Summary
When you think about theXbox Series X and S consoles, series such as Halo or Gears of War usually spring to mind. First-person shooters rated M for mature. However, there are times when you’re looking for something a little less bloodthirsty. Perhaps you’d rather just relax and unwind with satisfying but less intense goals.
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From growing crops to exploring the world around you, farming games are a delight to play. And luckily, this list will show you the best farming games made better on Xbox systems.
10Monster Harvest
Monster Harvest follows the formula well: You are given a farm by a mysterious family member, tasked with restoring it from a dilapidated shack to a thriving business. Simple (and common) enough.
However, Monster Harvest really begins to take off when it introduces its “Planimals.” These cute creatures are the result of your uncle’s research and allow you to create plant/animal hybrids that can help you with your farm. You can even grow a team of these Planimals to explore dungeons and battle other Planimals in one-on-one, turn-based battles. It is a refreshing take on the farming genre and a blast to play on Xbox Series X|S.
9Forager
Forageris a simple indie game that has a surprising level of depth and creativity. You play as a nameless little guy stranded on an island with only some basic tools. However, as you collect resources and fight monsters, you can purchase additional land masses that will then unlock new biomes, creatures, and dungeons to explore.
What makes this game a top contender in the farming genre is how simple farming is compared to other games. With Forager, you simply dig a hole and plant a seed. There’s not much upkeep, and you don’t even need to water the plant to grow it. It is a simple, plant-and-forget system.
Forager is a farming game for those who want a simpler time farming, and is a fantastic game to play on Xbox Series X|S, as the game is so much easier to play with a controller rather than a mouse and keyboard.
8Shotgun Farmers
Now this game is an extremely unique entry into this list, as it is not a farming simulator at all, but rather amultiplayer first-person shooter. What sets this game apart from every other game in the genre, however, is not what happens when you shoot your enemies, but what happens when you miss.
When you play Shotgun Farmers, you’ll notice that your guns are made of plants and crops, ranging from a shotgun-on-a-cob, to an asparagus sniper rifle. The bullets you fire are actually seeds, and the guns don’t reload, only coming with a limited amount of ammo. When you miss a shot, it plants the seed into the ground, and a new gun is grown, ready for you to harvest and use on your enemies. It is a mechanic that takes the farming genre and spins it into something truly unique and fitting for a platform such as Xbox, the proverbial father of FPS.
7Graveyard Keeper
Out of all of these entries,Graveyard Keeperis most likely the most macabre. It follows a very familiar formula; you are entrusted with an estate and need to take care of it to turn a profit. However, you aren’t given some old farm from a distant relative but are instead transported into the past and told to manage a medieval town’s graveyard.
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Graveyard Keeper doesn’t sound much like a farming game, what with all the mortuary business. However, you can actually grow a variety of crops and sell them for a profit. You then can take the profits and then use them to supplement the costs of your graveyard. Grow an orchard, manage a vineyard, and even raise undead zombies to farm for you.
6My Time At Portia
A more recent, yet very much celebrated entry into the community sim genre,My Time At Portiais an incredible game made even better when played on Xbox Series X|S. You play as a builder responsible for helping the small community of Portia.
Harvest resources from the environment, make improvements to the town, upgrade your workshop and raise crops and animals. With Xbox, the console controls help to make the game simpler than if you used keyboard and mouse, which leaves more time to play the game.
5Atomicrops
Atomicrops takes the familiar farming formula and takes it in a funky new direction. You own the last farm in the world and must use it to help your struggling town survive the aftermath of a nuclear blast.
Half of the game involves you doing the classic farming stuff: raising mutant crops to sell for profit, upgrading their base, and romancing townspeople. When night falls, the game turns from a farming sim to atwin-stick shooter, as mutant creatures attack the farm to steal your crops.
Defend the farm and use the corpses of the enemies you kill to fertilize your crops. Atomicrops takes every element of its gameplay and funnels them back into themselves in a perfect blend of farm, marry, and kill.
4Stardew Valley
A farming list wouldn’t be complete without including one of the best examples of a farming sim done right.Stardew Valleyhas you the player taking over your grandfather’s farm in the titular town, and entrusts you with restoring it to its former glory.
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What makes Stardew Valley work so well is how much care and attention went into every aspect of the game. From farming a wide range of crops, to raising farm animals for their milk and eggs, farming fish for their roe, to befriending the townspeople. The game even has dungeon crawling through mines for minerals and artifacts. All in all, Stardew Valley marks an incredible farming sim experience with hours upon hours of immersive and entertaining gameplay.
3Slime Rancher 2
Slime Rancher 2is a sequel that takes the familiar Slime Rancher formula and adds so much more. New Slimes, new crops, new chickens, and a whole new world to explore and discover.
While the game has not been fully released at this time, it is exclusively out for only the Xbox Series consoles in early access making this the only platform you’re able to play it on. And with the power of the Series X|S systems, the game runs smoothly and with no cost to its beautiful graphics.
2Grounded
Groundedtakes a fun and wacky direction with its premise. You are one of four children who were shrunk down in your backyard to the size of insects, and forced to survive, trying to find a way to return to your normal size.
You need to scavenge your surroundings for supplies andbuild a base out of blades of grass and mushrooms. You can even grow these resources at your base using plots of land. With the Series X|S, you can enjoy a thrilling, bug-crawling adventure with incredible performance either alone or with friends, as this game has single-player and four player co-op.
1Minecraft
The best-selling game of all time,Minecraftstands at the top of the farming games for Xbox. Spawn into a randomly-generated world, explore dark caves and other dimensions, and build whatever you can imagine.
Farming is an incredible area that Minecraft excels in as the farms are only limited by your creativity. Build a simple wheat field, use fences to construct vineyards of berries, or automate your sugar cane development with Redstone. The possibilities are practically endless. It has everything you could want from a farming game and more.
