Long ago I forged my tempered hatred for Avatar games. So long ago, that I have begun to forget the reasons why. Perhaps it was the cheesy look, the lack of effort that seemed to surround the games that utilized them, or the microtransaction accessorizing that is oft associated with them. Whatever the reason may be it is particularly irrelevant today, as I have taken up the task of reviewing one of these avatar titles.
Gameplay
Avatar Farm is, as the title provides some hint at, a game about farming. I would have loved to have called it a farming simulator but the complete absence of any of the challenges surrounding farming makes it impossible to do so. So overly simplified is it, that the most complicated thing you have to figure out is when you are going to play it. What the game does do is plop you into a field roughly 24 meters by 24 meters in size with a small area pre-sown with some crops and a few trees. This is actually a really great way to introduce the player to the game, as it takes a bit of the guess work out of starting. You simply hop in follow a few really basic instructions and the rest is more or less intuitive. Harvest your first few crops and then get started planting what you like.
The game has a leveling system which makes available various crops as you progress. There is a currency system that controls what and how much you can sow based on how much money you have. There is also more than just crops that can be acquired. The game also makes available trees, structures like barns, and purely aesthetic objects. As far as actual management of the farm, you basically just water when they want water and harvest when they want harvested. The crops all have a gestation period that is given in real world time. The shortest of which is in the neighborhood of 15 minutes. The longest on the other hand is two days — yes people, I said days.
It is in this way that time becomes the central mechanic of the game. The game time utilizes the system clock to determine the progression of time even when the game is not actively being played. So as I previously mentioned, now you suddenly need to actively manage your Google Calendar entries so you know when to show up and harvest. Otherwise you’ll end up like me and plant a four hour crop of onions and show up to the party the next day, exceptionally late — it was all over but the crying.
The conceptual ambition of the project is pretty huge. It seeks to be a game that gets players back again and again, but without the social aspect of a FarmVille style game or the complexity of a Sim Farm style game such as Harvest Moon, or the pickup-play-leave of a mobile game like Nimblebit’s Tiny Tower. It really doesn’t have a hook. You’ll have planted some crops, thrown up a barn and a beehive, and checked out your The Situation Abs for awhile, but that’s the whole game. The potential here could have been huge, I mean where’s the tractors, farm animals, hired hands, and irrigation systems!
Continuing on with the list of complaints, the autosave feature of the game is just brutish. It will literally pause the game for a handful of seconds and toss up an autosaving message every five or so minutes. It acts just like a wrecking ball through the already paper thin wall of immersion.
While there is really nothing here that is going to keep you playing this game for months, it is pretty enjoyable for a few hours. And while some of the mechanics aren’t all that in depth, it does manage to not charge you on a microtransaction basis and erode your soul like a Zynga game.
Audio/Visual
With regards to the games visuals, it looks like pretty much every other avatar game. Heavy use of primary colors, with simplistic stylized 3d models with a pleasant atmosphere. There isn’t really a terrible sense of life in the game though. The vegetation’s growth is somewhat uninspiring. The trees are a good example of this, they just pop up out of the ground with no organic formation or randomness. I feel as though the inclusion of some domesticated animals would have really livened up the atmosphere of the game.
Sound of the game is mediocre, there’s nothing exciting to report on either way. The music on the other hand is pretty good. It does a good job of giving you the feel of the farm and there is even a good chance you’ll catch yourself humming along.
Summary
While you won’t be playing this game for months, you will enjoy it for hours if it is the kind of game you are looking for. That in my mind makes it a pretty reasonable value proposition at the 240 Microsoft Points price point. Milkstone, the creator of MotorHEAT, has promised at the very least a patch to fix some bugs and who knows what else. The game is available now, and you should exercise your right to demo first.