I previously covered Radical Forge’s Southfield closed beta here on Smash Jump and before that, the demo as well. The closed beta showed a huge leap in quality over the already fun demo, and this build did not disappoint either. With that said, let’s get deeper into the wacky and whimsical world of Southfield.
Gameplay
The main gameplay of Southfield revolves around farming. I am happy to say that the farming feels very loved and works great.
Very quickly after starting the game, the player is introduced to tools in the tutorial. These tools, such as an axe, pickaxe, or hoe are all used for different things. The axe is used for chopping down trees, the pickaxe for mining, and the hoe for tilling dirt. All of the tools feel very satisfying and fun to use as complemented by the wacky physics of the game. That is to say, it is fun to charge up a big swing with the axe and chop down a tree.
These tools come from the crafting system, which at first the player can only do in their inventory. Soon after, however, the player can make a workbench and is able to craft more complex things. Something that I thought was a nice touch was the ability to upgrade your workbench, which allows the player to craft even more things. I thought that the materials for upgrading the workbench went well with the progression of the acquisition of the necessary materials by the player.
Once the player is acquainted with tools and the crafting system, they will continue to progress and reach the step where they can start planting crops. Crops are planted by using seeds on dirt that has been tilled. The player can then water the crops with the watering can or can have help from the sky when it rains. When their crops do grow, the player can then harvest them and can do different things with them. These include eating them, selling them, or making seeds out of them to grow more.
I found the deciding between the three options above to be a fun quandary to work through. Sometimes I would want pebbles and thus want to sell my harvest, but then I don’t have the crops to make seeds with. Sometimes I would run low on stamina and need to decide on if I should instead eat some too!
Speaking of stamina, it plays a pretty big role in the game as most actions the player does will use stamina. That is to say, basically any action involving a tool will use stamina. Stamina is replenished without input from the player to a certain extent, but not much. Thus, it is up to the player to decide when to eat crops to further fill up their stamina bar, which would allow for more actions to be taken.
Luckily, some of the stamina consuming can be mitigated by either upgrading your tools with an NPC or building machines to do some of the work for you.
Machines are another part of the gameplay on the farm in Southfield. Machines are used to do things such as turn plants into seeds or automate processes with parts like conveyor belts. I’m not that great at logistics so my farmstead was mainly powered by manual input from me, but players who wish to create more mechanized ways of farming are free to do so.
Everything mentioned culminates in a very good farming experience that was a pleasure to interact with.
Presentation
I feel like a big aspect that compliments Southfield’s gameplay well is it’s presentation. The visuals and music of Southfield go hand in hand with each other as both are whimsical and fun. The visuals are bright and colorful with the landscape and plant types both following suit. The music is upbeat and charming as the instruments joyously play as the player farms away.
The wacky physics add to the presentation as well, as I rolled and bounced around the environment while the soundtrack played I couldn’t help but smile.
Technical
Unfortunately, there are some technical issues that I feel are pertinent to mention. I’m not sure why, but my settings, such as audio and sensitivity, would sometimes reset whenever opening and closing the game again. Along with this, I would sometimes experience an audio bug after talking to an NPC where their voice would perpetually play even after being done with speaking to them. This would continue for the rest of the play session and would even follow me to the main menu.
I wouldn’t have been bothered so much by it if it didn’t seem to impede me from talking to other NPCs such as Voyd. The only fix for this I found was to close the game completely and reopen it.
I was also somehow duplicating items sometimes, which I wasn’t necessarily complaining about but it does put a bit of a damper on some of the progression. That said, we’re sure extra time in the oven will fix the small but noticeable bugs.
Summary
Southfield has come a long way since the already fun demo back in February. From the mysterious story and satisfying gameplay to the wonderful and whimsical visuals and soundtrack, Southfield was a fun experience to play. Unfortunately, there were some technical issues that were a bit frustrating to work through, but nothing that put a hard stop to my play.
Overall, Southfield is a fun farming game that I encourage those looking for something cute and whimsical to check out and see where it heads from here!
