No Place Like Home Is A Cozy Farming Sim With Rough Edges
In No Place Like Home, Ellen returns to Earth to find her grandfather. Most of humanity has fled the unending trash heap the planet has become for Mars. This does mean that NPCs are scarce and exist solely to give out quests. The gameplay itself is unstructured but slow paced and relaxing. There’s never a feeling of being rushed to find Ellen’s grandfather. Players get to help rebuild life at their own pace.
There is a (potential) huge hiccup before the relaxing part can begin. The game has players walk down a straight path and this is the only time players will learn the controls. These signs only show the pc controls, so anyone using a controller will have to teach themselves the game. This is perfect for players who like a more hands off approach. It’s a little more frustrating when forgetting something later on, especially during combat. The camera control also makes things more difficult. Often the player will need to navigate awkward angles to plant or interact with objects.
No Place Like Home has a unique way of getting animals for the farm. As more trash is cleaned up, animals can be found and befriended. There is a wide variety of crops to not just sell but to feed to each animal. Chickens will be the first and most common type players will find. In this game players can even place a disco ball on their chicken coop and party hats on each creature. This can lose some of its luster as the hours pass since the friendship system does not exist for NPCs. So there’s no extra scenes when you’ve gotten to know them better, no marriage or kids like you might expect.
There are robotic spiders that will attack players, but this game is definitely farming focused. Its world could use more life as NPCs do not move from wherever they’re found. At the same time there’s a cartoonish feel to the game that keeps things fun. Gameplay doesn’t change much from beginning to end though. If you want to lose hours (or days) to just cleaning up trash with light crafting elements, this is the perfect game. Players who want a little more from their farming sims might want to skip No Place Like Home.
