Farming Simulator 17 Review
A gaming franchise built upon the idea of farming may not have seemed like a recipe for success when it was first revealed but the Farming Simulator series has now sold almost five million copies in total and has been so successful that there have now been five iterations of the title across PC, home consoles, and mobile devices. However, I’ve never played any of them before, making me the perfect guinea pig to try out the latest instalment.
Farming Simulator 17 is exactly what you would think. You take on the role of a farmer in one of two different locations and then spend your time farming. This involves every aspect of being a farmer, from growing crops to harvest and sell, keeping and breeding livestock, and managing the jobs given out to AI controlled workers. From what I’ve learned through gameplay so far, it is no easy feat being a farmer.
Almost everything within Farming Simulator 17 is at least slightly complicated. It’s no good just jumping into a combine harvester and bringing in all that delicious corn. There are a myriad of jobs to do in between and lots of controls to learn. The tutorials are a necessity for anyone new to the series but even they don’t cover everything. While almost every issue can be found within the help menu or tutorial, I still found myself having to look online for solutions to problems.
Fields have to be ploughed and cultivated, seeds have to be sown, and crops have to be fertilized before the harvesting begins. This all takes several in-game hours, although time can be sped up to a maximum of 120x, giving you plenty of opportunity to stagger work across multiple fields if you employ some workers to help you out. In the interests of realism, every vehicle has a multitude of options and it’s important that you make sure everything is switched on and in position before you start. Otherwise, you might halfway through ploughing a field only to find that you forgot to lower the equipment and you’ve spend 20 minutes doing absolutely nothing.
With that said, creating your own farm can be very enjoyable. As you progress through the game, you find that you get into a settled routine and can delegate a lot of the tasks to the computer. This leaves you time to do some extra jobs for other farmers to earn extra money or to simply explore the surroundings. While there isn’t a great deal to do, it is possible to play basket and there are a collection of hidden gold coins scattered throughout the main map.
One of the strangest things about this game, though, is how inconsistent it is with the physics. Many objects are simply treated as if they have no mass whatsoever, allowing you to pass through them without a thought or pause. Some fences, plants, and other objects appear to simply be holograms that do not actually pose a barrier. However, others are steadfast in blocking your path, forcing you to carefully maneuver your tractor and trailer. A little investigation of earlier titles shows that this bizarre behavior is nothing new and most experienced players tend to do some experimenting with what can and can’t be passed through when they first load up a new game so they can work out how to best position items.
The AI workers also struggle to carry out their tasks quite a lot of the time from what I have experienced through several playthroughs. Sometimes, they’ll carry out their assigned task in a quick and efficient manner, but other times they will mess up a relatively easy job, requiring you to come over and fix it. This is most often caused by a field being too close to a fence or surrounded by trees. The computer controlled workers seem to have a hard time navigating around these obstacles, despite the fact they are incredibly easy to avoid when you are in the driving seat.
It is also strange how some jobs have to be done manually. The most irritating is the inability to get a worker to bring back equipment or new vehicles from the shop to your farm. This effectively means you spend a good deal of your time shuttling between the two locations to simply bring back stuff you have bought. Another bugbear is that you also have to drive directly to every location to drop off your crop to sell – a job that also cannot be given to a worker to do for you.
There are some new additions to the franchise even though some problems seem to have persisted from previous iterations. The first you will notice is that you can actually choose your gender in Farming Simulator 17 for the very first time. It means very little in practice as you rarely ever see your actual character model but it is nice that it is possible to play as a female character when so many games ignore this issue. There are also some new manufacturers, bringing equipment and vehicles not previously available. Significantly, some crops, like soy beans, are also available from the get go, giving you more options with what you want to grow on your farm.
It is difficult to recommend Farming Simulator 17 to anyone simply because of the type of game it is. If you want to experience farming in all of its nitty gritty glory, then this is definitely the game for you. If you generally prefer action orientated exciting titles, then it is probably best to stay away from it. I found that it had the same sort of feel as Euro Truck Simulator, SimCity, or Elite Dangerous. It allows you to switch off from the outside world and spend a few hours relaxing while listening to music or watching TV. Played in that way, it is an excellent way to spend some of your downtime.
This review is based on a digital copy of the game provided by the publisher for Xbox One. Farming Simulator 17 is available worldwide for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One priced at $35.