Developer: Hammerware Studios
Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Format: PC
Genre: Family / SIM
Price: €14.99 / £14.99
Release Date: 27^th May 2011
Website: www.familyfarmgame.com

Following the success of those little Facebook games such as Farmville, Frontierville and the endless ‘energy’ based apps, it was only a matter of time before the more in-depth versions began sneaking onto the PC platform. Family Farm is one such game, and its influences are clear to all from the first level.

Gameplay: 7.5/10

The game basically consists of taking control of a family on a farm and building it from the ground up, expanding your land and increasing the skills of each character. There are only two seasons that are actually playable, (Spring and Summer), Winter and Autumn just skipping without so much as a glimpse of snow, which I found rather odd personally; surely the farm would require some sort of maintenance or work upon in 6 months? In the Spring you plant your crops, sow the seeds and trim the orchards, generally preparing for the Summer which, when it comes, is spent harvesting and cleaning up after yourself ready for the Spring again. Your family usually consists of two people, husband and wife, with the option to expand your family with children if your house has sufficient space, although how the children grow up into working farmhands in the space of a few seasons I have no idea. I do feel bad for picking such holes in the game since, (for once), it is not a game that takes itself seriously as it has been adapted and perfectly programmed to be a casual play being perfect for the 15 minute time-user much like Farmville and the various others on Facebook. Virtually no loading times, each season passing smoothly from one to the other and once you get the hang of the game you could quite easily load it up, complete a season and then leave all in the space of about 5 minutes. There’s a fair amount of variety too in the game; pigs, chickens, horses and cattle. There’s also more than enough plants to keep it fresh. Each animal/plant takes different conditions to grow to the best of its abilities, some crops growing in all weather, some being very fussy about sunlight and rain. Once your farm gets a little bigger through clearing the surroundings you can hire extra helpers to assist for a season with their skills depending on how much you are willing to pay.

However, being a hardcore gamer it was not long before I noticed that yes, after a few hours the game does get into a nasty habit of repetition. Once you had expanded to its maximum potential, built your farmhouse up to full size and decorated every inch of visible grass there was no incentive to keep on playing. The story/campaign mode is also the sandbox version, but in total there are only about 3 different maps to play on, each ‘part’ just asking for a slightly different objective on the same land, (e.g. get the farmhouse to level 3 within 4 seasons). But I do not see why this would affect its target audience; if you keep logging back into Farmville, (which varies as much as a teenage guys browser history), then you will love Family Farm.

Graphics: 8/10

To be honest the graphics worked quite well I found. They where simple and colorful whilst not attempting anything to stress an average video card but still pleasant to look at. What I was actually most impressed with were the animations; every action your little people performed was awarded surprising detail even down to almost picking up each individual apple from the ground rather than just show the generic ‘picking up’ action and repeat it several times. Very impressive for a smaller games company.

Soundtrack: 6/10

Not really its strongest point but it didn’t let the game down either. It just blended into the background without much effect yet was still cheerful and matched the general mood of the game. Family Farm boasts a large amount of sound affects however from the morning cockerel to the chattering chickens. They combined well to make your farm feel upbeat and active.

Re-playability: 7/10

As mentioned before the game can get quite tedious sometimes. But there is enough there to make it a game worth buying for yourself or perhaps your Farmville obsessed child to keep them happily occupied for a few hours.

Keeping in mind the game ‘ratings’ I give take into consideration what the game is trying to achieve, who its target audience is and what kind of resources they had at their disposal. These things said Family Farm was an enjoyable game that is well worth a closer look if it looks appealing to you. Not for the heavier gamers but very family-friendly.

A seed-sowing, (ouch, I know that was bad): 7.5/10.

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