Developer: Alawar
Steam Release: December 2007
Hours Played: 14 (21.2 including Farm Frenzy 2)
Similar To: 12 Labours of Hercules / Northern Tale / Pizza Frenzy
Rating: 5/5 Parsnips
This bright and cutesy puzzle game will appeal to the type of player who can think fast mathematically and logically under time pressure. Its sweet and innocent looking animations may appeal to young children but it's not a game for kids. Are you paying attention at the back? Then, I'll begin... The game is played on a dry field which you need to water by clicking on the well at the top and then on the ground to make the grass grow. The grass feeds the assortment of farm animals who inhabit the field. If they have no grass to eat, they die. The animals drop items such as eggs, wool and pork chops which you click on quickly to collect in your storehouse. The field is surrounded by ramshackle buildings that, when clicked on, serve the purpose of processing these items into products which you also have to click on to get them back into your storehouse.
You have limited storage space so when your stocks start to swell you need to sell them. Clicking on your storehouse pauses the action and brings up a screen where you select products to be taken to market. After giving the ok, a truck with the necessary products chugs along to the city (represented in the bottom right of the screen) where they're sold before the truck returns back to the farm. You can only carry out the sale transaction when your truck is back at the farm. The money is used to either buy more animals or upgrade buildings. You win the level by completing the list of objectives within a set time. The action can get pretty fast and furious and you have to retain a lot of information, as well as keep your concentration, if you want to get that gold medal.
Graphics are in 2D and cartoon-like with basic animations accompanying movements of the farm animals who all have happy, child-friendly faces. The buildings throb, bulge and bounce in an exaggerated way as they process the raw materials. Clicks are accompanied with satisfying sound effects and the happy background tune bounces along with a fresh and jolly gallop culminating in a glorious final flourish when the level is successfully complete. From the title-screen, hitting the Play button takes you to the map which shows a small community of houses dissected by paths in the leafy suburbs. This shows your progress through the 48 levels. The Shop, which you get to from the map, shows you all the buildings (like the bakery, storehouse, eggs solids plant and spinnery) that you need to upgrade before doing later levels.
Upgrades are bought with gold awarded at the end of completed levels. Unfortunately for a small 17MB game the load-screen between menus is a tad long and if you want to exit a level, the game inexplicably takes you back to the start menu via a load-screen meaning you have to enter the game again with an extra click on Play (plus another load screen) to get back to the map. Your progress is recorded on the green and luscious map screen showing a small community of houses divided, grid-like, by a series of paths with levels represented by added blue buttons. A good time is rewarded with a gold medal, an average time gets you silver while a grey back-to-front tick denotes completion. You may replay any previously completed level at any time to either get that elusive gold medal or to earn gold stars to upgrade those buildings.
CONCLUSION
For a casual and gentle brain-training work-out at the end of the day you can do a lot worse than fire up Farm Frenzy. At the mid-way point, each level takes roughly 6-7 minutes and I've personally managed to pick up 14 gold stars out of the 17 levels I’ve unlocked. However, progress isn't saved on the cloud. Objectives are varied and often require the player to experiment with conflicting strategies such as: selling farm animals rather than buying them; deciding whether to store bears in the storehouse or not and whether to upgrade buildings or keep them as they are. The fun-factor is certainly high and its bouncy sound and jolly atmosphere will also help to draw you in and get you involved. Hardcore fans will also be pleased to know that there are no end of worthy sequels on offer as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment