Rusty's Retirement Review

After being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, I've had to go back to one of my favourite (but often forgotten) pastimes: scrolling X (or, for the rebels, Twitter) to find cute and relaxing games! This is how I came across one such title — Rusty's Retirement! This little farming sim has a very appealing twist: it's an idle game, which exactly what I've been looking for ever since my wife found a bunch of them that she enjoyed.

Starting off, the game has five different types of farms that you can unlock, though, at the beginning, you can only select the first one. This is a pretty standard theme, with tons of grass and space! Rusty's Retirement begins with a small patch of land where you and the titular character are hanging out and starting your humble beginnings. While the game doesn't have a tutorial, it was pretty easy for me to surmise what I had to do (especially as someone who's played a ton of farming sims): plant crops to get money to plant more crops until I have enough money to upgrade something. In this case, the aim is to get Biofuel and Spare Parts so that you can expand your farm, unlock new features, and afford any whim. 

Before I move on to what these "features" are, let's talk about how farming works in a game all about idling. Thankfully, unless you unlock Splunk, you'll need to check back in every now and again to replant seeds so that they can care for them. In addition to that, you'll have several bots that you can build around the area that'll help you with everything from watering, collecting crops, and "selling" them (in this case, just putting them in the Biofuel generator).

I was never thrilled by the idea of robots; it's not that I have anything against them — I just had hoped that the citizens themselves would be the ones who would help out with expanding the farm. I also had a gnarly feeling that they'd add an element of strategy and planning because they cost Biofuel to use, which I wasn't a big fan of! I'm not in the habit of admitting this aloud often, but I'm a bit of an idiot. I don't enjoy planning ahead or being stuck because I overspent. Thankfully, this wasn't the case! I waited until I felt I was financially stable enough to try out the bots, and it turns out I was making a big deal out of nothing. They're cute and helpful! 

Once you have enough robo friends and crops, you can start unlocking characters. There's no specific order that you have to do it, though I chose to go from cheapest to most expensive regardless of how excited I was to unlock some of them! They each have a unique feature, such as giving you the ability to purchase decorations or helping you get currency quicker. In total, there are seven that you can get, including the adorable Haiku — who I recognised from Haiku, The Robot — though only some of them will do things that you can interact with, such as giving you animals or insects.

Thenceforth, it's really about how you want to play the game! Personally, I took it easy and focused on getting enough currency to unlock everything before I fully immersed myself in decorating! 

I've had the game for quite a few days now, and at first, I only logged into it whenever I was working; it has helped me stay engaged by giving me reasons to break away from the monotony of it all. It also had such a small impact on my PC that I've been able to run it while also playing other games, such as Spirit City: Lofi Sessions, Disney Dreamlight Valley, and even League of Legends! 

Unfortunately, while I have loved my time with the game, there are definitely some things I felt that could improve my experience. Whilst I understand that the ability to rotate items would be difficult, I wish I could at least do it to the bots so that I could fit them in easier! They made it difficult to decorate in a way that didn't feel full of clutter. And speaking of sprucing up, while there are tons of farms you can unlock, it feels like there aren't enough items for decoration to keep up! After 60 hours on my first farm, I finally finished prettying it up, but it felt a bit discouraging that I had to use the same items over and over. I was hoping perhaps by unlocking the next one I'd get more, but that wasn't the case! 

Another tiny niggle I had with the game was that, aside from the clutter caused by robots, it was kind of hard to keep things pretty and neat. The animals walk around everywhere pooping, and the crops don't get to display their blossomed forms because they get picked too much (so it's usually just a brown patch). Of course, in the grand scheme of things, clutter and not enough decor aren't horrible, especially not for a game that has helped me get through work. 

Rusty's Retirement offered everything I was hoping it would, and I am very happy I picked it up when I did! I'm on my second farm now, and I hope that I have many more hours to go on it. I just hope more items, characters, and features might come down the line with DLC!