The first time I loaded My Farm 2018 I was met with the realisation that the game has no Pro Controller support. Sadly, that was just the first in a long line of issues.
In My Farm 2018 you’re thrown right into the middle of empty farmland, given a chicken and told to feed it. There is no further instruction beyond that, so you’ll have to find out for yourself what the series of images which form the menu at the bottom of the screen represent. After figuring them out the game becomes something of a micro-management farming simulator.
Progression in My Farm 2018 is quite simple; you will need to manage your animals’ health, hunger and hygiene. Hunger is the main factor to keep an eye on as that depletes the quickest, so the way to stay on top of it is to feed your animals either seed, vegetables or hay as and when they require it.
Feeding your animal will make them unclean, so washing your animal will normally follow the feeding process. This bit is quite simple, as you click the cleaning icon of the menu, press the A button a few times until its hygiene bar increases and wait for the animal to be content.
When your animal is happy, fed and cleaned there is more chance that they will hatch an egg, or shed a feather depending on which animals it is. You can then in turn sell the eggs or feathers for profit, which then means you can buy more food for your animals, or buy new animals to bring onto your farm.
Different animals can be handled in different ways. Chickens will lay eggs, ducks will shed feathers, but animals like horses and rabbits simply need taking care of until they grow, and then those can be sold on for profit.
While animal management can be fun as you adapt to it, you’ll soon get to grips with it and realise the game has very little else to offer. Once the variety has gone, you’ll soon find My Farm 2018 to be a very shallow game with the presentation of a mobile game. in fact, I was surprised to see no micro-transactions, with numerous opportunities where these might have been easily snuck into the formula, such as in bumping up your in-game currency total.
My Farm 2018 is a bland game where everything can be seen and done within the first hour. There is very little variety to the gameplay, which makes it feel even more like a wallet-stinger. Stardew Valley is still unabashed as the standout farming entry on Switch – this is the latest in a long line of disappointing challengers to its crown.
My Farm 2018
Summary
My Farm 2018 is a very basic game with core mechanics that like a mobile title. It lacks variation, and scores low for its disappointing and repetitive gameplay.