Farmer’s Life Review – Dirty Survival Farm Sim In Test

Farmer’s Life shows us the life on a farm in the 1940s in Eastern Europe, vegetables, animals, lumbering, and a lot of trade paired with Survival

In this Farmer’s Life Review, I show you how the new farm sim with survival elements from Freemind Games performs. Kasimir, the ever-drunk ex-soldier, comes back to his parents’ farm after WW2. The family is dead, he is addicted to alcohol and the farm is run down. Can you turn his life around, or ruin everything forever? Farmer’s Life was released on Steam for PC with a release date of August 2021.

This article is available here as text, but also as a YouTube video (German voice-over, many subtitles). This way you can choose how you would like to enjoy it most.

Farmer’s Life Review Video

German Voice-Over, many subtitles

Farmer’s Life Review – Intro

Hi there, here is the Zap. In this Farmer’s Life review, you get a little insight into the new farm simulation with survival elements. I’ll tell you how it is played, what’s in it and at the end, there is a rating from me. But most of all, I want to give you all the info, so you can decide for yourself if the game could be fun for you.

Farmer’s Life is developed by Freemind Games and published by Playways. So far there are already some interesting games from Playways with Houseflipper, Car Mechanic Simulator, or Mr. Prepper. Farmer’s Life has just recently launched into Early Access and is available on Steam for PC.

I received a free trial key, my thanks for that. However, this should not affect my rating, as I always test all games with the thought in the back of my mind, how would I feel if I had paid full price.

Farmer’s Life – Story

World War 2 has just ended and Kasimir, our dirty and grumpy hero, has just returned from the war. He is the last survivor of his family. His parents’ farm is totally run down, he is plagued by nightmares about the war and his alcohol addiction has him completely in its grip. Only his favorite pig, Fluffy, still sticks with him and gives him something that roughly equals a meaning to life.

This is how we get into the story of Farmer’s Life, a very special kind of farm simulation. Here we will be able to grow carrots and plow fields, but also cut wood in the forest, breed animals, go fishing, or really let off steam. But we also have to be careful not to starve, die of thirst, freeze to death or perish from loneliness or alcohol addiction.

Farmer’s Life goes into depth on many things. A lot of stuff is presented here in an unsophisticated way. Life in the late 40s was hard. The game shows us everything about working on the farm. Finances, stockpiling for the winter, relationships with people in the village, or brawls on the marketplace also play a role.

Farmer’s Life – Game Type

Basically, there is a survival simulation in this game. We have to eat, drink, sleep, can catch a cold and if we don’t take care of it we can also die of pneumonia. We can be killed by a tree or eaten by a bear. In the same way, we can be badly beaten up by the thug in the village.

And at the same time, everything is scarce. True, there are merchants in the market who would like to sell us their expensive goods. But the money for this must first be earned. Because at the beginning we have almost nothing, except for a ruined farm, three chickens, and a pig. But the sow is our best friend and companion, so slaughtering is out of the question here.

So we earn our first money collecting scrap metal until we can afford a scythe, and then we start mowing the meadows on our farm or around the village and selling the hay to the cattle dealer. Little by little, very slowly, we can buy the many tools needed to be a farmer. We can get a few animals and eventually invest in vegetable cultivation, livestock, or timber farming.

The possibilities in the game are enormous. There are chickens, pigs, cows, horses as farm animals. We can grow 6 kinds of vegetables and some kinds of cereals. By cutting wood, we not only ensure that we do not freeze to death in the winter and can cook food at home on the stove, but also can engage in trade of building materials and maintain our farm when needed.

In addition, there is the possibility to hunt, with rifles or traps, to fish, or to look for mushrooms and fruit in the forest. We can and must acquire a wide range of different tools, from scythe and ax to saw and hoe, to pitchfork and flail.

In the beginning, we have to carry everything ourselves, which makes things tedious and slow. Gradually we may get transport hand carts, horse carts or even a tractor to improve this.

