You’ve inherited your grandfather’s old farm plot in Stardew Valley. Armed with hand-me-down tools and a few coins, you set out to begin your new life. Can you learn to live off the land and turn these overgrown fields into a thriving home?
Stardew Valley Game Review
When I last played the game in 2017, I had to give it another try, especially with all those new features and things to discover since update 1.5 was released. I procrastinated a bit because I knew exactly that it’d get me into another addiction, but I don’t regret it.
After a while, I even switched on the SteamDeck and loved it.
The graphics are a pure pixelated style, reminding me of older games when the quality wasn’t as high as nowadays. But not in a negative way!
I love the cute, minimalistic style, for whenever I went to the Mines, it reminded me of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon because it felt similar here.
There’s not much story to go with, nor an actual end since it’s open-end, but that might not be a problem at all, as long as you can get busy!
It consists of you getting your farm and building it up on nothing but your house and a huge place.
Including weeding for a clean area to plant and sell crops, saving money for animals to get your hands on milk and other animal products, upgrading everything, and enjoying your hard work on upgrading your house to a nice, great place. Of course, every season has its advantages and disadvantages. Winter can be hard at first, but there’s so much else to do, like fishing, mining, and upgrading your tools, that keeps one busy here.
Besides that, there are regular events to join – every season has two events coming up, and it’s up to you if you join them – places to discover – like the Mines or another Island with an additional Cavern, tasks to complete – like the Community Center – which unlocks another great place to go for fishing and exploring but also just talking to lots of villagers you can befriend and unlock another series of fun sidequests!
There’s also the game having lots of bachelors and bachelorettes around to choose from to date, marry, and have kids with – or not. It’s up to the player to decide on the outcome.
Decorating the house is so much fun as well! I spent hours decorating the house, and there are many sources from which to get inspiration. I love it!
And, of course, remember that there’s a huge possibility of extending and decorating your house, which is a lot of fun! Decorating is one of my favorites to do in games when it’s possible. I also sorted and managed all the collected stuff over some hours of playing time.
About the soundtrack, I’m a huge fan. Even though there’s quite some time without background music, it lets you focus on your work here.
I haven’t tried the co-op mode so far, but I am excited about that in the future because all I know about it is that it sounds like lots of fun with your friends!
Even in single-player, there’s a chance to buy some small basements for when friends are coming around.
Final Thoughts
Stardew Valley is one of those games I could always go back to. Simulation games are my passion besides the “usual” adventure games, I love having relaxing games to go back to here and there.
ConcernedApe is a single-dev working on such a great game as Stardew Valley. Because, after all, I haven’t encountered many bugs or glitches in almost 200 hours of playing (I’m working on 300 hours, though).
Compared to games with a larger team of developers, which still manage to get games released with more (unplayable) bugs and stuff, I think it’s quite impressive here.
I might be biased here because I have to love the game, but Stardew is still one of the greatest indie games I know of, and I got into Indies in the first place.
I can recommend the game to everyone asking for a more relaxing game every once in a while. It gives lots of opportunities to do and get busy with.
Especially with the game being available on mobile, Switch, Consoles, and Steam, it gives you all the options to play wherever you want to.
Have you played Stardew Valley? If so, what do you think of it? Share your thoughts in the comments!
