While reviews of any sort can only ever be subjective, sometimes writers have to don a different 'hat', so to speak. Games often have particular tempos or ways of doing things that may not marry with your mindset at the time, with other work and deadlines looming. Farming Simulator 20 requires a very particular hat – a farmer's flat cap, to be precise. It's an unhurried beast that absolutely insists on its own slow-and-steady pace. Give it time, though, and its monotonous rhythms become pleasurable and the intense chatter and mindless speed of the real world melt away at the wheel of a combine harvester.
Essentially, Farming Simulator 20 is a 'numbers-go-up' game. Yes, most video games are, but this one puts the dollar total at the top centre of the screen at all times – you want that ever-depleting figure to be as big as possible. A short tutorial gets you acquainted with the very basics of attaching equipment to your tractor, cultivating a field, sowing seeds and then harvesting the produce before dumping it in a silo or a trailer. It can then be transported to one of the various outlets surrounding your acreage and deposited in their silos in exchange for hard cash.
This cash is then used to buy sexier farming gear with which to cultivate, fertilise, sow and harvest more efficiently. While we started out with precious little knowledge concerning heavy-duty farm machinery, let alone the process of growing crops and keeping livestock, well, living, we soon started to learn the ins-and-outs. The tutorial quickly leaves you to your own devices, so be prepared to hit '+' and delve into the Help menu for explanations of the game's various systems unless you're a Farming Simulator veteran.
The shop is always accessible on the '-' button and lists a load of real-world branded equipment. It wasn't long before we started eyeing the stats of more expensive hardware with envy. Clicking the right analogue stick over a certain bit of kit explains what it actually does and why you need it in your arsenal, and each item has its vital stats listed. Ooo, check out the 12-metre width on that harvester! Why, I could work the same land in half the time! What's that? A seeder that can be used without first cultivating the field? Another 50% time saving!
It's these rather mundane benefits which you'll need to appreciate and work towards if you're going to harvest (ahem) enjoyment from Farming Simulator 20; that 'Simulator' in the name isn't for show. While developer Giants Software does add some video game abstraction to the farm work (you won't be waiting for weeks as your crops grow, for example), most of the time you'll be grafting; slowly and surely working those fields methodically up and down, although without the mud and other substances sticking to your boots.
As you steadily make money and expand your empire through the purchase of neighbouring plots and better equipment, you have the option of hiring AI helpers to do the donkey work. They're not intelligent enough to navigate the vehicles around the farm but get a harvester or tractor in position at a corner of a field and you can push 'Y' to have a farmhand take over the dreary work striping the land. You'll have to pay their wages, of course, but we never found ourselves in a position where we couldn't afford to hire AI workers.
Hitting 'R' and 'L' cycles through all of your vehicles, active or otherwise (and we enjoyed how the engines start up if the vehicles were idle). There's a large array available, although earning the big dollars to purchase the quicker, more efficient machines will take a while. Early on we stupidly blew $45,000 on a pick-up truck which we should have put towards a sexier harvester or another tractor, but we couldn't resist the opportunity to burn around the terrain a bit faster.
Roads and trails are latticed over the landscape, although we found great joy in pushing our tractor and trailer over hills and perilous terrain as we barrelled to the highest-paying outlet to flog our grain. A vehicle reset option in the menu helped us out the couple of times we got into trouble and overturned our vehicle, although it wasn't the easiest thing to find.
In general, the UI is big and bold. The whole game can be played on the touchscreen alone, and works well enough in this regard. Optional gyro controls are available for the steering (we thought the dreaded Joy-Con drift had returned or that our cheap tractor was pulling to the left until we realised we had gyro enabled in the settings). The bar at the top of the screen is ever-present – something to be aware of if burn-in is an issue on your TV – and it can sometimes obscure your vision of the road/field ahead when you're zoomed in. Thankfully, there are none of the typical Switch port complaints when it comes to text size in Farming Simulator 20; it's all large enough to read in whatever mode you're playing.
