Can this farm sim take on the likes of Stardew?
A new life in the country is calling! Fulfil your dreams and manage your very own farm in this lovingly designed open-world game. Work hard, manage your business wisely and your little farm might grow into a personal paradise, surrounded by nature. Kick back, unwind and watch your dreams grow.
Harvest Days was originally a PC title in Early Access until recently, where it launched for all platforms as Version 1.0. I’m quite a fan of the farm-life types of sim games so thought it might be worth my time, but did this need more time in the incubator?
It feels like it could have done with a lot more time before leaving Early Access. In its current form it has multiple bugs and glitches such as vanishing animals, oceans turning black, weird animations and so on. It doesn’t help that the in-game text is ridiculously tiny either, so chances are you will need to either have perfect vision, do a lot of squinting or move closer to the TV. I wear glasses and even I was struggling to see at a reasonable distance.
I was playing for a while and then it dawned on me just how soulless it is compared to other games like it. The townsfolk don’t have much personality so don’t go expecting Stardew-level of conversations, while the open-world though big, feels quite empty. If I’m being totally honest, it looks kind of like it was put together in something like Roblox with its visuals and rough around the edges gameplay.
I can see the potential here, I really can. I just think it definitely needed way longer for it to be ready for consoles. The good news is that the framerate is decent, load times are short and the soundtrack is pleasant, but that isn’t enough to make you overlook all the flaws it has.
The Verdict
Harvest Days has potential and patches are slowly improving things. But in its current buggy state, it’s hard to recommend over the other far better games like it.