Cultivating, harvesting, gathering, trading and crafting

Let’s get to the real meat and the greatest strength of Farmer’s Life. I often play games of this kind, and also like to play a survival game from time to time. But the possibilities Farmer’s Life offers in this area are already very impressive and complex.

As mentioned earlier, it starts with simple things like cutting hay with a scythe. Or chopping wood and gathering fruits or mushrooms in the forest. We can purchase chickens that lay eggs. If at some point we have enough money to buy a cow, we can milk it and get milk from it.

The animals do not starve if they are not fed, but if we treat them well and feed them regularly, the yield is higher. Oh, and they could also be slaughtered, for which there is an extra slaughter bench in the barn.

We can make a field with a hoe and grow carrots, onions, peas, cabbage, and other vegetables on it. However, we must pay attention to the fertilizer level of the soil, if necessary, drag fertilizer from the manure pile with buckets or use the ashes from our oven for this purpose. There are weeds that we should pull urgently, otherwise, the vegetables will be spoiled before the harvest. In autumn, we can also harvest apples.

And most of the time, these raw materials result in a variety of production possibilities. In the kitchen, we can craft cold and hot dishes. Not only are there all kinds of recipes and ingredients here, but we also have to bring in the combustibles, fire up the stove, haul in water, and make sure things don’t scorch.

And because that’s still not complex enough, we can adjust the four stove plates to a total of 6 different heat levels by removing the metal rings from the plates. This not only changes the processing times but also allows, for example, instead of a broth, a delicious broth. These “perfect” meals are then worth more and also have better nutritional value.

You can go fishing to get several kinds of fish in different sizes. We can set traps that can be set with different baits to attract different varieties of games. And if that’s too cumbersome for you, you can also go out with a rifle and shoot the game directly. Again, it then ends up on the slaughter bench and in the end, there are precious game roasts or fish fillets.

Gameplay – World and Characters

And for all these things just listed, we have to trade constantly. The merchants at the market or Sophie in her little store help us with that. But there is also some business to do on the surrounding farms.

There are only a few places, but you are quite busy traveling from one to another. Whether we’re selling lumber at the sawmill or checking out the various merchants at the market. Whether we buy seeds for the field from the one neighbor lady or trade equipment and spare parts for the tractor with the farmer on the other neighbor’s farm or let us be initiated by his wife into the details of the moonshine distillery. Most of the time, we have more meaningful things to do than the day has hours.

Not every NPC buys everything, so we also need to target individual stores to get rid of our products. And we need a lot of money on the other side for the various tools, animals and food jars. But also consumables like canning jars, animal feed, or ammunition have to be purchased all the time.

This also includes a quest and reputation system. Almost every NPC has an attitude towards us. And the cattle dealer won’t give out his animals to people he doesn’t know. So we have to make a name for ourselves with him first. To do this, we can trade with him frequently, give him gifts, or accept quests from most NPCs to make them friendlier.

But you also have the choice between nice and nasty at any time. If you really don’t like a certain face or if you want to try out how to ruin Kasimir’s life for good, you also have the option to walk around drunk all the time or to give people a piece of your mind in a more violent way during a boxing match.

Of course, an important part of the world is the map. So far there are 6 major locations, which we can also reach by fast travel at any time after the first visit. This is very convenient, but also consumes time to travel each time. Possibly, a trip by bike or tractor to the market is even faster than fast travel, in terms of the daily routine.

But in the world, besides the farms and the settlement with the market and the church, there are other sights hidden. So there are dilapidated houses, old mansions in the forest, and over and over again scrap metal, which we can collect. But be careful, because it’s right after the war, and minefields in the area hold explosive surprises.

There is a large river and a few ponds that invite you to go fishing or denser forests where we can hunt deer, foxes, or bears in addition to mushrooms. Also, there are always old rusted tanks in the area that we can break open and loot. And sometimes Casimir dreams of old bunkers in which hidden riches are said to be hidden.

