Barn Finders Review (Nintendo Switch)

I moan a lot how the AAA game space only has hand full of game genres regurgitated in different times, locations and themes, but fundamentally they're the same sort of play experiences. So it’s refreshing to not even know where to begin explaining exactly what Barn Finders is.

I guess its genre is physics based, first person hill billy antique dealer simulator?

You start the game in your run down, empty antique store and have to scavenge your property to sell for scrap in order to afford the fuel to get to your first location. From here the game loop looks like this.

Check your computer for emails to accept missions. Travel to the location and explore, finding as many scraps, materials and valuables as you can to take back for crafting and resale. Restock your store with your findings. Open the shop, haggle with customers to maximise your profits, and use the funds to renovate your shop and win auctions on more properties to scavenge… rinse and repeat! I told you it was original.

The game also has a light paranormal storyline with Men in Black style agents mysteriously appearing in your store and locations your checkout out. On top of this there are eerie moment of ‘what was that in the woods’ and alien looking beings appearing and disappearing… and also trying to buy stuff from your shop in disguise!

The game does look and feel a bit janky, in a charming Goat Simulator kind of way, but it’s clear that a lot of love has gone into the game. It almost seems like a joke that got out of hand. A simple idea for a basic game that just got built on until it had a bunch different game play elements and systems that all interact with each other in a cohesive way.

In addition to the basic game loop, tools are introduced for breaking up scraps for materials, digging, lock picking and so on. And these tools level up to provide more efficient results.

The game was original released on PC and I did see quite a lot of reviews complaining about game breaking bugs such as key items clipping through the floor and the auto save feature not giving your the opportunity to go back. As I mentioned the game does feel a bit janky which makes me concerned, but I haven’t encountered any issues myself in the time I’ve been playing it so hopefully all the serious bugs have been ironed out for the console release.

Obviously it goes without saying this isn’t going to be for everyone. If experiences like Call of Duty and Assasins Creed are what appeal to you in gaming, this probably isn’t be for you. But for me, I’m burned out on all the same open world / story driven experiences, so things that are completely different from anything I’ve played before are always appealing to me, and the chilled out nature of the game play is a nice relaxing experience at the end of the day when my head is already melted with daily life. I found it almost therapeutic, systematically clearing out the locations room by room, but that probably speaks more to my OCD than it does the quality of the game.

So yeah, it's not a game I could recommend or not really. I’m sure seeing the game yourself and understanding the game play loop, your going to know yourself if it’s something you’ll enjoy but the fact you're this far into the video probably means it might be worth checking out at some point. It’s not particularly cheap at £17 at launch so if your not convinced at that price I’d definitely say add it to your wish list for a future sale as it is a fun and unique experience.