Pure Farming 2018 the test: What is there beyond graphics?

If you follow the news, you couldn't miss it. Pure Farming 2018 has been walking the chains for a few months now Youtube in version preview. We even presented it in our columns and in video. Today the game, edited by Techland, arrives on time in final version.

Pure Farming has a long history and a successful development. If the game was originally go out a year ago, the decision to postpone its release date in order to refine the whole could well pay off. The testers are unanimous, PF is THE game that propels agricultural simulation into a new graphic area. And not the least since it is theUnity environment, mastered by Polish studio Iceflames, which animates the whole. No need to present this graphics engine, we refer you to the test of the preview version, edited a few weeks ago.

A new presentation is needed

The preview version had some limitations: the "first farm" mode was absent, the farm challenges not finalized, and the free play mode, called "sandbox", was limited to the "Germany" map. But that's not all, and it is in my opinion the most important point of the game: the import mods menu, unveiled a few days ago, was not available. As for the options, everything is there!

Depending on your hardware configuration, you can fine-tune the graphics settings. Note that I tested the game on 2 very different configurations, and that it remained at least playable on the smaller one (based on a small Intel Core i3 supported by 8GB of RAM and an Nvidia GT640, in short the config of grandma Josephine). Unity is not a particularly greedy engine. You also have the option of managing the vehicle radio via an mp3 stream or your own playlist on your hard drive. Ideal for listening to the news and playing at the same time.

Free mode finally… released

In addition to the "first farm" mode for novices who are discovering the world of agricultural simulations and who will be guided through a scripted tutorial allowing them to understand materials and commands, a "farm challenges" mode offers one-off missions in the race against the watch.

But the mode that will appeal to the vast majority of players is free mode. This is no more and no less the career mode of Farming Simulator.

And to attack this mode, you must first choose your map and some options such as the starting budget, the weather and the time of day. The choice of the starting map is important because each of them has its own cultures and materials.

Thus on the Colombia map you will be led to cultivate mainly coffee and hemp. The Japan card will offer you the cultivation of rice and cherries, the Italian card allows the cultivation of vines and olives and finally the USA card, the largest and most complete, offers more “traditional” cultures. For people who have pre-ordered the game, the Germany card, offered for the occasion, gives access to sheep farming and rapeseed cultivation.

Note that the design of the maps has little to do with competing titles and that the sets have much more relief and details, which give them a more realistic side.

Breeding side, Pure Farming offers a different approach that some will consider a step ahead, with animals that are born, that evolve, that die and a production that varies according to the age of the animals. Note that for the moment, corn cultivation is not present but that it should happen with the addition of future maps.

To help you in your tasks, you can call on workers. If they do their job well, like other farming simulations, they are limited to 1 per field.

Pure Farming puts you in the shoes of a farmer responsible for all these farms and able to travel the world. Also you can juggle from one card to another, by plane. Each trip will cost you $ 1200, to which you will have to add a few tickets if you also want to move equipment with you.

The USA map promises long hours of play

For Farming fans who bought the Platinum version, and who didn't like exotic crops, chances are they will immediately go to the USA map. This is the largest map in the game, but it is also the one that offers the most crops and farm animals. It has about thirty fields of 5 to 15 ha, a wind farm and several locations for solar panels, which are very interesting sources of income.

Mods and materials

The materials available in this final version have not changed compared to the January preview version which had been tested. I can already see some crying scandal. I reassure you right away, the interest of the game is really quite different and the capacities of the machines are ultimately of little importance. In addition, the title is much more about breeding and business than Farming Simulator. And all this in a very fun and simplified way thanks to the tablet of your virtual farmer.

And while we're talking about scrap, the modding tool presented by the editor a few days ago and unveiled on our youtube channel 2 days ago, is devilishly effective. If one is very far from the modding of Farming Simulator or Cattle and Crops, where the machines have their own characteristics and associated controls, Pure Farming could see an extremely large number of agricultural machines unload in the days following its release.

The import tool allows you to load a 3D model and associate it with a category (tractors, cars, harvesters, etc.). Once loaded, with a few clicks, we adjust a few key values ​​such as power, max speed, weight, etc. And that's about it. A real child's play! Converting a vehicle from a competing game to Pure Farming takes no more than 30 min.

Regarding the availability of new gear via the "importer" tab, developers should make a selection of the best mods before integrating them into the game, whether on PC or consoles. The importer should also be improved in the coming days, with the possibility of creating maps!

Pure Farming is available on PC for € 29,99, and on Xbox One and PS4 for € 39,99.