BY LOGAN SCHLOSSER
STAFF WRITER
*Disclaimer: There are little to no spoilers here. If you don’t want to spoil the opening scene, you can skip the 2nd paragraph.
On the date of February 26th, 2016, a brand new title to the game market was released to shake the gaming market. The game I am talking about is one of the most successful indie titles to ever cross the platform, Stardew Valley. So, let’s hop right into the review!
Once you have created your character and are ready to step into the world of Stardew Valley, you are greeted with a cutscene. After wanting to leave your life as an office worker, you open a letter given to you from your grandfather; inside is a deed to his old farm. This is how the game begins.
Now into the actual gameplay. This game involves a lot of manipulating your crop growth to produce the max amount of money, so you can purchase wonderful upgrades for your farm. Basically, you can purchase different crops for different seasons. Each season is 30 days, and each day is 24 minutes. You do have to sleep though, so you will be losing half of your day! There are multiple types of crops; these crops can grow at different rates and all sell for different values. Besides the element of farming, there is also the element of talking to the townsfolk. There are around 20 different Non-Player-Characters to give gifts to and befriend. The more people you befriend, the more items you can receive as presents from them. These presents can span from food to ores.
To move into the last category of the game, you can go into this mine to fight enemies with an upgradeable combat system that improves the farther you go down. Every 5 floors you go down it adds that floor to an elevator, which you can go to and go down to that level even after you die.
Alright, I feel that I should make an entire section dedicated to the beauty of this game’s art. The art is centered around a top-down 2D pixelated style, and just looking at this game is an absolute treat. The artists combined a 2D experience with modern shaders. The game somehow looks so realistic, even though you clearly know it is not. It is just such a comforting thing to look at after a long day of work.
Now there is so much more I could honestly cover in this game, but I really don’t want to turn this into “Logan spoils an entire game for a school newspaper”. if this article left you wanting more, simply purchase the game when it’s on sale. It will legitimately run on any hardware, and it will always be a comfortable experience. So, try it out for yourself if this game seems suited to your tastes.