Stardew Valley Critic Reviews

Far more than just a farming game, this one-man labor of love is filled with seemingly endless content and heart.

The core mechanics and relaxing aesthetic merge so well together that players will sink in to the experience and never want to leave.

Stardew Valley has been the most rich and heartwarming experience I’ve had in a game in years.

Regardless of a few small issues, Stardew Valley is a successful send-up to Harvest Moon that truly comes from the heart.

What do you do when your beloved game series – in this case Harvest Moon – keeps disappointing you? You make your own game, better in every aspect. Every moment spent with Stardew Valley is magical. It’s the Harvest Moon I’ve been waiting for my whole life.

Stardew Valley is without a doubt the best game in the Harvest Moon genre in many years. It has a subtle message about what it means to live a good life and to flourish through a combination of hard work and human connection. The Harvest Moon games all basically boil down to managing a mix of time, tasks, and metrics, and recent entries in the series have relied heavily on exploiting a new gameplay gimmick with each iteration: in one it's crafting structures for the town, in another it's trading with foreign economies. The problem with this approach is that once these gimmicks are exhausted — all the houses built or all the goods traded — the games feel hollow. Stardew Valley succeeds by delivering a robust experience that does not merely rely on watching a meter go up. It has something to say and says it well, while never abandoning the core gameplay that attracted players in the first place.

It isn't common that you encounter a game as charming and delightfully addictive as Stardew Valley. It finds a harmonious balance of progression, activities, and rewards resulting in each day being distinct and memorable.

An ideal combination of smart simplicity in mechanics and an incredible depth of content. Stardew Valley offers a pure, relaxing experience and hours upon hours of fun and gameplay.

Stardew Valley is an absolutely charming little gem about forgetting all your worries and relaxing on a farm.

Sophisticated and complex sandbox with the massive content. You will like its calm mood and pure gameplay. For a long time, there was not such funny and fulfilling game offering a perfect relaxing experience.

No simulation or game is an exact copy of what it’s trying to emulate, but Stardew Valley, above all, expertly explores the connection that someone can have with their environment, their work and the people around them.

I have been seriously charmed by Stardew Valley; there certainly isn’t much about it that I dislike. I like its subtle tactical elements and time management that thread through all of the activities you can do. It’s without a doubt currently my favourite game this year, and I feel it might take something pretty incredible to knock it off.

It's not often that we see a one-man project leave such an impact on the gaming community, collectively putting us into the "just one more turn/day" mindset, but Stardew Valley manages it in a spectacular way.

Stardew Valley is the best and most entertaining farming RPG to come along in years, and it's filled with such sheer charm and sincerity that it'll instantly win you over.

Stardew Valley is a peaceful farming game with delightful retro graphics, tons of content and very addicting gameplay. In addition to farming, the game also offers various other activities such as fishing, crafting and quest solving. There are also big dungeons to explore and monsters to kill, but these adventure parts of the game feel a bit lackluster.

A farm simulator that’s both simple and smart, with game mechanics and features taken from other popular games and genres. One of the best indie games to date.

From Spring to Summer, to Fall and Winter, season changes will render certain crops dead. You have to plan ahead – farming doesn’t even occur in winter – and your jobs remain engrossing day-in, day-out. That’s Stardew Valley’s greatest strength – it gives you a load of interesting things to do in your new life, rewards you whichever you choose to do, and it always feels like more than just a farming game.

Don't start this game if you value relationships, your job, your social life, and having free time. Stardew Valley will take all of that away from you, but it's okay because it's a great game.

Though some quirks might unnecessarily keep players at arm’s length, those willing to grapple with the more arcane aspects of Stardew Valley are in for a world of delight.

With so many interconnected systems, from the farm simulation to simple combat and cooking to crafting, and each driving the others forward in some way, it’s a deeper and more complex game than you’d expect after the first day on the farm. There’s plenty to do while I wait to uncover more of the Valley’s secrets, and the prospect of filling my days with new adventures or just a better harvest is too enticing to pass up.