Farming Simulator games require a certain mindset from the
player to really enjoy them. If you
expect constant action and excitement and stimulation for a game to be good,
this isn’t the series for you. If, on
the other hand, you enjoy things like grinding in RPGs, endlessly comparing
statistics, a laidback pace, and think you might like the immense satisfaction
that comes from turning a few acres of dirt into cash, you’ve come to the right
place.
The latest real Farming Simulator – not a piece of broken
knockoff garbage like Professional Farmer 2017 – from Giants Software is
Farming Simulator 17 and it is easily the best one yet. Farming Simulator 17 makes smart
improvements over previous entries and gives you a ton of options that really
make it a better experience. The sheer
amount of toys to play with and stuff to do is pretty impressive as well. See all of the details here in our full
Farming Simulator 17 Xbox One review.
Game Details
- Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
- Developer: Giants Software
- ESRB Rating: “E” for Everyone
- Genre: Simulation
- Pros: Smart improvements over FS15; extremely satisfying; lots of new stuff; genuinely fun
- Cons: Too slowly paced and boring for some; performance issues
- MSRP: $50
For those not familiar with Farming Simulator, it is a
slowly paced and obsessively detailed game about farming, raising animals, and
even logging timber. It is full of real
farming techniques, real equipment, realistic pacing, and a realistic economy
that is a fairly accurate simulation of farming. That might sound boring to some, but if you are of the right
mindset it can be one of the most satisfying and genuinely fun games
around. Most importantly, though, the
developers at Giants Software have made a lot of smart decisions to give you a
ton of options to make it fun and accessible as well as give you a wide variety
of things to do. It is only boring if
you don’t bother to make an attempt to find the fun.
I will fully admit, however, that the first several hours of
the game can be a real drag, which is unfortunate because it gives new players
an awful first impression. It is an
absolute grind for the first few hours where everything takes forever to do
because you have tiny equipment and not very much money. Once you get into the rhythm of things and
start earning money and can buy better equipment, things get much better. Bigger equipment means you can do things
faster, which means you earn money faster and can buy new equipment faster and
do different things and have a lot more fun.
It takes a good 6-8 hours to get to that point, though, which is where
the series loses most players. Grind it
out, earn some money (or better yet, find all 100 hidden gold nuggets on the
Goldcrest Valley map to get a 1-million dollar bonus to buy good stuff ASAP) and
buy better equipment and you’ll have a great time with Farming Simulator 17.
I think it is also worth mentioning that the learning curve
is quite steep in the Farming Simulator games and the in-game help and
tutorials don’t do a particularly good job of explaining how to do things. This is obviously frustrating because you
can waste a lot of time doing things wrong at first, which also sours new
players on the experience. My advice is
to be patient look online for help if you need it right away. This isn’t like Dark Souls where you get
some twisted satisfaction from doing everything blind. Ask for help.
If you’re already a series veteran, Farming Simulator 17
expands on the fantastic Farming Simulator 15 with new maps to play on, tons of
new equipment to use, and some really smart new options to make the game more
enjoyable to play. New options include
the ability to turn off A.I. traffic cars (yes!), change the default camera
when you switch equipment, and much more.
I was shocked at how much control the developers have given us this time
around to really make the experience our own.
All of the new stuff you can do also really increases how
much fun you can have with Farming Simulator 17 as well. Raising animals is more realistic now
because you can actually put them in a trailer and drive them around (or just
pay a fee to have them delivered automatically). Pigs join the sheep and cows, but chickens are sort of scaled back
this time around, which isn’t a big loss.
New crops include oilseed radishes, which you plant and then disc under
as natural fertilizer, along with soybeans and sunflowers. There are also trains on the map this time
around that you can use to move large amounts of crops at once. You also get the option to customize your
farm a bit by placing storage buildings and silos however you want, which is
cool.
The mission system has been changed to where you can go
around and help other farmers work their fields for extra money. Finally, the maps seem more real and alive
because the fields you don’t own actually grow crops rather than sitting
lifeless waiting for you to buy them.
This new mission system can be sort of a pain, though, because having to
manually plow or harvest a field can take more than an hour and you can’t hire
an A.I. worker to do it for you when you do missions. My advice here is to only do fertilizing missions because they go
faster since they cover a huge area all at once.
And, of course, the game has a ton of new equipment to play
with and most of it has customization options for colors and other options as well. There are multiple trucks to choose from,
two different pickups, and a ton of tractors and harvesters and other stuff as
well. They even have sowing machines
that fertilize the field at the same time!
That is crazy! This isn’t nearly
all of the changes and new stuff, either, but you get the idea. I would say that Farming Simulator 15 wasn’t
actually a huge change from the original 2013 Farming Simulator release for
Xbox 360, but Farming Simulator 17 is absolutely a massive upgrade over
previous entries in the series.
Well, not everything got upgraded that probably needed
it. The game’s performance is all over
the place and can go from running perfectly smooth to 5-FPS at the drop of a hat. It doesn’t really affect gameplay that much
when the game is chugging along since the game isn’t exactly fast paced anyway,
but it definitely isn’t a good look.
Also, the logging aspect of the game is still just as annoying as ever
and the equipment is just as impossible to control as FS15. I had really hoped for an improvement
here. Animals are also still a pain in
the butt since you have to mix their food and do all sorts of extra
nonsense. At least the farming itself
is awesome.
The presentation has seen some slight upgrades. I would say the equipment looks better
overall, but the environments are similarly detailed to FS15. The game still draws the fields around you
in a big circle – meaning the actual detailed crops pop into existence in a big
circle around you while the rest of the field is lower detail – which still
looks odd, but I guess that’s the only way to keep a game with this much
interactive stuff in it running properly (even if it runs like a pig). The sound has seen some improvements with
the addition of multiple radio stations full of music to listen to and the
equipment sounds better. The tone of
the engines actually changes now so you don’t just hear monotone noise while
they’re running, which is a big improvement.
Oh, one more thing - Mods. Farming Simulator 17 has full mod support so the community will be able to bring in new equipment, new maps, and tons of other new stuff all for free. In three months this game is going to be totally different than it is now, and that is pretty exciting.
Oh, one more thing - Mods. Farming Simulator 17 has full mod support so the community will be able to bring in new equipment, new maps, and tons of other new stuff all for free. In three months this game is going to be totally different than it is now, and that is pretty exciting.
All in all, Farming Simulator 17 is a surprisingly big
upgrade over previous entries in the series that will get series fans hooked
all over again while also being easily the best jump in point for new players
thanks to the wealth of options and variety of tasks. Sure it’s kinda janky and has iffy performance and has a massive
learning curve, but if you’re of the right mindset and are willing to learn to
play it, it can be one of the most satisfying and genuinely fun gaming
experiences around. Farming Simulator
17 is the best looking, best sounding, most fully-featured, best playing
Farming Simulator ever. Buy it.