Space Farmers is played on the Steam Network. It is a co-op game, meaning that it is two players. You cannot play this game by yourself. When you purchase the game it comes as a two pack for you and a friend. You give the second code to your friend and play with them. I have never really played a game that was dependent on another person joining you, so this was a change of pace.
In this game, you and another person play two farmers that were abducted by aliens. The aliens want to know all of your farming secrets to use on their own crops. You are racing through enemies, puzzles and traps trying to get off of the ship. At the start of the level, you and your partner grab ray guns to defend yourself with.
When I initially started playing I waited online for someone (ANYONE!) to join the game so that I would have someone to play with. While it shows an option to play against a random player, this is a feature that is not playable just yet. When you purchase the game it comes as a two pack. You give the code to a friend so that both of you can play. Enter my friend Kemi.
Kemi and I chose our characters and their outfits and went to work. We started the game and not 30 seconds in we die. Initially we started out not communicating as we figured it wasn’t going to be an issue. However it was clear after the 5th time dying less than 5 minutes in that we would need to talk to be able to plan a coordinated attack without dying every single minute.
The concept of the game is simple; you grab a gun and start shooting at your enemy, bombs, and even some obstacles, while running through mazes and traps. There is no rapid fire shooting and your gun would need time to recharge after every shot. It would not need long for charging, just about a second. However when you have three enemies on you and have ran out of shots without having to charge it gets very frustrating.
The game itself is visually pleasing. With its bright colors and easy to spot enemies, you would think it would make the game a snap. Not so. This was most demonstrated as we came across the first trap. There are enemies chasing you, a big spiked roller trying to mow you down, as well as bombs that would blow up as the roller hit them, killing anything near it. You would also have to run around barrels in the way, which would slow you up and make you meat for the roller. You could try to shoot the barrels out of the way but keep in mind you would have to take time for your gun to recharge. Everything was happening all at once. My anxious mind was all over the place, my husband was cringing, and Kemi was shrieking. This was the part of the level we spent the most time on.
The first night we played, Kemi and I played for 4 hours straight. I assumed that this would be the type of game I could watch a movie and work with at the same time. My movie was quickly shut off, and the way I was jerking around like I was having a seizure gave my husband more entertainment than the movie would have. Kemi and I were screaming at each other via Skype because if one of you died, YOU BOTH STARTED OVER. Our conversation that evening was something like this:
“WHY WEREN’T YOU HIDDEN!? YOU KNEW THAT WAS COMING?”
“Dude, to your left….YOUR OTHER LEFT!”
“The spiky wheel! Watch out for the spiky whe- and you are dead.”
It went on like this for several hours. Kemi and I played throughout the week and never managed to get very far. It’s a struggle because like with most co-ops, you cannot control the person playing with you, as much as you want to.
The characters that you play are somewhat awkward looking and blocky. They offer both free and paid options to dress them up with. No matter how you dressed them, they still were super blocky and awkward. For every enemy you killed, you earned what looked like radish points. The radish points were supposed to be able to be used to buy extra outfits and accessories for your character. I did not see the option to spend them however. That may also be something that they will be adding at a later time.
This is not a game I could see myself playing for an extended period of time. I would get so frustrated when one of us *cough Kemi* would die and it would put you back at the start. I would be more inclined to play if they offered a single player option. It may be better once they release more of the options within the game that were listed, like being able to use your points within the game to purchase outfits for your characters. I feel like with a little work, this game could be great. But it needs to work on the weak points.
REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.
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