Job simulators have always been tricky to review, because on the one hand there’s obviously an audience that enjoys their pretty inherent repetition and feeling of calm they bring, but on the other they can also be a bit of a snooze depending on the player. The Farming Simulator series absolutely hits this issue square in the eyes, providing a window into managing a farm and using its equipment, but not necessarily proving to be the most friendly to newcomers either.

The main thing to know here, which proves to be both its greatest weakness and strength, is that there’s quite a lot to learn and understand if you want to do it all. This goes well beyond just hopping into a tractor, hooking up the proper gear, and then hitting the fields. Moving past the “big boys with big toys” aspect you can get down to outright managing the farm at a higher level, even hiring “helpers” to take care of those everyday tasks that many people find meditative and focusing your energies elsewhere. Probably the game’s greatest strength is that it will pretty well allow you to discover what in it excites you, and then let you focus on that corner, even if it means leaving many systems behind in the process.

Where that has always run the series into trouble, is that wrapping your arms around all of it is a challenge, as many of these tasks and screens have specific controls and things to understand in order to be successful. The problem is that the explanations for all of this are a bit all over the place. The challenge is that you can get guidance on how to mechanically do things, but getting past that into doing them effectively can be another matter. While trying to explain all of that would be asking a lot, especially when people generally won’t dig into all of it, to some degree if you’re going to include so many choices you should put in a better earnest effort to help it all make sense to players. Given that many of these systems and associated issues have been around for quite some time now, that adds to the frustration that sufficient attention hasn’t been put into improving things in that area.

All that said, if you’re fascinated by the farm life, either from personal experience or simply a love for working the land, there’s quite a lot here to explore and enjoy. While the main systems haven’t changed much over the years, new additions like weather in particular are a nice touch and help the game feel a little more immersive. Of course, considering as much as you can do, there are also some very simple simulated elements like driving on roads that have always been somewhat laughably bad in their implementation, so it sometimes doesn’t take long to see the cracks as you try to check everything out. It isn’t amazing, but it does know how to play to its audience at least.