Game Review – Stardew Valley

This week, I am reviewing a game and how it handles pacing. As a general sanbox player, I had a little bit of difficulty deciding on my game of choice, as they all tend to handle it the same, giving you the choice on how to handle the game’s volume. One game spoke out to me above the others, Stardew Valley. After inheriting your grandfather’s farm out in the country, you move into Stardew Valley, a small town filled with mystery, a colorful cast of characters, and an evil corporation trying to take over. During this game, you spend the days planting your farm and exploring the town and its surroundings, all while managing your time and daily tasks.

A Colorful World

The way Stardew Valley handles its pacing is very unique to other games, an amazing feat coming out of a development team of one person. During the game, you spend your time on the farm day by day. The time moves through each day of the week, where each NPC has their own schedule, as do you. You can not stay up all night or do whatever you want, if you stay up too late, you face the penalties of collapsing and having to go to the doctor’s office along with losing some items and efficiency the next day. This makes you need to time out your days around the schedule of others and ensure you get back home before you sleep, otherwise the entire world is yours to explore.

Perfectly Paced

The character can do many activities during their adventure on the farm, ranging from digging up plots to plant their crops, chopping down trees, raising various animals, mining in the cave downtown, talking and forming relationships with the townspeople, going out of town via the bus and train, and working on completing the quests in the run-down Community Center filled with small, mystical creatures. During your journey you can also choose your allegiance to either the small-town community center’s redevelopment or the JojaMart corporation trying to take over the building. The various choices presented to the player allow you to take on whatever path you like, and at whatever speed, within reason.

Seasonal Changes

Along with a day cycle, the game also runs a seasonal cycle, going through the seasons. As the world changes, the vegetation, crops, collectibles, fish, and much more begins to change around the world. Different events present themselves to the player and everything must be thought about before deciding on an activity to do to make sure you don’t ruin your crops, miss a birthday or event, or have to wait for next year in order to catch one kind of fish you needed to complete the community center quest. All of these factors give the game a free feel while still keeping a pace to the game and forcing a schedule of sorts onto the player.

In Conclusion

Stardew Valley creates a stunning world and adventure to go on. The game allows free movement of the world, yet some roadblocks and seasonal timelines allow the game to remain paced while still being freely explorable. If you have not played Stardew Valley, I highly recommend it.