Sometimes the success of certain categories of video games is not easily explained. In recent years, alongside the driving simulators and the rarer flight simulators, which still have a certain charm for a not too restricted circle of fans, it has also consolidated that of the farming simulator.
Being a farmer engaged in plowing the fields and breeding poultry is perhaps an interesting experience, so much so that within a luster the eponymous Farming Simulator has become the annual appointment within its genre, at equal to FIFA.
And here comes the competition: SoGerman has decided to carve out its share of the market, launching on Real Farm console and promising a new gaming experience.
IN THE “NEW” FARM
Publishing a new title in a context where already the various editions of Giant Software dominate the market, and are distinguished for very few details, it may seem at least courageous. What can you innovate in a genre where you need to sow the fields, harvest the crops, sell, and then start all over again?
SoGerman has justified his move as a just and noble initiative: according to the development team, the other cultivation simulators would be not only limited in function, but above all technically dated.Hence the birth of Real Farm, precisely the “true” management experience of their farm, with a technical department at the levels of the current gen consoles and a focus on those mid-gen. The initial menu of Real Farm, clean and intuitive, introduces in a few seconds the player in his own estate.
The modalities offered are only two, and in addition they are identical: in “free play” you can go directly to manage your resources as best you can, while the “career mode” presents itself as a series of more or less linked missions. You will begin by being the helpers of Matt Davis, the current owner of the farm, who will teach you all the tricks of the trade before retiring and leaving you, for no apparent reason, lands, tractors and livestock.
You do not expect anything vaguely similar to a “story”. The missions, then, are all similar, sometimes a truly unthinkable monotony, especially the initial ones that should help newcomers to become familiar with the game mechanics. In them we will find ourselves always performing the same tasks, always in the usual small patch of land, varying only the tools.
All right, the job of the peasants is not that of the explorers, but in this way a title already in itself always threatened by monotony and repetitiveness manages to come to boredom within a few hours. The tutorial and the missions are not even useful: the poor factor is left to
itself, with the few on-screen controls that oblige him to take one of the many similar means, to guide him from one point to another on the game map, and to start working the same terrain all the time. If these are the “Real Farm”, poor farmers …
THE HARD LIFE OF THE FIELDS, NOW IN 4K
Real Farm is not thought of as an easy game over title: miss the missions that will be assigned by neighbors or Davis simply means not being able to complete them in those abundant twenty minutes of time available.
This did not prevent SoGerman from introducing three levels of difficulty: it starts from an “easy” way in which the prices of products sold are very high and the initial capital to start the farm is given, to get to the “difficult” one, designed for experts, with high interest rates and high purchase prices for resources.
The real sore point of production is that it adds practically nothing to the competition series, which can also count on a considerable amount of licenses for Real Farm.
In this way, the title promises what any Farming Simulator is already able to give: meticulous cultivation and care of the fields, management of farm animals, organization of work machines and resources, sale of finished products. An experience certainly not for everyone, but even those few fans will find it hard to define innovative or worthy of some special attention.