Livestock adds another layer of resource management, and you can even ride horses around your land this time which lends a real home-on-the-range quality to the whole thing. It's a lot to juggle, but as you purchase more fields and work them in different ways you'll steadily feel more confident conducting the whole farming operation; skipping between vehicles, checking fuel levels and prices, selling accordingly and planning future endeavours as you eye which produce is on the up-and-up, offloading your spuds for a tidy profit before prices plummet.
Getting the balance takes time, though, so don't expect to reap rewards without dedicating serious effort in the sowing of them. It's one of those games where you really have to sit back, throw on a podcast and 'relax' for a couple of hours at a time. You might be able to leave things for 5 minutes if all your vehicles are operating, but monitoring and orchestrating farmhands still requires input, just not the intensive type you might expect. You can't rush this – good things come, and all that.
Graphically, the game does a good job of providing some spectacle, in a last-gen sort of way. The machines all look great, and there's some lovely lighting as day cycles into night while your tractors work through the darkness and then the sun rises over the distant hills. That said, other elements are pretty rudimentary-looking. Hitting the right stick shifts to cockpit view, which isn't the most attractive way to play and the foliage, crops and grass in the fields clip through the vehicles.
The disappointing draw distance is also an issue, and this can affect gameplay. Has the other end of this field been harvested or not? It's often difficult to tell the state of things beyond your small draw distance radius. Hitting the left stick brings up your map with all the crops (although colourblind players might find it tough to follow the colour key) and the state of any given field in realtime, and soon you’ll know what's where without even checking, but it’s still irritating to be unable to see what's at the other end of the field you're in.
It's hardly a graphical powerhouse, then, but it gets the job done and occasionally surprises you with a lovely vista as you get along with the old routine. Anybody who's after glitz and glamour should look elsewhere – Farming Simulator 20 is built for people who relish the details of the mundane and find beauty therein. Taken on those terms, it puts in an admirable, more-than-workmanlike performance that should satisfy series fans and is worth a look for anybody looking to slow things down a bit – to stop and smell the roses (and manure). Turns out those farmer's flat caps can be mighty comfortable, given a chance.
Conclusion
Farming Simulator 20 won't be for everyone, but if you're after high-octane, instant gratification, why are you sniffing around something called 'Farming Simulator 20'? It requires time and devotion – if you're not one to enjoy the long, languorous journey you'd be better off sticking to more abstract farming sims. Once you get into its low-key repetitive groove, though, there's a wealth of wholesome, calming work to get lost in and a satisfying flow to cultivating a field, sowing seeds, harvesting, repeating and watching those numbers go up.
Comments 32
How does this compare with FS 2019 ?
It seems like it's graphically inferior, is it ?
Keep farm and carry on ?
Oh man, that was BAD
Been eyeing this series for a while now but I have yet to pull the trigger
Have this free on Stadia. Might give it a go some evening. Not my thing usually.
Magnum 😎❤️ It’s a fantastic review for this reason alone
@gurtifus this is based on the mobile branch of the series, so it should be more accessible and user friendly, but with fewer options and slightly simpler graphics.
For example, on the mobile games you can direct your cars to go anywhere and deliver things for you while you control another car, and honking twice while using a harvester will prompt the nearest vehicle capable of receiving the crops to drive by and collect them for you.
On the other hand you can't explore on foot, there's usually less npc activity, and vehicle controls are simplified (for example, turning on a harvester is a single button press, while on the bigger versions it's a whole process).
I like how the full border-to-border Farming Simulator ads disappear once you get to the review...
But hey, work simulators are really huge for certain people, (especially Germans for some reason.) Conflicts of interest aside, this probably is an 8 for some people.
The game was awesome on Stadia even though it's just last year's version. Then again it's a slow pace game so it works great for a slow pace service.
Throw on a podcast, hmph. Back in my day we put a cassette in the boom box!
Looks like a very minor change - not really an upgrade - to the previous Switch version. I like the first Switch game but it is an extremely slow games that takes many hours to achieve anything. Most definitely an acquired taste.
