The apocalypse has arrived, but not as you usually imagine it. A hellish agricultural life awaits you, among piles of garbage to vacuum, animals to manage and crops to take care of, every day. After a long period of Early Access on Steam, the new one arrives on PC on March 17th farming simulator that will make you adore working on the farm, with No Place Like Homedeveloped by Chicken Launcher and published by Awaken Realms. A very interesting indie game that we have previewed for you and which is based on the care and cleaning of the environment, in full respect of our planet after humans have now completely disappeared. What will it be like to live with only animals and a few survivors of the catastrophe? Let’s find out together in our test on Steam.
The No Place Like Home Review – A New Beginning
Humanity destroyed the Earth and left for Mars. This is what we know about the future of our planet, where only a very few remain. So we just have to play the role of a young protagonist, Ellen, for explore the world and clean it up, as well as having to craft items with recycled resources. In No place like home the message is that nothing is the same as before, and there is no longer any place that can be defined as home. Precisely because we have to create it from scratch.
Tame the animals and rebuild our village are just some of the activities we have to take care of in this game, during which we have to manage our farm. We will therefore be a hybrid between farmers and farmers, with the task of rearranging the farm inherited from Ellen’s grandfather, surrounded by polluted waters, fields covered with garbage and toxic mountains. They will be the scraps however to be reused to create a new home and a new worldas we learn by taking the first steps through the tutorial that has been provided to us from the beginning.
All that remained on Earth after the flight of men to Mars is the result of forgetfulness or simply of a surplus of resources. The surviving animals and humans live not only at the mercy of garbage, but also by raggressive obots from which we will have to defend ourselves we too. Ellen is one of the few humans still around on this dirty planet. When her she grandfather dies, Ellen decides she wants to make her old home beautiful again. She moves to the long-abandoned farm and is left with the overwhelming task of clearing the fields, planting, building chicken coops and stables to tame the animals, as well as having to clean the entire area to make it safer for the humans who remain.
Between garbage towers and animals to look after
So what does the gameplay? The actual content is linked to what is shown to us in the initial tutorial we were talking about earlier. First of all, we are called to vacuum the garbage thanks to a tool present inside Ellen’s backpack. Thanks to this tool we can take down garbage towers, and it is not the only one available: we also have the possibility of attacking the evil robots with a kind of drill. We also have to deal with a good crafting system, quite intuitive. In these steps we will also understand what resources the various animals that we have to tame can give us and how to cultivate the land, as well as produce food to be preserved later.
A tutorial that follows us slavishly and that it should be present in all simulators, very practical and clear. At the end of this phase, we just have to introduce ourselves to the world of No place like home by talking directly with a hen, or rather “the” hen who is presented to us almost as a secondary character and who briefly explains what happened. Let’s assume that the gameplay is quite addicting because of the different activities we have to carry out and which convinced us as a whole.
A well-kept artistic sector
Finally we also take a look at the technical and artistic sector, to enjoy a beautiful environment with amazing artwork. Overall the look of the game is really nice, where a lot of care has been placed in the presentation of the world, with models and representation of the characters with a lot of personality. While not deeply rich in history, the graphics are present and the mechanics are interesting.
You can keep a dog, a cat and a raccoon as pets, and Ellen can also tame chickens, ducks, pigs and an adorable species of little robots called Cubebots. Each of these creatures is a helpful friend with personality and a strong desire for a human to caress them. Finally the game engine response is also fluid and cleangiving us a pleasant gaming experience and not affected by technical problems of any kind.
The review of No Place Like Home in a nutshell
No Place Like Home is ultimately more than a farming simulator, as it combines management dynamics within the farm, but also more action and educational moments if we want, about the care of our planet. The game design convinced us, also due to the resolution of several performance problems and glitches previously present in Early Access. The overall appearance and gameplay are outstanding, giving us a relaxing and fun experience to play. The characters, the appearance, the ability to caress the creatures and decorate your home are all aspects that make No Place Like Home a management simulator with classic but tantalizing elements. A title definitely worth trying and recommended primarily to lovers of the genre.