Okay, maybe this headline could have consequences for me down the road, but I’m sure if I show Rusty’s retirement to my bosses, they’ll play along too. This Mister Morris microgame is based on two concepts that, strangely enough, suit me perfectly: working in front of a computer for many hours a day and the desire to play without having time for it.
Rusty’s Retirement is an automatic farm simulator in which we control the automaton Rusty and his work colleagues to build an agricultural farm. All you have to do is give him simple orders to plant the crops and clear the land for work. Rusty, some workers and his drones take care of the rest. There isn’t much interaction between the player and the game, but the magic of this title is that the game screen only takes up a narrow strip at the bottom of the screen, while the rest is free to do other tasks such as watching videos, accessing websites, and using office applications. It’s a game designed to motivate you at work.
For a game that demands so little from you as a player, the progression system is finely tuned. The different crops are unlocked as you harvest and produce biofuel, which you sell to make more money. This allows you to buy more robot helpers, improve them and diversify your sources of income (e.g. beehives), in addition to further expanding your land. You also need to hire various workers who will be responsible for selling new machines and decorations for the farm. You must always feel like you are seeing changes and only spend a few seconds of your time so that productivity is not affected.
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There are no difficulties in progressing in Rusty’s Retirement, except for time itself. Rusty moves slowly, unhurriedly, while enjoying his plot full of crops and the pleasant ambient sound of the soundtrack, full of gentle themes reminiscent of Minecraft. Music that we can of course silence so as not to lose focus on our tasks outside the game, although it must be acknowledged that it creates white noise that helps us immerse ourselves in the quiet experience. Also worth mentioning is the localization of the mini-game in ten languages.
You can even have fun without paying attention to the game while it is running in the background as it hardly consumes any resources on the PC. And if you pay attention to the game, the “sessions” only last a few minutes. It’s like the browser games that became so popular on Facebook years ago, except there are no micropayments or a wall to impede game progress.
This brilliant title does exactly what it sets out to do as a game, regardless of its simplicity (which I always appreciate when reviewing it), and there’s actually not much else that players could overlook, except perhaps a feature that increases the difficulty or some additional achievements Steam for achieving certain harvest goals. Rusty’s Retirement is a pleasant work companion these days and certainly brightens the days of many players who have to attend to the tasks of life while irrigating small fields and growing their farm.
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Simple, fun and entertaining, Rusty’s Retirement launches on Steam on April 26th. If you’re looking for a more work-friendly replacement for Stardew Valley, this might be the quiet spot you need.