Stardew Valley is a sandbox RPG inspired by the hugely popular Harvest Moon farming series, best known from Nintendo’s portable consoles. The game is being developed by the independent one-man studio Concerned Ape, founded by one Eric Barone. It was originally created for the PC, but its remarkable success prompted the developer to prepare console and mobile versions of the game. Stardew Valley free download.
Story of the game
The plot of Stardew Valley tells the story of a young man who leads a dull life as an employee of a large corporation. In the past, he received a mysterious envelope from his grandfather with the recommendation to open it only when he feels that his life has become monotonous and no longer brings him happiness. Recognising that this moment has just arrived, our protagonist opens it and learns that he has received an inheritance from his grandfather in the form of a small farm somewhere outside the city. Without giving it much thought, the man leaves his previous life and boring job to face a completely new challenge. When he arrives at the place, however, it turns out that there is no idyll waiting for him, and that the dilapidated farm is actually a small house surrounded by a patch of land overgrown with thick bushes and weeds. The hero’s task is to restore the farm to its former glory.
Game mechanics
The general principles of gameplay in Stardew Valley are almost a carbon copy of the solutions known from the aforementioned Harvest Moon series. So the starting point here is an economic game in which we are mainly concerned with managing and developing our farm. We start the whole game by restoring it – digging up stones, cutting down trees and weeding out weeds. We then move on to planting, watering and harvesting crops, which is our main source of income. Over time, we will be able to grow more and more crops and even raise animals, and we can invest the money we earn in developing the farm.
Great freedom of action
The realities of a classic economic game described above have been framed in Stardew Valley as a Sanbox RPG. The title gives us a great deal of freedom in this respect, offering an extraordinary variety of activities and tasks to which we can devote ourselves, depending on our preferences. In addition to farming, our protagonist can go fishing, visit a nearby mine and search for useful resources, and even venture into dungeons where dangerous monsters and valuable treasures await. All this is complemented by an advanced crafting module, typical of sandboxes, and a character progression system that allows us to improve our hero’s various skills as we progress through the levels.
Human relations
An equally important aspect of the game is integration with the local community. When not working in the fields, our farmer can go to a nearby town, take part in various events, interact with the characters we meet and carry out the tasks they give us. As in Harvest Moon, the game also offers the possibility of romance and, in the long run, marriage and children.
Multiplayer mode
Stardew Valley was originally designed as a single-player game. However, after the release of the title, the author did not stop working on its development and in later updates of the game introduced a number of new elements, including the possibility of multiplayer gameplay in cooperative mode. It should be noted that the multiplayer mode is not available on mobile platforms. Stardew Valley free download for PC.
Technical issues
In terms of setting, Stardew Valley is very similar to the first instalments of the Harvest Moon series, with simple 2D graphics in a top-down view reminiscent of productions from the era of 16-bit consoles. Despite its apparent simplicity, however, the game offers an extremely complex gameplay model, as well as a whole host of flavours and additional possibilities that we gradually discover as the game progresses.
The developer hasn’t forgotten details such as the day and night cycle, dynamically changing seasons, and even the hero’s fatigue system, thanks to which he loses energy by “oversleeping” at night or carrying out more demanding farm activities.
Stardew Valley download
Title: Stardew Valley
Genre: RPG games
Languages: ES/ENG/MULTi
Stardew Valley free download PC:
- Click on the download button
- Go through the download setup process
- Complete a task to get the password
- Download, install the game and play!
Stardew Valley minimum system requirements:
- OS: Windows Vista or greater
- Processor: 2 Ghz
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: 256 mb video memory, shader model 3.0+
- DirectX: Version 10
- Storage: 500 MB available space