Life in the fields, as we know, is not something for everyone, and it is a concept that also applies to Farming Simulator 22, the new chapter of the famous simulation series GIANTS Software. We at Tech Princess have armed ourselves with a tractor, plow and controller and we have launched into the rural life proposed by Farming Simulator 22 and, after a long time spent cultivating and breeding, we are ready to offer you our review.
Farming Simulator 22: our review
That Farming Simulator 22 is not a product suitable for all palates is clear from the very first moments of the game, in which we found ourselves completely lost with respect to the activities that the title would have wanted us to carry out. We didn’t use the conditional at random, since GIANTS Software has cut the tutorials to the bone, throwing ourselves into the action without too many explanations.
A courageous approach, but one that did not fail to cause us some nervous breakdowns, especially after taking a look at the help section of the main menu, so vague as to seem almost a joke in bad taste, given the actual complexity of the simulator we faced.
It took us at least a few hours to get to grips with the highly articulated agricultural universe of Farming Simulator 22, but once we understood the basics we were hit by an exorbitant amount of game mechanics, thanks to which we also understood the magnitude of the video game in front of us. Farming Simulator is a huge game to say the least and approaching it with full knowledge of the facts is far from easy.
In full simulation
Farming Simulator 22 takes its simulation component to its extreme consequences, as is traditional for the saga. All the actions we will take to maximize the results of our harvest will in fact be planned in a capillary way, worth the risk of completely sending the plans developed in hours and hours of play. Precisely for this reason each “working day”Is the result of careful planning, which starts from the procurement of resources up to the sowing, or the breeding of livestock.
But here’s the best part: all these operations must be performed physically, without the possibility of automating some tedious processes. What does this mean in a nutshell? Simple, it simply means that if we buy raw materials they will not be magically delivered to us in our inventory, but we will first have to pick them up at the reference store and then use them in our field.
The same concept applies to cultivation. Forget about pre-set cultivation cycles, you will have to personally take care of all the processes useful to make your land the ideal place for your crops, plowing, fertilizing and sowing. To be fair, later in the game you will be given the option to hire employees, but in general the costs of the latter are really huge to justify their hiring. Just like in real life.
This is the Achilles’ heel and the strength of the game at the same time. Farming Simulator 22 is a video game that offers no discounts and precisely for this reason it alienates a part of potential users, not accustomed to a slow and laborious simulation experience like the one described so far. The other side of the coin is that fans of these simulation titles will certainly find bread for their teeth.
Longevity and technical realization
Once you understand the rules of the game, it is self-evident that Farming Simulator 22 is a colossal title, capable of offering a longevity practically never seen within the genre. Starting from the most obvious elements, we find an incredibly high number of crops to plant in our fields and as many, if not more, agricultural means with which to carry out our agricultural vocation.
To make the couple with this potentially hyper-extended availability of tools, however, there is ours budget, which we will have to strive to increase over time, to ensure that our company grows and allows us to invest in more complex machinery capable of unlocking new gameplay possibilities. From this point of view, each of our actions must be evaluated with extreme attention: under penalty of total collapse of our business.
Too bad for the technical realization, which excels as regards the graphic rendering of the machinery, with attention to the smallest details to the limit of the manic, but sensationally shows the side in the environments, not only bare and sometimes without textures, but also affected by various types of graphic glitches.
In conclusion, the game is configured as a truly advanced simulator and certainly suitable for those who already chew the language of this game, for all the others, unless you are extremely interested in entering this fascinating world in its own way, we recommend starting from something more accessible.