large, but each area feels unique, meaning that passing through them doesn’t ever feel boring.

As I mentioned before, at its’ core, this is an RPG. You will be levelling up skills that you frequently use, buying or crafting better armour or weapons, or even buying upgrades to your tools, equipment and house. It’s a system that is easy to learn, even if it takes a little longer to master. It is an excellent way to introduce people who are daunted by the idea of bigger RPG’s like Skyrim or Witcher, by getting players familiar with the mechanics without explicitly saying ‘welcome to RPG’s ya big nerd’. These systems are layered throughout everything you do in Stardew Valley, again showcasing the fact that if you want to solely go down one path, or play jack of all trades the game empowers you to do that.

Ain’t No Mountain High, Ain’t No Valley Low

It has been a long time I have been so focused on a game that has not stressed me out in the slightest. Games like the Witcher and MGS5 are fantastic and highly addictive, but are also daunting to tackle and even while your playing, the amount of choice for what you can do can be overwhelming. Stardew Valley always gives you just enough to do, without ever overwhelming you and making it feel like it’s becoming a chore. 20 hours into the game and I’m still working on upgrading my tools so I can cut bigger trees, to unlock new blocked off areas. The most impressive part about all of this is that this game was developed by one man, and he has done an incredible job. The ironic part is not only does that make me feel like my life is going nowhere, I now know it’s going nowhere even faster since I’m putting so much time into this game. Outside of clunky controls and a vague friendship system, there is no reason to not recommend this game to everyone. Even if you don’t have a gaming PC, this will work on almost anything, so you have no excuse.

8/10