Review for Farming Simulator 18. Game for Android, iOS, PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS, the video game was released on 06/06/2017
The series of Farming Simulator, now famous everywhere, has a somewhat strange way of releasing its chapters: it seems that every year it alternates its releases between home consoles and mobile devices. If in fact Farming Simulator 15 and Farming Simulator 17 were released on home consoles (with all the technical benefits that derive from it), the 16 and the brand new 18 are mobile games, for mobile phones, 3DS, and Playstation Vita. We do not know the reasons for this choice but the underlying problem is that the mobile versions are always completely inferior to the home versions. If Farming Simulator 17, in fact, offered a complete and very engaging experience, the new chapter is extremely simplified and results in an effective step back in every respect. Let's analyze the situation together.
Farewell to farm life
As you can imagine, Farming Simulator 18 is a game that puts us at the helm and management of a farm, with all the jobs and tasks that go with it. Growing plants and grain and caring for animals like chickens and cows is part of that, as is earning money by doing assignments and selling the fruit of your labor. However, in the last iteration, the city was full of fellow factors who were ready to help us in case of need, teaching us how to operate advanced machinery and making us evaluate their purchase, while in Farming Simulator 18 there is only one helper who will appear randomly giving us help or proposing jobs or missions. This turns out to be more annoying than anything else, since he has the bad habit of appearing only in the midst of excited phases where he will only slow us down, while not even a shadow of it will be seen when we need him most.
Aside from that, what characterized the series so far was the feeling of "tranquility" of being a farmer and running a farm. The thing most loved by Farming Simulator fans was walking around after work, while waiting for the harvest, also going to check their chickens, pet the cows, take time to balance the more mechanical phases of the whole experience. Farming Simulator 18, on the other hand, perhaps also due to its mobile nature and therefore a "quick match", cuts all these things by not even allowing the player to walk around the farm in first person, making the title a simple "produce, accumulate riches, repeat ". To facilitate these portable game mechanics, all chores are speeded up beyond belief, to the point that crops grow within an hour of planting and the work-gain cycle occurs at a disarming speed.
As already mentioned, first-person exploration has been removed entirely, and our character will always and only be connected to means of transport such as tractors and other vehicles. Farming Simulator 18 thus becomes a title that is based exclusively on work on the farm and not at all on life on the farm, which instead had characterized the previous chapters. Although this makes it more suitable for fast sessions, the sense of the series is almost distorted.
More gameplay, less content
Both playing on 3DS and on Playstation Vita we will find the same graphic sector, although on the Sony laptop everything is cleaner and with slightly higher quality textures and models. Learning to manage the keys on the consoles is simple and immediate, and we will soon find ourselves getting used to the new type of gameplay compared to when we used the keyboard on the PC during the sessions of Farming Simulator 17. However, the contents of this new chapter are truly miserable, not only because of all the cuts made that we have already talked about, but also as regards the fact that there is only one map available (compared to the previous two), there is no customization of the farm, and they do not exist missions by NPCs.
Farming Simulator 18 is a title in the series that is completely inferior to all the previous chapters. This chapter is ripped off of many things that distinguished farm life, to make everything faster and more immediate as befits its nature from portable consoles and smartphones. For starters, it might be a good place to start, but for fans of the series we've taken giant steps backwards that will disappoint all expectations.
► Farming Simulator 18 is a Simulation game developed by Giants Software and published by Focus Home Interactive for Android, iOS, PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS, the video game was released on 06/06/2017
