Welcome to my review of the latest in a long line of relaxing games that have nothing to do with each other whatsoever. Today I bring you my thoughts on Lawn Mowing Simulator on the PlayStation 5. It’s brought to us by developers Skyhook Games and is published by Curve Games (Just Die Already, Bomber Crew) and Giant Fish. It originally released in August 2021 on the PC and Xbox. The PlayStation 4 and 5 version which I am reviewing was released on 31st March 2022.
Just Call Me Jobe
So how did I get on with Lawn Mowing Simulator? Were my customers happy with my work or should I still to city-builders in my spare time? Keep reading to find out. You can also check out my previous review where I played Drill Deal – Oil Tycoon.
The Game
So the premise of this game is that all you do is mow lawns. Whilst that is true to a degree, it’s also not. You have to take your company from the ground up, starting with the creation of your own lawn care company. You can choose your logo, the colours of your uniform, your company name, and more. Then you must customise your first employee. You can type in the first name, the surname, and change the look of your employee from a handful of pre-set designs.
Next up we get to pick from a few small mowers and strimmers that we can afford with our small amount of cash. These will be your faithful and trusty tools for mowing the setting of the game, which has a setting of a beautiful British countryside town. The game presents us with many jobs to complete and the locations of these range from private gardens, castle grounds, equestrian fields, and cottage gardens.
The gameplay itself sounds rather simple, you start your mower motor, make sure you have enough throttle, set the cutting blade height as per the job spec and away you go. However, it’s not as simple as that. You must ensure that you don’t fill up your collector which would cause spillage of cut grass. You need to make sure you don’t go too fast and overload your motor or cause damage to the ground. Whilst mowing you also need to take care. Ensure you do not cut up the property owner’s plants or flowers as this will incur a fine.
You’ve also got to keep an eye on the fuel levels of your mower and strimmer. Should these run out you’ll need to refuel, at a cost. Fortunately, it’s not as high as the cost of fuel right now in Britain. It would be pointless playing the game if that was the case, as all you’d be doing is spending the hard-earned cash on fuel.
As you progress through the game and earn higher reputation levels, you will be offered harder jobs as well as the chance to upgrade your HQ. Upgrading the HQ will allow you to employ more workers, and store more equipment. This will allow you to action more jobs in one day, therefore earning more money in one day.
You can also purchase upgrades for your equipment. For example, some jobs may require that you have a mulching plate attached to your mower. If you don’t have one, you won’t be able to start that job. Makes sense really. All in all, the more money you earn, the more you end up spending to earn even more money. It’s catch 22, but worth it.
This game also has different weather on some jobs. Some may be sunny, others might be raining. When the ground is wet, there is a higher chance that you will damage it. So be very careful when mowing in the rain.
There is zero stress involved with Lawn Mowing Simulator. It is so chilled out that it’s unreal. I really do think if you have a bad day at work you should get playing this.
Look & Sound
The graphics are pretty good, but not mind-blowing. There could be some improvements when it comes to the PlayStation 5 version, but I’ve learned that these sim games (so far) do not use the full power of the Xbox Series X|S or PS5. Still, it’s certainly not terrible that’s for sure.
Textures look quite nice, the graphics as a whole are good, and the main part that you should be concerned about definitely looks good. The grass. Each blade of grass sways in the wind as you’re chopping it all down on your mower. You can even get up close and see each blade taking the hit with your strimmer which is pretty cool.
Some may be happy to hear that this game runs on the Unity engine. The locations of the game were crafted piece by piece by the hands of the game designers. Great work.
The audio in Lawn Mowing Simulator is also pretty decent. The music is rather relaxing and the sound effects of the machinery you’re operating all sound realistic. The only thing we need now is a “smellivision” so we can smell that freshly cut grass.
One good thing to note is that I did not experience any issues with graphical and audio bugs or glitches. It ran very well even if it did seem to be locked to 30FPS.
Length & Replayability
I’ve put more than 11 hours into this game and am yet to see anywhere near an end to it. I have lots of reputation levels left to earn as well as many more vehicles and tools to unlock.
Not only that, the game gives us 43 trophies to unlock which can take 60-80 hours according to online sources.
Conclusions
Lawn Mowing Simulator is a super chilled out game. Like other sim games, it will have you hooked in no time. There are loads of jobs for you to work through during your career in your lawn care company.
If you didn’t understand my quip up above, go to Google and look for the title of a movie that released in 1992 starring Peirce Brosnan and Jeff Fahey. You might get my reference then. The Mel Gibson reference is referring to Signs, a fantastic movie from 2002. Should you wish to check out this game for yourself, check out the Lawn Mowing Simulator PlayStation Store page.
There are no health warnings when you fire up this game. Unfortunately, there are also no accessibility options such as a colour blind mode.
I give Lawn Mowing Simulator 9/10.
A code was kindly provided for us to review this.
