Developed by A2 Softworks, Ancient Farm is a hands-on farming simulator set against the dusty, sun-baked backdrop of ancient Egypt. From the moment you start with nothing but bare earth and a few basic tools, the game makes one thing very clear from the offset: this is grinding, old-school farming with no shortcuts and no automation. You’ll plow, plant, water, and harvest your way from barren land to productive fields, but you’ll need patience and planning if you want to see it all come together.
Starting From Scratch in the Sands
The premise is refreshingly simple. You begin with an empty plot of land, a handful of basic tools, and the ambition to build a functioning farm from the ground up. Early on, everything feels deliberate and methodical – often to a fault. You’ll be digging soil, sowing seeds, irrigating crops, and tending to fields manually, with very little hand-holding to guide you along the way.
Gameplay revolves around timing, resource management, and a lot of repetition. Crops need constant attention, and missing a step can quickly undo your progress. However, there’s more variety here than first impressions suggest. Alongside, standard vegetables and grains, you’ll also grow papyrus, sugar cane, and fruit trees, each adding its own role within the broader farming rinsing and repeating.
Tools, Livestock, and Production
As your farm expands, Ancient Farm gradually opens up into something more involved. Livestock becomes part of the equation, with cows, sheep, pigs, and hens providing useful resources once properly housed and maintained. Oxen can also be put to work ploughing fields more effectively, giving you a much-welcome boost once the necessary structures are built.
Beyond crops and animals, production chains play a huge role here. Raw materials can be turned into bread, oils, coffee, and other goods through workshops and processing buildings. Watching these systems come together is satisfying, especially once your settlement starts to feel busy and purposeful rather than sparse and useless.
However, the constant manual labor can begin to wear thin rather quickly. Watering, crafting, and tending tasks often feels repetitive, and without enough variation or unexpected events, the loop and start to blur together. There’s depth here, but it sometimes feels buried beneath routine grunt work.
Presentation and Atmosphere
Visually, Ancient Farm goes for a functional, stylized look that fits its historical setting without trying to impress. Your fields and buildings fill out nicely over time, but the wider world feels static. There are no bustling villages or wandering characters to give the landscape much life beyond your own farm.
Sound design is similarly understated. Ambient audio is kept to a minimum, and while the music is pleasant enough, it rarely stands out. This helps maintain a calm, almost meditative atmosphere, though it can also make the experience feel a little too quiet at times.
That slower, isolated feel will work for some players, but not for others. If you enjoy zoning out and methodically ticking off tasks, the tone fits nicely. If you prefer a more dynamic world, it may feel a little flat.
Summary
Ancient Farm sticks closely to the roots of traditional farming simulators, focusing on gradual progress, repetition, and building something substantial from nothing. There’s a solid amount of content here, with varied crops, livestock, and production systems that reward long-term planning. However, the lack of early guidance, repetitive tasks and the barren world can slow things down more than necessary.
For players who enjoy slow-burn farming sims and don’t mind getting their hands dirty. Ancient Farm offers a calm, if somewhat rigid, experience. Just don’t expect much excitement beyond your own farm.
REVIEW
OUR SCORE - 7
7
SCORE
A methodical, hands-on sim that rewards patience. However, it's not long before it starts to feel repetitive
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