This cute but spooky Farm Sim starts in a unique way: In a town that you don't recognize, yet everyone knows you.

It's the same as being a fan of farmlife simulation games. In previous lives, I've woken up the owner of an overgrown farm, received a hoe, a watering pot, and five seeds of carrots, and was the novelty of the town to a group of rural neighbors. Everholm doesn't differ from other places, but it has its own unique layer of surrealism. Everyone in Everholm knows your name.

This new farm simulator that launched this past week begins right before you wake up to your new fixer upper. The protagonist Lilly wanders around a nightmare landscape looking for her sister Melanie. She then steps through a portal and wakes in a town with people she has never met. It's like she's lived here for years, and she is the odd one for forgetting everyone else's name.

Everholm begins in a familiar way: Lilly is encouraged by her father to remove the rocks and trees from her property, to plant and harvest carrots, to learn to fish and to begin selling the fruits. Underneath all of it is a looming feeling of wrongness. The townspeople make cryptic remarks about "the dark," shadows, memory, and forgetting things.

I played Everholm's demo a while ago, which only included seven days in-game, and was quite interested. The full version, which was released this week, is even more appealing.

Everholm is unique in the farm sim world. I really appreciate this. I like its isometric angle, which is not common in farm sims. It also has a vaguely witchy feel. A daily paper is delivered to my door that contains an optional quest, a weather forecast, and daily fortune predictions. It feels familiar to dive through the floors of the spooky netherworld battle zone, which is the "mines" equivalent to other Stardew farm sims. But it also seems to be connected to the main storyline about the mysterious darkness.

It's not for everyone to be stuck with Lilly and the storyline. But when so many other Farm Sims offer customization, and an all-man village hero tale, it is nice to see something different every now and then.

Everholm starts out a bit slow and oddly paced. I was left to twiddling the thumbs half way through week one as I waited for carrots to grow. The majority of the early quests I received were for long-term goals, while the bulletin quests that had time limits were usually for items I could not obtain in time. I didn't have the money to buy other seeds so I was often left at a loss.

The gamepad is my preferred controller for farm sims, but I would recommend keyboard and mouse in this case because it's difficult to know which tile to use an item on with a controller. Everholm is a good game to play. It's fun to use my tools and explore the world.

Chonky Loaf, the developer, has released three different hotfixes since the launch date to fix bugs and add new features. It seems that there's still more to come. Chonky Loaf announced its release date last month and said, "New content, features, and updates are on the way. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!"

Everholm is available on Steam for now if you're looking for a new farm sim that's a little spooky, but not too witchy.