Farm Up

Farm Up is a strategy game that also demands a lot of motor skills. If you have played other farm games before, you will probably know what to do from the start.

However, you may also feel that all it does is puts just a little makeup on other known games.

The story that provides a pretext for your actions is simple. In the middle of the 1930’s recession, the game’s main (and only) character, Jennifer, buys a farm that has seen better times. The goal is to make the farm prosper and also help other people in the community endure the hard times.

However, reaching prosperity in the middle of a crisis is not that easy. So, your character needs to do many of the tasks commonly carried out in a farm. Thus, she needs to buy seeds, plant them and harvest the produce. At the same time, it is necessary to invest in creating new buildings and maintaining the old ones as well as taking care of farm animals. Just as in real life (but logically not that long), some processes take time, which makes it necessary to plan your actions ahead and do something else while you wait.

The game has nice, yet not sophisticated, graphics. The background music can be relaxing at first, but it may become dull after some time. The character receives your orders via mouse actions, mostly clicks, which sometimes requires moving your hand very quickly if you want to meet the demands of the level.

One of the weaknesses of Farm Up is that it is supposed to be played alone; even Jennifer feels a little lonely. This means that opportunities for socializing are scarce. Just imagine how things could change just if this same game could be played in multiplayer mode, with various characters being moved by different players.

All in all, Farm Up is a nice way to spend some time (but not all the time). Fortunately, the game is free to download from the Mac Store. Still, there are some in-app purchases, like extra coins.