Stardew Valley – PC

Game Synopsis

You’ve inherited your grandfather’s old farm plot in Stardew Valley. Armed with hand-me-down tools and a few coins, you set out to begin your new life. Can you learn to live off the land and turn these overgrown fields into a thriving home? It won’t be easy. Ever since Joja Corporation came to town, the old ways of life have all but disappeared. The community center, once the town’s most vibrant hub of activity, now lies in shambles. But the valley seems full of opportunity. With a little dedication, you might just be the one to restore Stardew Valley to greatness!

Features
Turn your overgrown field into a lively farm! Raise animals, grow crops, start an orchard, craft useful machines, and more! You’ll have plenty of space to create the farm of your dreams.

Improve your skills over time. As you make your way from a struggling greenhorn to a master farmer, you’ll level up in 5 different areas: farming, mining, combat, fishing, and foraging. As you progress, you’ll learn new cooking and crafting recipes, unlock new areas to explore, and customize your skills by choosing from a variety of professions.

Become part of the local community. With over 30 unique characters living in Stardew Valley, you won’t have a problem finding new friends! Each person has their own daily schedule, birthday, unique mini-cutscenes, and new things to say throughout the week and year. As you make friends with them, they will open up to you, ask you for help with their personal troubles, or tell you their secrets! Take part in seasonal festivals such as the luau, haunted maze, and feast of the winter star.

Explore a vast, mysterious cave. As you travel deeper underground, you’ll encounter new and dangerous monsters, powerful weapons, new environments, valuable gemstones, raw materials for crafting and upgrading tools, and mysteries to be uncovered.

Breathe new life into the valley. Since JojaMart opened, the old way of life in Stardew Valley has changed. Much of the town’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair. Help restore Stardew Valley to it’s former glory by repairing the old community center, or take the alternate route and join forces with Joja Corporation.

Court and marry a partner to share your life on the farm with. There are 10 available bachelors and bachelorettes to woo, each with unique character progression cutscenes. Once married, your partner will live on the farm with you. Who knows, maybe you’ll have kids and start a family?

Spend a relaxing afternoon at one of the local fishing spots. The waters are teeming with seasonal varieties of delicious fish. Craft bait, bobbers, and crab pots to help you in your journey toward catching every fish and becoming a local legend!

Donate artifacts and minerals to the local museum.

Cook delicious meals and craft useful items to help you out. With over 100 cooking and crafting recipes, you’ll have a wide variety of items to create. Some dishes you cook will even give you temporary boosts to skills, running speed, or combat prowess. Craft useful objects like scarecrows, oil makers, furnaces, or even the rare and expensive crystalarium.

Customize the appearance of your character and house. With hundreds of decorative items to choose from, you’ll have no trouble creating the home of your dreams!

Over two hours of original music.

Stardew Valley – Living the Farm Life

Take Harvest Moon, sprinkle in some Rune Factory, and you get the latest dose of crack on PC. Stardew Valley is a charmingly addictive farm simulator that released late February and that I have been absolutely hooked on since I started.

The player is tasked with living life on the farm and helping out the community, making friends and finding love, fish, mine and join in on festivities. It’s probably one of the most mellow games you can play and still get stressed. Weird right?

Your grandfather has passed and one day, while in your cubicle at work, you reread his letter to you about his farm and asking if you were tired of city life. In a moment worthy of a midlife crisis, you pack up your stuff and head to the countryside. A quaint little place called Pelican Town. Heading to the farm, it’s in a complete disarray, encumbered and overgrown with rocks and trees. It’s time to make it your home and build up that farm.

Each day there are multiple things to do and a set amount of time to do it, and set amount of energy to do it with. Stay too long without sleep orlose all your energy, you pass out in exhaustion and get mugged for some of your stuff and money. Literally.

Time passes quickly and every ten seconds in real life is ten minutes in-game so, needless to say, time management is key. It can be difficult at first but upgrading equipment or creating items such as sprinklers can go a long way to better managing that time.

Besides farm life, you need to make friends in town and there are lots of side quests to complete. The Community Center is a big part of town life and it’s up to you on helping rebuild it. Side with the town, build it up by donating items to it, and the big corporate slumdogs of Jojo Mart will be no more. However, if you side with the corporation, town life won’t be the same.

The best part of the game are all the surprising secrets to find. Donate relics to the museum and obtain an old key that leads to a secret passage to the sewers and a mysterious figure. Blow up a wall in the mines to meet a dwarf that you can’t understand until you find the four dwarven scrolls. Repair the bus stop and be on your way to a dessert town to find another a cave and put your skills to the ultimate test.

The possibilities are endless in this game and everyday is a learning experience. If you’ve played Harvest Moon or Rune Factory, you know that another big thing is wooing your potential spouse. In Stardew Valley, you have ten to choose from (five males, five females) and it’s entirely up to you to decide who the lucky Mr. or Mrs Farm Spouse will be. Give them gifts they like, especially on their birthday, and win lots of hearts. Give them the wrong gift though, and have them frown in distate. Make friends with the villagers and you’ll get receipes in the mail for you to cook and make the most out of your energy. Cutscnes are also a big thing. Bring up those hearts, and you might see that the villagers have lots of talents hidden in a small town. Dancers, artists, even gamers. There is a plethora of talent in this little town.

Each season has it’s own delights and wonders. New fish to catch, new fruits and veggies to grow, even new items to forage for. The fun never stops with this game and I’m naming this one of my favorite games released this year.