Ancient Farm
Review
Farming through out the ages
by Howie Howard
reviewed on PC
I was a bit surprised and somewhat disappointed that Ancient Farm is more of a crafting simulation than it is a detailed farming simulation. The game is an open ended sandbox style game with no real theme or set path that starts out with a detailed tutorial experience. After the tutorial, game play focuses on the need to gather resources while building and improving farm infrastructure. Once a temple is built though, the reason to keep going seems to tail off a bit - you can still work towards increasing crop output and gold coin totals, but players may have little else to keep them interested. Indeed, I would conssider Ancient Farm as a crafting game with elements of light farming - if that makes any sense. However, if you prefer not to delve in to the details of actually being a farmer like in other games, then Ancient Farm would be suitable for those looking for a less intense experience.
Not as expected
Seeing as Ancient Farm wasn't quite what I expected, I was still determined to give the title a thorough work out nonetheless, mainly because I have enjoyed crafting games in the past. I began with the tutorial - which works very well indeed - and set out to gather up some sticks and stones to start building the tools necessary to be a farmer in ancient Egypt! First I needed to craft a hoe to till the soil, then a bucket to be able to water the planted seeds, a sickle to harvest grass, - you get the idea - in order to get my crop to market and make some money. I eventually crafted an axe to cut trees down, a pickaxe to smash rocks which provided more resources and built a bunch of buildings in order to be able to craft advanced implements and resources. The game overall is an enjoyable experience because the tutorial spelled out every single step needed in order to be able to meet the travelling merchant that arrives at the end of every growing season.
The merchant eventually arrives and you can speed up the passage of time to make him come sooner rather than later. I was able to purchase some needed seeds and other items that only the merchant has. As well as the seeds, the Merchant sells items such as building plans for advanced buildings like the house, and a range of building implements. Of course there are no tractors or bigger and better plows like I was used to spending money on in Farm Sim 25, but at least my hard earned gold coins were needed for something. After accumulating the required resources, I built a very nice looking house on the piece of land that the tutorial indicated. I was then able to accomplish other things such as bake bread that would fetch more gold coins from the merchant. There was a nice looking bedroom in the house but since there is no difference between night and day, sleeping isn't necessary. Eating isn't necessary either and that is kind of unfortunate because there is a requirement to bake bread and produce foods by using harvested crops.
Can I ride on the animals I raise?
No, riding them or doing anything else with animals other than selling them to the merchant is not supported. Husbandry, the raising of animals, such as sheep, cows and more is included in game play and works basically in the same manner as growing crops. You build the required buildings, then the option to raise certain animals becomes available. However, like in most crafting games the work doesn't stop with resource gathering and building and that's because tools that are created eventually break. This means that more resources need to be gathered and then another tool can be crafted, so going back to stone and stick gathering is necessary.
So that's how it goes in this ancient Egyptian world of farming. It certainly isn't anything like a modern day Farm Sim game which is my only real reference point when it comes to virtual farming. Farm Simulator can be quite a punishing game at times if a mistake is made, or if you purchase a tractor before actually being able to afford it. Ancient Farm has been a change of pace for me and it is a nice calming experience and diversion. Time still passes like in all games of this ilk though which is accomplished by slowing game play down or speeding it up. That really helps when more time is needed in order to be able to get tasks done before the merchant arrives.
An exciting tutorial
Well, maybe it wasn't exciting, but it was very well done and quite helpful. With the tutorial being finished, I thought to myself, okay, what should I do next? The tutorial, while being rather long and extended, did cover every single aspect of the game and in a step by step manner. If having everything spelled out for you isn't your cup of tea, you can skip the tutorial and just jump right in and do as you please without the worry that a mistake could be made. Ancient Farm being a procedural crafting game, the possibility of doing something which will eventually be discovered anyway doesn't matter and this can make serious mistakes be nonexistent. That said, with the tutorial being over I just resorted to following the same mode of play as in other games and that was to harvest and sell a lot of grain crops and then turn them in to higher paying products. That's the way things work in sandbox style games.
As I increased my resource and crop quantity I discovered additional and more advanced buildings along with advanced farm tools one of which is the ox and plow. I did find however, that the ox - while nice in theory - isn't really necessary. It does speed things up a bit when plowing a field, but using the hand hoe, which is easy to craft while saving money, only requires 1 or 2 hoeing actions per field square. That makes the ox and some of the other more advanced items be not all that necessary, other than expending money and gaining the experience of trying them out.
An Egyptian farmer
The verdict as far as Ancient Farm is concerned is that the game atmosphere is definitely a desert and Egyptian theme setting. It contains very nice looking graphics which aren't HD in nature but they are sufficient because it sets a nice casual gaming atmosphere. Game play seems to be rather scripted in a step by step manner which isn't a problem in this category of computer gaming. The over all environment can be a bit static in nature and you pick up sticks and stones, chop down trees with the ax and use the pick ax to smash big rocks which provides more of each, but the environment over all is just nice to look at. With all of that said, Ancient Farm does accomplish what it set out to do and that is to provide an enjoyable resource gathering and crafting gaming experience in a historic farming kind of ancient way!
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7.8
fun score
Pros
Nice looking Egyptian themed sim that focuses on crafting with farming as a background theme
Cons
Food can be grown but you can't eat it which eliminates other more in-depth game possibilities