All in all, the world is not huge so far. But with the many tasks you have as a farmer in the yard and the constant need for food, drink, sleep and a little company, you actually already have enough to do in the game. So Kasimir’s world seems small, but not too small.

In addition, there are also seasons in Farmer’s Life. These not only provide variety in a visual way, as trees blossom in spring, wilt in autumn, and everything is covered in snow in winter. This also has a massive impact on the growth of all sorts of things, and of course, it’s advisable to lay in a few supplies for the winter.

Because frostbite is possible, as well as colds, which can also become pneumonia, so it is better to prepare a large stock of wood beforehand. And did I tell you about the possibility that a lightning strike can happen and then you have to put out the fires and after that repair the damage?

Early Access and State of the Game

The game is fresh into Early Access, but for that, it actually works quite well already. However, it also still has a lot of bugs and minor inconsistencies. It also lacks an auto-save system until now, which makes it especially dramatic in combination with some of the bugs. Because so you can easily lose several hours of game time due to a bug or a crash.

It happens that the game gets stuck when you try to operate a door or a fence gate after fast travel or while you have an item in your hand. Then suddenly you can’t use anything at all. And this is usually fixed by saving and loading, but sometimes the error is even saved along with it, and then you can only start again with an older save.

From time to time there are problems with the carts, which are then not as operable as they should be. Or they fly around strangely in the area and resist all physical laws. But this can often be reset via quick travel back and forth, as a workaround.

And some quests are a bit difficult. For example, the alcohol crafting quest in the text demands that you get a distillery and boil mash from potatoes. But the quest logic wants you to boil the mash first and then get the distillery. The equipment you already bought before will then not work for the quest.

But the developers are definitely still working diligently on the game to perfect it further, and new features are also planned. Wisely, there is also a reporting tool right in the game, so that should keep the developers well supplied with feedback and bug reports. There is also a Discord where you can deliver such things more directly.

Overall, what’s in the game so far already provides a very good base of activities, quests, and daily tasks to represent a farmer’s life in the 1940s well. If the developers add more neighbors, products, and other features hereafter ironing out the bugs, the game could still move from good to really great.

Tech, Graphics, Sound, Translation, Engine, GFX, SFX

Farmer’s Life is built with the Unity engine. So that at least ensures a largely stable and reasonably good-looking technical foundation. The graphics are therefore also in the middle class to the okay range. Partially, the game manages to set a really great color mood in the scene, and in any case, all things are represented in detail and mostly suitably animated.

The NPCs are, unfortunately, so far largely standing still, offering neither great animations nor realistic postures. Here Freeminds could still provide a bit more immersion by upgrading these models. But the animals, on the other hand, are already animated quite realistically and seem much more lifelike.

The soundtrack of Farmer’s Life is still a real weak point. Besides a few rain sounds, some ding here and some plonk there when you’re working, or a few animal sounds, there’s not much to hear there. There’s a rush of wind, crickets chirping for ambiance, but somehow it’s still a bit too thin.

The music only plays in the menu, and the “voice acting” consists of a few grumbles and hums that our character sometimes utters. Other NPCs are completely silent. There is still a lot of room for improvement in the entire audio area.

Farmer’s Life already offers a fairly extensive translation in a total of 10 languages at this point. In addition to English, German, Polish and French, there are also Italian, Spanish, Korean, Russian, Chinese, and Turkish in the offer. The quality of the texts is mostly okay, but there are still some blunders where you sometimes have to ponder a bit what is probably meant.

Farmer’s Life Gameplay Screenshots

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Farmer’s Life Test – Opinion and Conclusion

Honestly, I was pleasantly and very positively surprised when I started Farmer’s Life and gradually the depth of the game started to unfold in front of me. I often play such farming simulations or survival games and I didn’t expect such complexity here.

This game from a small team, with presumably a very limited budget, and then for the extremely reasonable price of just $15 or €12.50, offers a diversity in gameplay that is astonishing. And the level design is also at least upper-middle class and there are just a lot of great ideas in it.

