A farmer’s life is full of challenges, hard work, mud, grime and the cloying smell of freshly laid manure. The hard, dirty work of faming would likely put the best of us off the life, especially if hindered by the heavy burden of alcoholism.

Farmer’s Life, the latest game from the highly productive Gaming Factory, throws you into the muddy wellington boots of Farmer Kashmir, a single alcoholic farmer fighting to lift an abandoned farm, inherited from his parents.

During the course of the game, you will have to brave the elements and work hard to turn things around to eventually run a prosperous business.

Farmer’s Life Gameplay

Like most games, Farmer’s Life starts off at a nice slow pace. Starting by clearing sections of land of errant twigs and debris ready for plowing, it certainly isn’t a game that throws you in head-first and expects you to be pre-programed to know how to play from the get-go.

Returning home from war; tired, weary, battle-scarred and with a newfound addiction for alcohol, you find your parents are dead and their farm is in a total state of disrepair. Alone and battling a fearsome depression, the onus is on your shoulders to turn things around; the farm and your life.

First and foremost, Farmer’s Life is a survival game. You need to wrap up warm in the Winter to prevent the flu from setting in, you need to eat and drink to sustain yourself and make friends to keep the black dog at bay.

While the game offers a rich and realistic survival aspect, things do take a little while to get rolling. Starting the game with your best friend – a pig named Fluffy – you need to build your money up in order to collect all of the necessary tools you will need to prosper in the wonderful world of farming.

I quickly got to work to earn my bread and butter by collecting scrap metal from around the land to build a scythe. This opened up an opportunity for me to make money by reaping the land for hay, which I was then able to sell to my wares to a local cattle merchant for feed. It was a long and arduous grind but nonetheless, I soon had the toolage to explore different avenues such as growing my own vegetables, rearing livestock and chopping down trees to collect and sell timber.

From here, Farmer’s Life really opens up. After all of your hard work, you’re finally able to relax and unwind with a little hunting, fishing or even looking for wild mushrooms. For an independent game, Farmer’s Life really crams a lot in.

The Animals of Farmer’s Life

I found the animals in the game to be one of the most interesting aspects. With cows, horses, pigs and cows to look after, there’s a lot of livestock related activities to get involved in. Look after your animals by keeping them clean and well-fed and those that are able will produce higher yields. Once an animal gets a little too old to produce what you need, there’s also the option of slaughter for their tender meat.

Farmer’s Life Summary

What starts off as a bit of a grind, eventually opens up to a game full of things to do. There’s something about Farmer’s Life that really drew me in and there’s no doubt that I will be going back to it in the near future.

With so much to do during the game (once the usual introductions are done), there’s very little time to be bored. Games Factory have done a sterling job of this one and I, for one, can’t wait for more of the same.