Excalibur has a long tradition of publishing SIM games. Having played a lot of them, I've come to the conclusion that they basically fall into two categories. The first is the straight up SIM, from the understandable to the downright obscure; the second are SIMs which balance the experience with an element of game play.

Farming World simulates, yes you’ve guessed it, a farm. These types of games are very popular on mobile devices and social media sites, but these are mostly limited to areas not much bigger than a cottage garden. Farming World turns farming into a modern, industrial pursuit.

The central hook is all about acquisition, the same hook which hides behind a myriad of graphically impressive games. Whereas in another game you’re looking to upgrade your character and weapons, here you have the chance to upgrade buildings, machinery and resources. The aim of the game is to grow your farm to the biggest one you can manage.

You do not play in isolation; rather you play against the AI and increasingly difficult environmental variables. Success in the SIM brings harder conditions, from the interest rates at banks to unpredictable weather.

Of course, you will need something upon which to base your fortune and the game provides over forty different crops to choose from, as well as eleven animal species, which will need feeding and tending. Farming machinery can be purchased to either tend your crops support you livestock, but all of this takes money, so it’s important to weed, plant water and harvest at just the right time to maximise your profits.

If you look around the game provides enough hints and information to get you up and running pretty quickly, following which the rest should be plain sailing. This is unfortunate as the challenge offered by the SIM is not as hard as it could have been, even the AI doesn’t really rise to the challenge of burying you in your own plot.

The game is graphically quite simple, a lot like the early Sim City, but lacking the polish of that game. Now if this were being presented as a mobile game this low level of sophistication would have been acceptable, but on a gaming PC it’s a bit of a let down. This does mean that the game will run on a modest mid-range home computer, just in case you don’t feel like buying the kids a spanking new computer.

Overall, it is what it is, the acquisition elements are bound to keep you going as you build your vegetable empire, but better graphics and a more challenging AI would have made the gaming side of Farming World a lot more enjoyable.

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Charles Packer