Oh God. I'm going to buy this. I can't. Stop. Myself.
@gurtifus Graphically it can't compete with previous versions on more powerful hardware, but it's pleasant-looking if you can forgive the rough edges.
@Hagemaru I didn't play the previous Switch version, although it seems to be very much more of the same fare with tweaks rather than a revolution.
@dartmonkey the previous one was based on the 2017 pc version, this one is the latest mobile release. So there should be a few significant differences, in particular because this one should be easier to play.
I never cease to be amazed at how passionate the fanbase is for these games, but then again I love the Euro/American Truck Simulator games.
I don’t get it. You gave the previous version 7/10 and this 8. This is a dumbed down version of that game, essentially identical to the mobile game you can buy for 5.99. With a controller and a phone or iPad you have exactly the same game . It’s missing so much from the previous game on the switch yet you failed you mention these details. Where’s contracts? Where’s the chickens? It’s sad times to get a mobile port instead of a fully realised and tuned version for the switch. It’s just lazy.
I love this franchise, and I think this game looks pretty sharp overall. Its nice to have name brand licensed equiptment as well. But it is largely just an upgraded version of the mobile game, so there are some features that didn't carry over from the 2017 Switch game, sadly. The First-Person viewpoint is also missing that is in the mobile games, so hopefully that can get patched in at some point.
But at the end of the day, its still a good game for fans of the series like me. New equiptment and new livestock will keep me coming back.
@Xupgeeks Gavin did not review the original game. Different reviewers have different opinions.
@Xupgeeks interesting 🤔 yes this should have been explained
Move over Stardew Valley, and watch a real farming sim do its job.
@gurtifus graphics don't matter. These graphics are good enough. Don't be a graphic snob or go buy a xbox. Nintendo gamers, real gamers, care only about gameplay.
After playing FS: Switch Edition and console versions of previous releases, I have to say this was a huge disappointment. The price for you get is an absolute travesty. I sincerely hope they patch this up.
But... Is it online? I want 4 players roaming around creating havoc or working together lol
@sixrings Are you seriously 40 years old? Honestly your posts read more like a 14 year old....
All I want to know is if this is a phone port or more close to console port?
Basically is it dumbed down or a full game? They are centainly charging for it like it was a full game.
@sixrings I agree with you but as @Eel says, this release seems a lot less simulation side than the older version, so no point in buying it, I'll stay with the 2019 version !
Personally I'm very disappointed that I wasted $75! I was so looking forward to this edition just to be let down completely. It is a simplified version of the game and there in lies the problem. For the same amount of money you can play FS17 with much more detail and machines. I just feel its not worth the money and would strongly recommend to anyone who bought FS17 not to invest in this one, you will be very disappointed and $75 out of pocket! Don't say I didn't warn you!
@gurtifus I almost bought FS20 today and I read it was just a port of the mobile version which is only $9. I also read the 2017 version is the full game.
@JayJ is there a truck sim on switch?
@DirtySouthVol this is easily a step back from the previous mobile release too, they've removed a lot of good features and added very little.
Also please do not write the same comment so many times in the future.
@Eel which one would you recommend for Nintendo switch? Looks like the nintendo switch edition is the full game?
@DirtySouthVol yes the “Nintendo switch edition” is actually the same Farming Simulator 17 they have on pc and other consoles (it’s only missing the dlc and mods).
It’s both better, and cheaper than Farming Simulator 20. It also goes on sale every now and then, so I absolutely recommend waiting for one.
I have been wanting to get into this franchise, watched different versions and different versions over the years. I recently got the switch for me and my kids and love it! I am ready to get farm simulator and this one looks like the best version for the price. I know pc has mods, but I am just looking for sim type games and decent gameplay/graphics
@DirtySouthVol I think there is a truck simulator actually, but I haven't played it. Best thing I can think of when it comes to that type of thing is Spintires, but that's more of an off-roading sim.
@JayJ not yet, but Truck Driver is coming
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