Farlands Review
Far Lands is the farming tale as old of time, where players, worn down by the weight of late stage capitalism in the city, buy a farm and move to the country. Except this is a science fiction take, and farm is a whole different planet bought on the cheap from a sleazy real estate guru. The planet, it turns out is a mostly dead planet with a small patch of farmable land. From there, I started from nothing to build a thriving enterprise. While it's a familiar thread, it builds on the idea in a very charming fashion with gorgeous pastel purple alien trees, strange fauna, and wacky characters.
I've played and enjoyed many farming sims, and I will say this one of only a few games that engrossed me the way my first play-through of Stardew Valley did. I'm not the type of gamer who likes to min/max but rather I'm some sort of chaos gremlin that makes choices because I think they result will be entertaining and tell a good story. Such as when I was given the option to buy things for the first time from merchants, I'm pretty sure the idea was to just buy seeds. However, the game did not lock me into to just buying seeds. Instead I was allowed to purchase whatever I desired, as long as I had the money for it. What I wanted was the creepy guard gnome statue. Yes, buying it would probably have no benefit, and make getting started that much harder. But what can I say, I was an enby in love and it was a price I was willing to pay. Which turned out, in my opinion, to be the right call, because the next time I saw the merchants they had completely different inventory.
I really liked that the game left me to do what I wanted and explore the world and it's mechanics at my own pace. I never felt stressed or rushed during my time with it. The whole thing feels very chill and low-key, which made it a perfect experience to unwind to before and after work.
A key part of this game is the space travel mechanic. I had to supply fuel for my spaceship, and different planets required different amounts of fuel to travel to. The planets have a nice range of variety, such as one containing the game's town, and another be a swampy place. Different creatures and materials inhabit each one, which gave each planet it's own niche. I thought this was an interesting approach as going to town required some planning and resource management.
While overall I enjoyed the game, I did have some issues with it. Despite being 1.0 there are still multiple bugs. While none of them were game-breaking, they did trip me up at some points. For example when I initially started my game, everyone was speaking Spanish despite English being selected. There was another when during fishing, my tool button stopped working momentarily and resolved a few moments later. The devs are still working on fixing these issues, and this may no longer be a problem.
Another thing I noted was the load scenes between days took a surprising amount of time, and to me felt just a tad bit too long. Finally, some of the mechanics where implemented better then others, and some I did not care for. For example when I socialized with characters there is a chance that the interaction goes poorly and it affects relationships negatively. I really hated this. The result of this was I went out of my way to keep to myself and not interact with townsfolk.
In the end though, I think there's more good then bad. While it wasn't a perfect experience, l I had a fantastic time with this, and found it a nice way to unwind. Farlands feels like a nice bite size Stardew Valley meets No Man's Sky with very chill vibes. I played this on Steam Deck, and found when I wasn't encountering bugs, the control scheme was very smooth. I wouldn't say this is a must play of farming sims — but it's a respectable choice for those looking for the fun of exploring space in a pixel art setting, and especially worth grabbing on sale.
Farlands
Farlands is science fiction take on Stardew Valley with a little bit of No Man's Sky mixed in. It's a tad familiar and rough around the edges but still a cozy lovable experience with heart and humor.
