Rusty’s Retirement takes the “cozy gaming” genre to another level. This adorable 8-bit style farming simulator lets you tend to your farm while you work on other tasks.
Rusty’s Retirement is an “idle farming simulator” that sits on the bottom (or the side) of your screen while you attend to other tasks. Released on April 26, here’s our initial review of this charming game for multi-taskers.
From console classics like Harvest Moon to an all-time PC favorite, Stardew Valley, I had my fair share of run-throughs with farming sim cozy games. There’s a unique charm and relaxing atmosphere to taking a breather from online multiplayer games and tending to your own farm at your own pace.
However, as the “cozy gamers” community grew and evolved, interesting developments have occurred – with multiple Stardew speed run challenges, extreme mods, and even pro competitions. Rusty’s Retirement aims to bring back the genre’s laid-back experience.
Rusty’s Retirement review: a promising farming game sans the overwhelming mechanics
You’ll start your farming journey with Rusty, a retired dog-like robot that wants to live peacefully in the countryside. You’ll start with one farming patch, introductory crops, and one biofuel converter.
The premise of the game is simple. Your only task is to oversee what seeds to plant and how your farm expands. Rusty or other bots will handle all other tasks, including watering, harvesting, and bringing your crops to the biofuel converter.
The game has two main currencies – the Biofuel and the Spare Parts (Coins). You’ll obtain both by planting crops. Spare Parts are awarded upon harvest, while the Biofuel needs three different crops to be rendered in the Biofuel converter.
Aside from more crops (the game has 42 so far, which is amazing for a fresh-release indie game), you may also unlock more retired bots, eventually unlocking more farm features from animals, hives, and fossils.
Rusty’s Retirement is a great, cozy game to add to your library if you get easily caught up with all your work tasks or your Netflix watchlist. It lets you experience the classic farming simulator experience without the need to be fully attentive to what’s happening.
While I appreciate all the farming sim games in the market, I often tire of the hours spent watering and harvesting in the early game – a feeling Rusty’s Retirement eliminates.
You’ll only find yourself hands-on during the first few minutes, and once you unlock more multiple-harvest crops and more automotive bots, you’ll find yourself enjoying watching your farm as it takes its own pace.
You also have the freedom to choose between a landscape orientation (tethered to your taskbar) or a sidebar setup. I currently use a landscape orientation for my play-through, but some report that the sidebar setup is better for multiple-tab users.
Only three days after its release, Rusty’s Retirement already reached nearly 15,000 concurrent players with an Overwhelmingly Positive review mark on Steam.
Personally, I really found this game to be a refreshing take on a classic genre. It’s easy to see how people quickly grew to love this game shortly after its release. Rusty’s Retirement doesn’t overwhelm you with thousands of tasks and multiple mechanics but delivers every promise of an enjoyable game.