It’s hard to justify Farming Simulator to those who don’t already immediately see the appeal of a game called “Farming Simulator”. When you could be off scrambling around Hyrule, or pulling off heists in Los Santos, why would you want to plough your fields to make sure the wheat is sown in time for the summer?
There’s always been a nerdy charm to the series that’s tough to describe. A playground where anorak-level attention to detail and low-stakes, quiet relaxation come together to make meditation through the medium of digital combine harvesters. Unfortunately, while there are hints of that happy place I know and love in Farming Simulator 23, the ol’ barn is looking a little worse for wear, and the weeds really need tending to.
You don’t have a strict goal in Farming Simulator, other than to make more money, expand your farm, and get fancy new machinery to drool over. Various approaches to farming, such as straight crop-based agriculture, leaning more into animal husbandry, or even going into logging and forestry are available to you. Which fields you buy, what you plant, and whether you go it alone or hire some help to make things easier is up to you.
The biggest appeal of the series has always been its attention to detail when it comes to the equipment. Using real-world brands and tools, every piston, bolt, and mechanical arm is where it should be. This is where the anorak-ness comes in, as 23 still manages to capture that sense of awe when seeing a pesticide sprayer unfurl, or the teamwork of watching your harvester unload its stocks into a nearby wagon.
The Farming Simulator series alternates between the high-end platforms (Xbox, PlayStation, PC) one year, and then mobile and Switch the next in a downgraded version. 23 is the latter’s turn, meaning this is a smaller, less technically impressive take on the series. However, in its comparative simplicity, there’s been a lot of streamlining that also makes it a much more accessible entry.
The whole game feels faster, as crops grow quicker, and you can quickly attach tools to vehicles by driving into them. It gets away from the endless waiting followed by brief bursts of wondering which tool goes on which tractor, letting you get right into the more macro-scale business decisions of running your farm. If you’ve never played one before, this might be the one to start with to learn the ropes before heading to the shinier, more feature-filled predecessors.
Sadly, while it helps make the game slightly easier, the move to Switch has highlighted how dated the platform feels. Gone are the gorgeous vistas of the mainline entries, and instead we have two bland maps that don’t feel worth exploring. Farming Simulator 19 had a colossal world to venture out into, complete with a train you can drive right around the perimeter. In 23, on the other hand, I’ve barely left my farm or the nearby store, because everything looks so muddy and blurry.
It's not as if those visual downgrades were in service to the Switch, though, as it still runs awfully. The framerate drops down to a crawl, with it easily going below 15fps just when looking at your own house. Plenty of elements of its mobile counterpart remain, too, such as massive, gaudy touchscreen buttons permanently plastered on the screen. A game on the Switch doesn’t need an on-screen jump button, and yet here it is, taking up precious screen real-estate.
I could’ve let the technical hiccoughs go if Farming Simulator 23 was trying something new, but it feels like the series has fallen into a rut. It’s been nine years since 15 completely revitalised the series, while 17, 19, and 22 all added enough new stuff to play with. 23 feels more like a rehash than an advancement. Perhaps the biggest victim is the absence of 19 and 22’s farm customisation, which let you place things like beehives and dog kennels to add a personal flair to your home, and maybe run a few side-gigs alongside your bigger farming business.
Farming Simulator 23 is still in that magical sweet spot of sheer nerdiness and utter relaxation. I still repeatedly furled and unfurled my machinery just to watch all the parts move, and I still took a quick break from the daily grind by hanging out with my chickens. But you’d be hard-pressed to look at anything here and feel like it’s ‘new’.
It’s a nine-year-old formula running on six-year-old hardware, and neither of them can elevate the other. One of them must change, and Giants is probably the one who needs to blink first if it hopes to pull off another portable Farming Simulator in 2025.
2.5/5
Code was provided by the publisher for this review.