Video Game Review: Farming Simulator 17 - Managing A Virtual Farm Isn't Very Thrilling

Developer Giants Software
Publisher Focus Home Interactive
Distributor Apex Interactive
Where we got our copy Apex Interactive
Genre Simulator
Game modes Single Player, Multiplayer, Co-op
Players 16
Reviewed on

Available on

Zartek_ZA

Published October 27, 2016

Farming Simulator 17 feels like work. I have played my fair share off simulator games, but I’ve never really delved into any of the previous farming simulators.

Farming isn’t easy in real life and as expected Farming Simulator 17 isn’t either. That’s not too say it’s not for everyone, if you ever had the need to farm, and I mean farm hard, look no further. Farming Simulator 17 developed by Giants Software starts off very slowly. You’re given 3 plots of land, 3 tractors, some basic equipment, a low capacity trailer and a harvester that moves at the speed of a snail. After a very uninformative tutorial and a brief instruction manual, you’re ready to start ploughing your fields.

I found my first few hours playing the game fairly interesting. After getting my fields cultivated and sowed, I went about exploring the map. Roaring over mountains, through fully grown fields, bushes and even pedestrians. Maybe it was just my sadistic side wanting to see if I could kill them, or looking for some excitement, but as expected you just drive straight through them. This is not Grand Theft Auto after all. Some effort went into creating the machinery on FS17. The tractors and attachments look realistic. There’s buttons, switches, knobs and even flashing beacon lights. The textures look good and the equipment moves realistically. You’re able to lower and raise different parts, fold or unfold and even open or close flaps. After some hard work you’re machinery even gets dirty, where after you can use your pressure washer to clean them. It feels like far less effort went into creating the rest of the game though.

Farming Simulator 17

Once you finally get the hang of the game, which can take quite a while, you’ll settle into a steady rhythm. Cultivate your fields, sow your fields, and wait for your crops to grow, harvest your crops and then sell them off. The price depends on the current buying rate at various places. Cash is tight so you would want to look for the highest paying customer. You have the option to take a loan from the bank, but depending on the difficulty you’ve selected when starting the game, you would already have a loan to pay off. The tutorial at the beginning of the game shows you the basics of completing your first harvest, after that the game doesn’t really give you much direction or tell you what to do next. This left me and most likely other players new to the series, confused and frustrated. This coupled with the lack of cash made me feel discouraged from experimenting with different equipment. Buying the wrong machinery could easily make you bankrupt. You do have the option to rent equipment daily but that also becomes very costly.

Farming Simulator 17

You can hire workers to do tasks like harvesting and sowing, so you can go about doing other work. This though is where some issues arise. The workers aren’t very smart. They cannot navigate simple obstructions or complete simple jobs. They kept on missing half of the field when sowing or harvesting. I’d end up having to complete the job they got paid for myself. I hired a worker to harvest my wheat, only to return a while later with him just parking in the middle of the field. Turns out the harvester needed to be emptied and he had no clue how to go about doing that. Apart from harvesting you can also keep animals. There is not much interaction with them, besides the extra work feeding them; they’re just an addition on your daily income chart. You can also cut down trees with the use of a chainsaw or expensive equipment. Once cut down you can sell the wood at the lumber yard. The time acceleration mechanic in FS17 is particularly strange. You can increase the speed to run up to 120 times the normal speed, but this only affects the passing of time, and not the speed at which everything moves. I thought it might work different, for instance decreasing the time it takes for a hired worker to harvest a field. Instead time passed much quicker but the amount of work completed remained the same. The game has a decent amount of detail and authenticity but started getting tedious with the endless repetition in the hopes of building a bigger farm.

Farming Simulator 17

The biggest hurdle in FS17 is probably the limited time and assistance to complete enough jobs to earn a decent income. It feels more like “waiting for your crops to grow simulator” whilst having to micro manage your hired workers. Apart from that I spent the rest of my time driving up and down selling my crops to various buyers. Farming simulator is unfortunately, and I’m sorry to say this, ridiculously boring. It is neither entertaining for curious gamers nor realistic enough to be an accurate simulator.

Farming Simulator 17 feels like work. I have played my fair share off simulator games, but I’ve never really delved into any of the previous farming simulators. Farming isn’t easy in real life and as expected Farming Simulator 17 isn’t either. That’s not too say it’s not for everyone, if you ever had the need to farm, and I mean farm hard, look no further. Farming Simulator 17 developed by Giants Software starts off very slowly. You’re given 3 plots of land, 3 tractors, some basic equipment, a low capacity trailer and a harvester that moves at the speed of a snail. After a very uninformative tutorial and a brief instruction manual, you’re ready to start ploughing your fields. I found my first few hours playing the game fairly interesting. After getting my fields cultivated and sowed, I went about exploring the map. Roaring over mountains, through fully grown fields, bushes and even pedestrians. Maybe it was just my sadistic side wanting to see if I could kill them, or looking for some excitement, but as expected you just drive straight through them. This is not Grand Theft Auto after all. Some effort went into creating the machinery on FS17. The tractors and attachments look realistic. There’s buttons, switches, knobs and even flashing beacon lights. The textures look good and the equipment moves realistically. You’re able to lower and raise different parts, fold or unfold and even open or close flaps. After some hard work you’re machinery even gets dirty, where after you can use your pressure washer to clean them. It feels like far less effort went into creating the rest of the game though. [caption id="attachment_150627" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Farming Simulator 17[/caption] Once you finally get the hang of the game, which can take quite a while, you’ll settle into a steady rhythm. Cultivate your fields, sow your fields, and wait for your crops to grow, harvest your crops and then sell them off. The price depends on the current buying rate at various places. Cash is tight so you would want to look for the highest paying customer. You have the option to take a loan from the bank, but depending on the difficulty you’ve selected when starting the game, you would already have a loan to pay off. The tutorial at the beginning of the game shows you the basics of completing your first harvest, after that the game doesn’t really give you much direction or tell you what to do next. This left me and most likely other players new to the series, confused and frustrated. This coupled with the lack of cash made me feel discouraged from experimenting with different equipment. Buying the wrong machinery could easily make you bankrupt. You do have the option to rent equipment daily but that also becomes very costly. [caption id="attachment_150639" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Farming Simulator 17[/caption] You can hire workers to do tasks like harvesting and sowing, so you can go about doing other work. This though is where…

Video Game Review: Farming Simulator 17 – Managing A Virtual Farm Isn’t Very Thrilling

2016-10-27

Zartek_ZA

Total - 4.5

4.5

Farming Simulator 17 feels like work.Uninformative tutorials,unproductive AI and monotonous game play make it unbearable for the typical gamer.For those who have an interest in farming,Farming Simulator does exactly what it says.

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Article Categories: Video Game Reviews