Farlands Reviews
Escape the rat race and build your dream farm on a barren planet in this charming indie sim that nails the cozy agrarian fantasy. That’s the TBB Curator blurb, and it captures what Farlands does well — this is a warm, pretty, personality-rich farming sim with a space hook that genuinely earns its place rather than sitting on top as a theme. The honest caveat is the one the community keeps circling: Farlands is very good and not yet distinctive. It borrows well, it executes competently across a lot of systems, and it hasn’t quite found the one thing that makes it unmistakably itself. The guidance gaps and the early-game space tedium are real friction. But the people who criticise this game most thoughtfully are doing it from 13 hours in and still logging back on, which tells you what you need to know about the loop. For $17.99, with two years of delivered Early Access behind it and a completed roadmap, this is an easy recommendation for farming sim fans who want the formula with something new attached. If you loved Stardew and wondered what it’d feel like with a spaceship, this is that game, and it’s made by people who clearly love the genre.
Farlands is a comprehensive life simulation with a space travel twist. There is a good variety of farming, fishing, bug collecting and mining, driven by the need to fill a museum-type Ark. However, Farlands needs better optimisation for the Nintendo Switch and more robust testing to catch the bugs towards the end of the experience – hopefully, neither should be rocket science to resolve. So, whilst there are some non-cosy design choices, like the dark and dangerous caverns of Hafnir, overall, I enjoyed my time in the Farlands. With the caveat of the issues mentioned and the hope of a swift resolution, my final verdict is:
While it certainly qualifies as a cozy sim, and has its charms, it also feels a bit too vanilla in a sea of similar titles with a little more pizzazz