Building & Simulation · 2016 · ConcernedApe · local · online
Stardew Valley
Build a farm together. Losing is not provided for; neither is stopping.
What it is about
You inherit your grandfather's run-down farm and make something of it again. The day has a fixed rhythm — get up, water, harvest, sell, sleep — and at some point you notice the season has turned and half the field needs replanting.
Around the farm lies a whole small town. You fish, head into the mine and whack slimes, collect for the community centre, join in the festivals and befriend the villagers — up to and including marriage. The game sets you no goal.
With two you share the same farm and the same till. Each of you gets a house and tools of your own, and the work divides up — only the clock runs for both of you at once, and you have to go to bed together.
Our verdict for couples
You wake up on the same farm and immediately head in different directions: one waters, one goes down the mine, and in the evening you meet at the chest and sort out what each of you brought back. That is exactly what makes it so easy on a pair where one of you never plays otherwise — there is no point where anyone waits, and none where anyone fails. One in-game day takes about a quarter of an hour, and that is where the real danger lies: you do not stop halfway through a day, and the next one starts right away. Four hours later it is two in the morning and the strawberries still are not planted.
Pros
- Everyone has their own jobs
- No time pressure, no failing
- Runs on almost anything
Cons
- The guest is tied to the host's save
Suitable from
Casual
- Conflict potential
- Serene
- Cosiness
- Very cosy
- When you can stop
- After 15 minutes
- How long it lasts
- No ending
What other co-op fans say
The farm runs just as calmly with two as it does alone, only the work divides and the hours vanish faster. Duos report strikingly often that they sank dozens of hours into it together without noticing, and some take it all the way to full completion with a partner. One point keeps coming up as a warning: time keeps running in multiplayer, including during conversations and cutscenes. Spend a long while with the villagers and you leave the fieldwork to the other one — knowing that in advance turns it into a deliberate division of roles rather than an accidental one.
- “The co-op experience is pretty amazing too.”
- “10/10 game to play with your spouse just finished a 100% completion with my wife and loved every moment”
- “I already sank in 15 hours with my friend and did not see the time pass”
- “even more fun when playing with friends”
Summarised by machine from 60 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
If you like this one
Runs on the same devices as this game.
Terraria
Dig out a two-dimensional world, build it up, and clear its bosses one at a time.
A farming game on a tropical island that also has you rebuilding a coral reef.
Fourteen professions on an island you build up, plus a trip to a past age you build up as well.
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North unreviewed
A Middle-earth role-playing game for three that finally gets a split screen on PC.
Related in the magazine
- Guide
Two hours, that's it
How long a game is tells you almost nothing about whether you can start it on a Tuesday night. The question that matters is a different one — and it leads to surprising picks.
- Guide
When one of you never plays
The usual advice is: pick something easy. It is wrong, and wrong from both directions. What actually helps are four design patterns — and a list of what does not.