Farming Simulator 25 Review – A Day Out On The Field

Simulation games are getting more realistic and their fanbase is growing larger with each new release. Today, simulation games cover many niches and blend in with other genres to offer a variety of unique gameplay experiences. Finding the game that clicks with your particular interests is easier than ever, and if your interest is farming, then you might already be familiar with the Farming Simulator franchise.

Farming Simulator 25, developed and published by Giants Software, is the latest installment in the decade-long series of simulation games dedicated to an engaging and detailed modern farming experience. This title introduces improved mechanics, enhanced AI, and a more engaging world for fans of the series, but still suffers from the complicated and open-ended sandbox that might dissuade new players from engaging with more of the content.

I first started playing the franchise with Farming Simulator 17, but after finishing the short tutorial that showed the basics of farming, I felt quite lost about how to proceed. I then tried Farming Simulator 22 and gave it more of a chance. I finally found my groove and spent hundreds of hours into that game. In previous titles, there was a huge gap between the tutorial and true understanding and enjoyment of all the mechanics and systems within the game which can be quite daunting for new players. I was hoping that Farming Simulator 25 would make the experience better for new players, but the issue still exists.

The game does have a decent tutorial for getting the player started, and the addition of voiced NPCs and conversations does help Farming Simulator 25 feel more alive, but once we are done with the tutorial, we are left on our own and have to decide what to do next. I had gone through this experience twice before, and could quickly find my footing and start actually playing and enjoying the game. But for someone unfamiliar with the game, the amount of freedom in this sandbox simulation can be overwhelming. Farming Simulator games have always been impressive with the realism and details that are provided in the experience, but they have yet to find a way to gamify the experience and provide tangible goals and milestones for players to look forward to. The only real source of motivation is making more money to buy more advanced and varied machinery and expand our farming fields, but it doesn’t provide the sense of fulfillment that a learning player is looking for.

Farming Simulator 25 does what it’s always been good at, providing a comprehensive simulation of farming, animal husbandry, and foresting. From cultivating a small field, planting simple crops, and harvesting in season, to some more complicated produce such as olives, and the recently added rice that require special machinery and unique field preparations, there’s a lot to do once you know how to do them. I particularly enjoyed the addition of rice farming in the latest patch, as I’ve spent a lot of time near rice paddy fields in my country.

What Farming Simulator 25 does improve upon, is the AI workers, and the introduction of AI-assisted steering. AI workers have been in the franchise before, and while they are still not perfect, their efficiency and pathfinding have been greatly enhanced. AI-steering though is my personal favorite addition to the game. The best moments in the Farming Simulator games are when we are working on a field with a vehicle, and we can just zone out listening to music, watching a video, or enjoying the scenery within the game. In previous games, these moments could be ruined by forgetting to check back in time or having our initial trajectory be off by a hair and coming back to see we plowed through the adjacent field by mistake, or simply but just as annoyingly, left a spot on the field unseeded. Assisted steering lets players drive through the field in cruise mode, and have the tractor follow a set path with minimal input needed.

The cherry on top of these relaxing farm works is the stunning visuals and the cozy soundtrack. Working on the field during the game’s sunset was truly a meditative experience. Exploring the town and talking with the few existing NPCs is not as majestic as driving a harvester over a grain field. The voice acting is… there, and the NPCs constantly rotate to look at you which is very unsettling. The UI is not very intuitive, but it is decent once we know how to navigate the different menus. It is one of the aspects of the game that might feel overly complicated at first, especially with the different layers of the map and the shopping menus, but once we know what we are looking for, it’s easy to get there.

The visual fidelity and the technical and deep simulation do mean the occasional performance issues even on my high-end PC. The frame drops were very noticeable when loading into the game, when entering or switching vehicles, and after skipping a day. While the performance issues gave me a scare when I first started and I thought it was going to be like this the whole time, in the long run, they didn’t affect the experience negatively.

Farming Simulator 22 is still an active game, with a dedicated community and a modding scene that supports it. It might take a while for Farming Simulator 25 to reach its full potential with further patches and content and for the modding community to catch up with the new release, but it’s still a worthwhile experience for the fans of the series, and for new players who are willing to put in the time and learn the ropes.

Nima played Farming Simulator 25 on PC with a review code