It’s that time once again. The biennial cycle that is Farming Simulator is back. This time around Giants Software has included even more vehicles, brands, animals, and trains. The Farming Simulator series has developed a loyal and dedicated fanbase that continues to grow with each release. Take a look around for it on YouTube and Twitch sometime, you may be in for a surprise.
As a frequent purchaser of simulation games, this was on my radar. I grew up surrounded by a mostly corn, occasionally wheat, field on 3 sides, later on spending a few months living in a town surrounded by 4.5 million acres of farmland out in Kansas for the past 10 years alongside countless fields of Tobacco. While I’m not a farmer, it certainly isn’t foreign to me. Apart from a year spent living in southern Arizona, I’ve been around it all my life. I never gave the Farming Simulator series much thought prior to last year when it was by far the most requested game I got from viewers on Twitch. So, being familiar with the series and the subject matter, I feel like I’m in a good place to take a look at the newest in the series.
The game starts out quite simple, you can run through the usual tutorials or choose to start a career. Wanting to cover all the bases, I started with the tutorials. Basic mechanics on how to operate the machinery haven’t changed too much, so no need to relearn everything there, although it is nice to get back into the swing of things after a long break. This time around things seemed to move at a brisker pace.
Everything seemed rather smooth and looked sharper than before. It wasn’t until I got to the woodcutting tutorial that I noticed the first issue. After using the chainsaw to fell a tree, it immediately sunk into the ground and disappeared, which is a problem when you are required to transport the tree to finish the tutorial. A quick restart and everything was fine. The controls on the equipment to pick up the trees take some getting used to; at first it felt like the clumsy hands of Surgeon Simulator. With the job and tutorials done, it was time to move on to the career.
The career mode has seen a list of improvements, so many that it would fill the entire article to write them out here. The best improvement is the removal of the job board. No more searching for the one job that is possible to do and for very little money, the replacement for which are some appropriately placed question marks on the edge of fields. The employer provides the equipment and a good chunk of change. The missions are timed, and bonuses are paid out depending on how speedily the job was done. Just one mission with the bonus was a net of over $20k, which was a rather sizable chunk of money at the very beginning of the career.
Time to talk a little about the controls. While most are rather straightforward, a few certainly take some getting used to. I mentioned the oddly reminiscent feeling of playing Surgeon Simulator while trying to pick up a tree. One of the new additions this year is TrackIR support. I did not test it out as I just stuck to simple mouse and keyboard controls, but it is there now to try. This is a welcome addition to those who couple it with Saitek’s Farm Sim specific controllers.
Farming Simulator 15 added a different game engine. The new edition, however, seems to make the most of it. The graphics have improved more and the physics are more refined. It’s easy to tell that the team at Giants didn’t just sit around for 2 years and only add a few cosmetic items, slap a new number on the end, and call it a day. The sounds are better and lights as well. Sticking with the theme everything has moved a few steps forward.
After a few hours of play, I feel like I’ve barely even scratched the surface of what the latest Farming Simulator title has to offer. This brings me to the only drawback of getting an advanced copy to review, which is that I have no one with whom to try out the multiplayer. Those Twitch viewers who had recommended Farming Simulator 15 to me really pushed the multiplayer aspect as a more enjoyable experience. Compared to the previous title’s career mode, I would agree. With Farming Simulator 17 that gap has closed considerably. It is far easier now for even the more casual fan to enjoy the career mode as well.
Developer: Giants Software
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Release Date: 25th October 2016