If you happened to have me added as a friend on Steam, you would see that I have managed to accumulate 45 hours of Stardew Valley gameplay over Spring Break. If I were to describe this game in one word, I’d say ‘addicting’ – like World of Warcraft and Candy Crush level addicting. If I were to describe it in a sentence, I would say the game is ‘Animal Crossing meets Harvest Moon with more in-depth relationships, marriage options, mining, and combat’.

I discovered this game when looking for a nice, calm, and casual game to play while my friends played competitive first person shooters that didn’t interest me as much. I saw that it had positive reviews, so I decided to try it out. Little did I know that it was everything I wanted and more. In this article I’ll briefly discuss the main aspects of the game that really stand out as unique compared to other games with a similar genre.

Relationships

One huge aspect of the game that I absolutely love, is the fact that you can develop different levels of friendship with the people in your town. You can increase your level of friendship by talking to them and giving them gifts. However, finding them around town is not an easy task since each character has their own schedule which can change every day and every season. Although some may find this a little inconvenient, I think it adds a level of realism to the game. Each character also has a different set of things they like and dislike as gifts which really forces you to remember the personalities of each individual character. There are also a number of people in the town who are single and give you the option to date and eventually marry them. The developers of the game are also working on adding a multiplayer feature to this game, which will hopefully make things even more interesting.

Mining

Mining in this game is not only what it sounds like, but also involves a level of combat with cave-dwelling monsters. The combat aspect of the game makes Stardew Valley stand out as unique against games such as Harvest Moon. The underground mines are structured similar to how mining worked in Runescape in the Barbarian Village. Every few levels deeper underground grants you a save point, and every ten levels leads you to a spacious room with a chest containing some sort of item that will benefit you in the long-run.

Art Style

The art style of Stardew Valley is very unique. It is a 2D pixelated game similar to Terraria, and is extremely cute to make up for the lack of intense 3D realistic graphics.

Overall

Overall, Stardew Valley is a great game to play whether you want to pass time or just play a relaxing and simple game. For $15 you will get hours of gameplay, new friendships, and a second life as a small-town farmer.

Entertainment Score: 10/10

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