The whole simulation of farm life in the 40s, the desperate situation, the threat of alcohol, and hunger seem amazingly drastic. And even the loneliness of the man on his remote farm gets across clearly.

Of course, these emotions could be deepened, and no dramatic storytelling is offered here. But the game is also still in development and what is offered so far is already really interesting for me. The game is far from perfect yet, it has some bugs, and also the gameplay and design are still expandable.

But some much more expensive simulations have fewer features or offer gameplay that plays far more buggy and angular. I don’t even want to start with the abysses in physics calculation and storytelling that exist with the competitors. I only have to think of games like Police Simulator or something like that as a negative example. In comparison, Farmer’s Life is real gold in terms of gameplay, and for a much lower price.

Farmer’s Life Review – Rating

Farmer’s Life offers as early as the Early Access launch a full-fledged game for an amazingly low price of $15 or €12.50. The game is not yet finished and still has technical rough edges. But it also already has a surprising depth in simulation and even creates a believable world in large parts. And it does so in an unusual setting because post-war rural life in Eastern Europe has not been available as a gaming experience that often.

When I offset the benefits with the already existing gaming fun, I would like to give Farmer’s Life a basic rating of 80%. For still existing technical problems, which are to be expected with Early Access though, I deduct 3% again here. On the other hand, the game is offered for an absolutely fair price and for that I would like to give a 5% bonus.

This brings me to a final rating for Farmer’s Life now at Early Access launch of 82%.

Here you get an entertaining simulation of life as a farmer for a small price, and the problems of the postwar era are also somewhat conveyed. For me, Farmer’s Life is a surprise and I can only recommend it as an insider tip for simulation fans.

Farmer’s Life

Zap from ZapZockt.de

Farmer’s Life shows us the life on a farm in the 1940s in Eastern Europe, vegetables, animals, lumbering, and a lot of trade paired with Survival
In this Farmer’s Life Review, I show you how the new farm sim with survival elements from Freemind Games performs. Kasimir, the ever-drunk ex-soldier, comes back to his parents’ farm after WW2. The family is dead, he is addicted to alcohol and the farm is run down. Can you turn his life around, or ruin everything forever? Farmer’s Life was released on Steam for PC with a release date of August 2021.

Simulation

World Design

Complexity

Story

Graphics

Sound

State of the Game

Price per Fun Ratio

Rating

Farmer’s Life offers as early as the Early Access launch a full-fledged game for an amazingly low price of $15 or €12.50. The game is not yet finished and still has technical rough edges. But it also already has a surprising depth in simulation and even creates a believable world in large parts. And it does so in an unusual setting because post-war rural life in Eastern Europe has not been available as a gaming experience that often.

When I offset the benefits with the already existing gaming fun, I would like to give Farmer’s Life a basic rating of 80%. For still existing technical problems, which are to be expected with Early Access though, I deduct 3% again here. On the other hand, the game is offered for an absolutely fair price and for that I would like to give a 5% bonus.

This brings me to a final rating for Farmer’s Life now at Early Access launch of 82%.
Here you get an entertaining simulation of life as a farmer for a small price, and the problems of the postwar era are also somewhat conveyed. For me, Farmer’s Life is a surprise and I can only recommend it as an insider tip for simulation fans.

4.1

Outro

Do you like growing vegetables and survival gameplay on a dirty farm? Or are Early Access titles with little bugs and issues not your cup of tea? Feel free to write me your opinion in the comments or in the community Discord.

More gaming news, game reviews, and guides can be found on the YouTube channel or at https://zapzockt.de – a thumbs up or subscribe at YouTube and a share with friends certainly can’t hurt, and then I wish you a great day, ciao ciao, your Zap

Links and Sources

Farmer’s Life Steam Page

Freemind Games Website

Playway Website

Freemind Games Twitter

Playway Twitter

Freemind Games Facebook

Playway Facebook

Playway Instagram