Farm Frenzy 3 Review

Farm Frenzy 3 Review

Review by Hillary

Farm Frenzy 3 is an entirely unique spin on traditional task-management games. As Scarlet, a young farmer, you must travel the world, helping your other farmer friends in their time of need. Utilizing only the mouse, you must feed/water your animals, pump water, gather raw materials and use them to make products you can sell. The farming theme is completely unique and offers a different style of play than typical games of the same genre, while remaining true to the expectations of the task-management game fan.

Where Have We Heard This Story Before?

Scarlet is asked to assist her five friends on their farms, which are located all over the world. The storyline is supposed to make you feel sympathetic for Scarlet's friends because their farms are going under and the FUN won't help them. The FUN is the Farmer's Union Nod, which is a pretty ridiculous name, in addition to being part of the disjointed storyline. Rather than explain what the FUN is and why you are supposed to care about it, the game skips over that entirely, jumping in and out with the story when you have completed helping each farm. The end goal is to become president of the FUN by getting the votes of all the farmers you help, but that isn't made clear until about halfway through the game.

This kind of disregard for the storyline isn't necessarily a huge flaw, but there are elements which really detract from the overall quality of the game. The president of FUN makes several sexist comments, and the looks of the characters are almost as stereotypical as possible. However, the graphics are 3D and quite well done, so if you can ignore the storyline and focus on the look of the farms, you will have more fun playing.

Lots of Levels on Each Farm

There are about 20 levels at each farm, making beating the game anything but a quick process. Each farm is in a different climate, so the animals used are different at each farm. Some animals produce items, like eggs and milk, that can either be sold individually or put into a machine to create another product. Cow's milk is worth much more than eggs, so buying a cow costs more gold than buying a chicken, and so forth for the rest of the animals. You can buy more animals at any point during each level, as long as you have enough money. All the products you have are kept in the warehouse and must be driven to market in your truck, both of which can only hold a specific amount of items. This means you must constantly be aware of how much is in your warehouse and when is a good time to sell some things, which adds another element of diversity and difficulty to the game. This prevents Farm Frenzy 3 from becoming repetitive and tedious, because there is so much to do and pay attention to.

Rewards Aren't That Rewarding

There are a variety of goals to achieve. Most relevant are the time goals. A gold trophy can be earned if you complete the level within the shortest time slot, a silver trophy for a slightly longer time slot, and a check mark for just getting through the level. Stars are given for completing the level, and a star bonus is possible for getting a silver or gold trophy. These stars are used to buy upgrades for your equipment in between levels. Unfortunately, this system is not rewarding at all, because you are forced to upgrade specific things before you can begin each level. Usually the required upgrades use up the exact amount of stars you earned for just completing the level, so it is almost impossible to customize your upgrades unless you get gold trophies on every level.

Equally disappointing is the way the upgrades are given to you. Upgrades are not immediately applied to your equipment; instead, you have to pay during the level to use the upgrades you have just purchased. Basically, you are using your stars to buy the ability to upgrade your equipment during the level, rather than just buying the upgrades. People who enjoy instantly seeing the rewards of their efforts will probably find this annoying.

Virtual Trophies to Show Off

Those who like to show off their gaming prowess will enjoy the addition of the “Trophy Room” to Farm Frenzy 3. You are awarded different trophies for unique achievements, which can either have something to do with the rest of the game or not. You earn one for finishing a level in record time, for gathering seven products before the hit the ground, and one each for each farm you complete. These have no use other than to look at them, although the empty spaces in the Trophy Room show you what is required to earn the trophies you haven't gotten yet. This offers the player something else to strive for, especially in light of the disappointing upgrade system and the inconsistency of level difficulty.

It is impossible to fail a level, because it allows you to keep playing until you get all of the products you need, no matter how long it takes. This would seem to make the game easy. By contrast, winning the gold trophies is virtually impossible on most levels, and the silvers are very nearly as hard to win. This makes the game unappealing, because it seems like you are always just mediocre at it. It isn't a challenge to pass the levels (because you can't fail them), but doing anything better than that is frustratingly impossible at times.

Conclusion - Uninspiring Rewards and Poor Story Make This Merely Average

Farm Frenzy 3 tries to offer a unique game with enough variety to avoid being boring and repetitive, which is the curse of task-management games. Unfortunately, the average player can usually do no better than just pass the levels, the upgrade system barely allows you to upgrade anything, and the sometimes-non-existent storyline really detracts from the feel of the game itself. This game is worth a play-through, but there are much, much better task-management games out there.