Pure Farming 2018 is Techland’s first-published farming game. Developed by Ice Flames, how does Pure Farming 2018 stack up against the rest of the farm sim market, which has several contenders for the farming crown? Pure Farming 2018 features a narrative story component, where you inherit a farm and have to tend to it. There are also several challenges modes and then a sandbox mode where players can cut their teeth on making their lands produce income generating crops. Each of these modes provides its own challenges and at least one will appeal to your typical farming game player.
The core mechanics of farming should be familiar to those veteran farming sim gamers out there. You plant, fertilize, water, harvest, and an assortment of other duties throughout the course of your farming day. The game features a solid array of vehicles and equipment options for you to make use of, and you can off-load some of your farming workload by hiring AI workers as well. Pure Farming 2018 features a well-designed UI that displays needed information on your field conditions and more, and should be a message to the farming sim genre that a properly-designed UI can enhance gamer satisfaction greatly. In some other farming games on the market, I found myself simply lost as there were no good tutorials or UI elements to guide me to my goals. Pure Farming 2018 features a fantastic tutorial element as part of the game’s story mode and gives you a good grasp on what you should be doing.
One of the areas where Pure Farming 2018 really shines is its driving mechanics. Operating all of the vehicles feels right and you get a nice sense of weight in the heavier ones as they plod along. The vehicle handling also changes depending on weather and weight changes. Another feather in Pure Farming 2018’s cap is its selection of locations to farm on. The game allows you to explore four locations from around the world: Germany, Italy, Columbia, and Montana – each of these areas has its own challenges and benefits.
Visually, the locations look good and the design and geometry of the various vehicles and pieces of equipment you utilize are outstanding. In terms of sound design, all of the machines sound great and you are also treated to a rich array of ambient sound effects. I especially liked the sim-like feature of the sound changing depending on whether you were “in-cockpit” or looking at your vehicle from an outside camera. There is an in-game radio for those of you looking to listen to music and you can also play your own music to boot.
Thanks to a recent patch, you can set the timescale to 1:1 and set the graphics to 16:10 resolutions! In fact, since release, the developers have pushed out two LARGE patches fixing and enhancing a vast array of things which gamers were having trouble with. It is very clear that Ice Flames has put heart and soul into Pure Farming 2018 and this is the kind of dedication that shows in the finished product. Pure Farming 2018 gives the Farming Simulator franchise a run for its money and will surely lead to some great competition as both games slug it out. Pure Farming 2018 does feature mod support, so it should be interesting to see what kinds of things the modders can come up with.
