Country Story's goal is to create a virtual farming experience.

Farming is just so overwhelmingly popular these days, the rate people are adding these games on Facebook is growing faster than I can text. Ok, bad comparison… but you get the idea. So I have decided to continue this craze.

Country Story is Playfish’s latest creation in this category. In short, this newcomer is well-crafted, and stands out from its peers. What makes Country Story different than other farming games (like Farmville), is that the game is not just about planting and harvesting crops over and over again, nor as fast as possible. Country Story wants to create a virtual farming experience — a place free of all that fast-paced city stress. To be honest, initially I didn’t like the slow-paced gameplay Country Story offers (maybe it’s just too different from the other farming games). But as the game grew on me, I started to appreciate and find myself emerged in a whole new farming experience.

Let’s start by talking about the graphics. Playfish’s use of bright, colorful, and animated design elements make Country Story visually enjoyable. The biggest difference is the game’s view angle. In Country Story, you look straight into your farm instead of from a corner (e.g. in Farmville). I like this design; it makes me feel like I’m actually living and participating in my little farm land, and not just controlling my farm from up above. Additionally, some of the farm background choices are nicely animated. Mine has fish jumping out of a water stream. The avatar is crafted in 3D, and is also well animated — when you are farming/plowing/planting, it moves its arms and legs accordingly. Another nice feature is the mouse roll-over function. When your hand icon is hovering over crops and livestock, it will show you info about them: the type of crop, the water level, the mood level (for livestock), and how long before you can harvest. Need I say more? I love the graphics in this game.

Patience is a virtue. Like real farmers, you'll need to plow land one plot at a time.

Now, moving on to the gameplay. After the initial set up (picking a gender and a outfit for your avatar and a background for your farm), you will meet the mayor of your village. He will walk through the basic farming tools with you and help you harvest your first crop. You’ll learn how to plow land, buy seeds, plant seeds, water plots, and harvest crops. You’ll also learn about the stamina bar a.k.a your energy level. You’re expected to get tired from plowing, planting…etc. Also worth mentioning are the quests you can unlock every time you level up. They are simple missions like harvesting a certain number of crops, watering a certain number of plots, and plowing a certain number of plots. These missions definitely helped me get familiar with game. And even better, you get rewards for completing these quests, like coins and crop fertilizers.

In the beginning, you are limited by how many plots you can plow and grow crops. Eventually, you can plow more land each time you level up. But, be careful when you plow land in this game. There is an extra charge for removing each plot. I was actually pretty upset at this feature at first. But I started to appreciate the time that I had spent carefully plowing and caring for my farm. It makes the game unique. Unlike the other social farming games (e.g. Farmville), watering your plants is essential. Although your plants won’t die if you don’t water them, they will not grow either. I actually like this extra step… it makes the whole farming experience seems more real. Here’s another extra step I enjoy—the livestock will need to be fed and loved before they can produce anything. Growing specific crops for each livestock and feeding them regularly make me feel like a real farmer. Lastly, you can harvest your crops anytime. They don’t whither or die like in other farm games, which means you don’t have to worry about losing or not gaining any profits. That’s a big plus for a busy girl like me! It’s hard enough to keep track of my own daily commitments, let alone keeping track of the crops in Facebook’s virtual farms. Since most crops harvest in less than a day, when I do go back to the game, beautiful crops are always swaying pleasantly and waiting to be harvested by me.

When you feel like getting some fresh air outside of your farm, you can visit your friends’ farms. Here are the activities you can do. You can water their crops, which also gives you coins. You can also pick up the wood sticks and rocks scattered around your friends’ farms. They are materials that you will need in order to purchase livestock later. You can also steal crops (that are ready to be harvested) for some extra coins and level points. Your friends don’t really lose the crops from your stealing, so why not play a joke on them. By the way, your are encouraged to steal — stealing enough crops will earn you trophies.

Don't forget to water your crops when the plot turns to light brown. You can water each plot up to 3 times.

Despite all the wonderful things I like about Country Story, I think there is still room for this game to grow. First, the size of the land is fixed, I wish it were expandable like in other farm games so I can grow more crops and raise more animals. Second, the farm land is not dragable; you’ll need to move your avatar around in order to navigate the space. Last, your stamina bar runs out way too fast. By the time I’ve finished harvesting, plowing, and planting my crops (about 38 plots), there isn’t enough energy to water all my newly planted crops. Since you can’t do any farming without any stamina, this can actually deter users from coming back to the game. It can be pretty annoying having to spend coins on food to replenish the bar, and waiting for the bar to go up slowly (up to 6 hours) is just not very exciting.

Yes, the game definitely needs some tweaks and improvements along the way. Nevertheless, considering how new Country Story is (launched this past August), it is heading in the right direction. It’s got a fresh view on virtual farming and is worth a try.

Report Card:
B+

Exceeded Expectations
+ Pleasantly rendered graphics. Many elements are nicely animated. Crops sway side to side.
+ The game focuses on creating a farming experience rather than building the farm itself.
+ Having livestock that you need to feed and care for is almost like having mini virtual pets.

Needs Improvement
- Navigating around is not very intuitive. Takes a while to get used to.
- Although your stamina bar increase as you level up, it still runs out way too fast.
- I wish there were more quests/tasks. I like those quests, or maybe just the rewards that come with them.