Farlands opens with a premise that’s funnier the longer you sit with it: you bought a planet. An entire agrarian rock at the edge of the galaxy, going for a suspiciously low price, abandoned for years. You’ve quit your stressful metropolis life, loaded your worn-out ship, brought your assistance droid, and arrived to start over. And yes — there’s a reason it was that cheap.
What follows is a farming and life sim with a genuine space twist. You restore your planet, clear the fields, fix what time destroyed, and then you take your ship out and explore the rest of the solar system — collecting resources across multiple planets, meeting the handful of people who chose to stay out here, and slowly uncovering why this corner of the galaxy was left behind. The community’s most repeated description is some version of “Stardew Valley in a No Man’s Sky universe,” and that’s about right.
The Loop
Cut weeds, clear paths, reclaim fields, repair what’s decayed. The core farming loop is familiar and comforting — the satisfaction of turning an overgrown ruin into a working homestead is the engine everything else runs on.
Your ship is battered but functional. Travel between planets, gather resources, and upgrade your farm, your tools, and the ship itself. The ship mechanics are consistently called out as one of the game’s best ideas.
A handful of people still live scattered across the system. Learn their stories and why they stayed somewhere this remote. Smaller cast than most farming sims, but the isolation makes each one land harder.
A whole planet at a bargain price. There’s a reason. The mystery drives the campaign and gives the farming loop somewhere to go — this isn’t just a sandbox with a story bolted on.
The Craft
The spritework is genuinely lovely. Farlands is a 2D pixel art game that uses the space setting to justify a colour palette most farming sims can’t reach — alien skies, strange vegetation, planets that each look and feel distinct. The soundtrack is delightful and gets specific praise from players who otherwise mostly talk about mechanics. It runs on essentially anything (2GB RAM, 500MB storage) and it’s Steam Deck Verified.
The other thing worth flagging: Farlands is stuffed with easter eggs and references to games, books, and internet culture. Multiple players mention laughing out loud in their first few hours. It’s a small thing that contributes a lot to the game’s personality, and it’s the kind of detail that only shows up when the people making something actually enjoy the thing they’re making.
Where It’s Still Growing
The most thoughtful criticism in the community — from a player who’s put in 13+ hours and still wants to keep playing — is that Farlands is still searching for its identity. It borrows generously from farming, crafting, exploration, and progression systems across the genre, and while none of those elements are bad, they don’t always cohere into something that feels uniquely Farlands yet. It’s doing a bit of everything rather than fully committing to what makes it special.
The other consistent friction points:
Guidance and information are thin. Players report looking for basic features like a calendar and a proper world map. In-game explanations and the wiki are both bare-bones. More quests that introduce mechanics naturally would go a long way.
Space travel can be a chore early on. The exploration is a genuinely interesting idea, but getting around is tedious in the early game even with a full fuel tank. It improves as you upgrade, but the first stretch is a grind.
Fishing on controller/Steam Deck. The fishing minigame is built around the mouse and is noticeably harder with a controller — a real issue for a Steam Deck Verified game.
Economy scales fast. Some players find money comes easily, though upgrade costs scale alongside it, so the loop stays balanced. Depends on your tolerance for that rhythm.
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
| The Good | The Bad | The Ugly |
|---|---|---|
| The Space Twist Actually WorksMultiple planets, a ship you upgrade, resources that pull you outward — the space layer gives the farming sim formula somewhere genuinely new to go. The ship mechanics in particular are consistently named as one of the best parts of the game. | Still Finding Its IdentityFarlands borrows from a lot of places and doesn’t always fuse them into something distinctly its own. It does a bit of everything competently rather than committing hard to one thing brilliantly. That’s the most substantive criticism the community makes and it’s fair. | The Blacksmith Bug HistoryA progression-blocking bug that could softlock saves went months with little clear communication while players reported it repeatedly. The developers eventually acknowledged it, apologised, and hotfixed — and players updated their reviews accordingly — but the gap between report and response is a real mark on an otherwise strong EA record. |
| Art, Sound, and PersonalityThe spritework is beautiful and the space setting gives it a palette other farming sims can’t touch. The soundtrack is genuinely delightful. And the game is packed with references and easter eggs that show real affection from the people who made it. | Bare-Bones GuidanceNo calendar, no proper world map, thin in-game explanations, a skeletal wiki. For a game with this many interlocking systems, players are left to figure out too much unassisted. More tutorialising quests would solve most of this. | Fishing on ControllerThe fishing minigame is built for a mouse and is meaningfully harder on a controller — awkward for a game that’s Steam Deck Verified and that a lot of people will play handheld. |
| An Early Access Done RightTwo years, ten major updates, roadmap completed as planned. That’s rare enough to be worth stating plainly. Long-term players watched this game grow and the developers delivered what they said they would. | Early Space Travel Is TediousThe exploration concept is great; the early execution is a chore. Getting around drags before your ship upgrades land, which is exactly the wrong place for friction in a cozy game. |
The Verdict
Escape the rat race and build your dream farm on a barren planet in this charming indie sim that nails the cozy agrarian fantasy. That’s the TBB Curator blurb, and it captures what Farlands does well — this is a warm, pretty, personality-rich farming sim with a space hook that genuinely earns its place rather than sitting on top as a theme.
The honest caveat is the one the community keeps circling: Farlands is very good and not yet distinctive. It borrows well, it executes competently across a lot of systems, and it hasn’t quite found the one thing that makes it unmistakably itself. The guidance gaps and the early-game space tedium are real friction. But the people who criticise this game most thoughtfully are doing it from 13 hours in and still logging back on, which tells you what you need to know about the loop.
For $17.99, with two years of delivered Early Access behind it and a completed roadmap, this is an easy recommendation for farming sim fans who want the formula with something new attached. If you loved Stardew and wondered what it’d feel like with a spaceship, this is that game, and it’s made by people who clearly love the genre.
For more game reviews, check out our full reviews section.
Score Breakdown
