When it comes to the simulator genre, the farming theme is definitely one of the most popular, and that really makes sense given how complex and extensive such a life is. What is interesting to me is that almost all games of this type focus on modern farming life, with the latest machines and the most expensive equipment, and hardly any game shows old-fashioned farming. It is precisely for this reason that Farmer's Life caught my eye, because it represents this type of simulator in a much different way.
The publisher behind this game is PlayWay S.A. who you may know from games like House Flipper or Car Mechanic Simulator, which are very high-quality games, so my expectations were quite high for this one as well. The game is set in the distant 1955, somewhere in Eastern Europe. You play as Kassimir, a poor farmer whose parents were killed in the war, and you are left with nothing, forced to rebuild your farm. You also have a serious problem with alcohol, in fact the first task you get in the game is to get rid of alcoholism. This kind of introduction to the game is what attracted me the most to it. For example, in Farming Simulator you start the game with a very modern tractor, harvester, and everything you need for easy work, while here you start the game with nothing, forced to start from scratch. You don't even have a working tractor, so you're going to spend a good amount of time before you can fix it up and get it working. This hard-nosed playstyle is the best thing about Farmer's Life, as it really makes you work hard for even some basic game mechanics. In the beginning, instead of a tractor, you will use a horse to work the land. You start with no money, so buying anything is not possible. There is also a hunting mechanic, where you will have to carefully hit your prey, because you don't want to waste bullets since they are not cheap.
What also makes this game different from games like Farming Simulator is that it also has some mild RPG elements. Besides having to watch out for your farmer's hunger and thirst, you have quests and a story that you can follow or ignore. The amount of different quests is impressive, as well as the number of side characters you can meet and interact with, befriend, and even marry if you so choose. The world in Farmer's Life is small, but I don't think a bigger map would be suitable for a game like this, especially since the movement is not too fast, since you are mostly on a tractor. It is certainly nice that you have the option of fast travel to previously discovered locations.
One thing that left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth is that the game has paid DLCs, which in general wouldn't be a problem, but it pretty much killed the immersion for me when in the first 5 minutes of playing I ran into an NPC that I couldn't talk to because I didn't buy a certain DLC. Things like this should be handled more elegantly, because they really negatively affect the overall experience. In general, mechanically, this game is far from the most polished, and it has that "jank" feel, but the more I played it, the more it came to my heart. It is interesting to immerse yourself in the world of Farmer's Life, because it tries to evoke a specific atmosphere and time, and it succeeds.
If you are interested in Farmer's Life, the game is available on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox, and on Steam it is 55% off until September 29, 2025, so you can grab it for just under 10 euros.
A copy of the game was provided by the publisher PlayWay S.A. for review purposes.
