Is it worth the leap?

Image: Giants Software / Mixed

After Farming Simulator 25’s successful launch last November, Giants Software brought the franchise to Quest headsets. But does virtual farming deliver the goods?

Farming Simulator has come a long way since its humble beginnings in April 2008. What started as a niche title beloved by simulation enthusiasts has grown into a powerhouse franchise over the past 17 years. Developer Giants Software reports the series has moved more than 40 million copies across all platforms, with their latest release — Farming Simulator 25 — accounting for 3 million sales since its November 2024 debut.

Since then, Giants Software hasn’t been resting on its laurels. The franchise keeps expanding in creative ways: their annual FarmCon convention draws bigger crowds each year, they’ve launched specialized gaming accessories, and they even publish a dedicated magazine now in its eighth issue. Clearly, virtual farming isn’t going out of style anytime soon.

Now, with Farming Simulator VR’s release on February 28, 2025, Giants Software is betting they can transplant their winning formula into Meta’s growing Quest ecosystem. But can strapping on a VR headset really capture the thrill of working the digital fields?

Farming Simulator VR: Review in a nutshell

Farming Simulator VR puts you in charge of a modest farm where your main goal is turning a profit through field cultivation and greenhouse operations. The game lets you grow about half a dozen different plants, splitting your time between tending crops in the fields and managing your greenhouse production. After working your fields, you’ll need to clean and refuel your equipment. If something breaks down, you’ll head to the workshop for repairs.

For the first several hours, there’s genuine enjoyment to be found in the simple rhythms of farm life. The problem is what comes after — the game ultimately suffers from a lack of content depth, gameplay variety, and compelling reasons to keep playing long-term.

A tale of two farm sims

The size difference between Farming Simulator 25 and its VR counterpart tells an interesting story. While the standard FS25 demands a hefty 45 GB of storage space, Farming Simulator VR comes in at a surprisingly lean 2.47 GB. This dramatic difference isn’t just about compression — it reflects a fundamentally different scope. The VR version offers a more focused experience, containing just a few carefully crafted areas rather than the sprawling landscapes of its bigger brother.

The game’s garden serves as your home base, where your collection of unlocked vehicles waits patiently after a hard day’s work in the fields. True to VR gaming conventions, maintaining these machines requires literal hands-on attention. Want to refuel your tractor? You’ll need to physically grab the fuel nozzle, walk over to your machine, unscrew the tank cap, insert the nozzle, and squeeze the trigger. This manual approach extends to cleaning your equipment as well, making every maintenance task a tactile experience.

At the beginning you can still find the dirty spots without any problems. The last ten percent are tricky. | Image: Giants Software / Mixed

The machine-cleaning gameplay feels a lot like Powerwash Simulator VR. I grab the spray gun — which I can wield with one or both hands — and start blasting away at these massive parked vehicles with high-pressure water. There’s a dirt indicator hovering above each machine that steadily decreases the more thoroughly I clean.

You really have to be methodical about it, since these behemoths get filthy everywhere. With the combine harvesters, I often find myself climbing on top just to track down every last dirty spot. It can feel like a real Sisyphean task at times, especially since there’s no overlay feature to highlight the areas I still need to clean.

Once I’ve finished my cleaning duties, I can unwind by shooting some hoops in this section of the farm — though I’ll admit the basketball doesn’t serve any actual gameplay purpose. One neat detail is the dynamic day/night cycle. It moves pretty quickly in Farming Simulator VR, so I’ll often start washing vehicles in the afternoon only to find myself still scrubbing away in the middle of the night, with the moon high overhead.

First fix it, then farm it

The garage sits just a stone’s throw from the garden, serving as my playground for fixing up old machines from my collection. Take a flat tractor tire, for instance — the repair process follows a precise sequence. First, I grab a hefty ratchet wrench to loosen the nuts around the wheel hub. Before I can lift anything with the heavy-duty jack, though, I need to secure the good tires on the opposite side by wedging wheel chocks underneath them.

With the problem tire elevated, I wheel over my tool cart to grab the impact wrench and remove all the nuts. The final step involves sliding a tire trolley under the wheel and carefully maneuvering it to the garage’s blue-marked repair zone, where the replacement happens automatically. Then it’s just a matter of putting everything back together, clearing away the tools, and getting back to working the fields.

All interactive elements of a machine can be displayed at the touch of a button. | Image: Giants Software / Mixed

Here’s a nice touch: Like everywhere else in the game, I can flip on a radio to create that cozy workshop vibe with some background tunes. Overall, the garage mechanics work pretty well. That said, during testing, getting the ratchet wrench positioned just right on the front tire nuts proved frustratingly finicky. The tool kept clattering to the ground, even when I thought I had lined it up perfectly. But with some patience and a steady hand, it eventually became second nature.

Field work in VR

When a vehicle is ready for action, I can deploy it to any of the three available fields using my virtual tablet — accessible anytime with a quick tap of the option button. The tablet’s map function lets me teleport straight into the driver’s seat of whatever machine I’ve selected, ready to start working. From there, I can tackle all the classic farming activities: tilling soil, planting wheat and soybeans, harvesting with the combine, and plenty more. Like everything else in the game, an extensive tutorial walks you through all the mechanics.

The cockpit feeling is pleasing. Unfortunately, many elements cannot be operated at all. | Image: Giants Software / Mixed

Players hoping for the kind of fully interactive cockpits found in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 might feel let down. The developers took a more streamlined approach, marking only the essential controls with blue outlines to show what you can interact with. In tractors, this includes basic functions like the ignition key, steering wheel, light switches, radio controls, and the lever that raises and lowers rear attachments.

Many cockpit elements remain purely decorative — you can’t fiddle with the ventilation, open windows, flip on windshield wipers, or interact with the dashboard display. While this simplified approach might help VR newcomers avoid feeling overwhelmed, longtime Farming Simulator fans will likely wish for more comprehensive cockpit interactivity.

The Quest hardware’s technical limitations also constrain what’s possible out in the fields. Don’t expect to see your tractor wheels carving realistic furrows in the soil, dramatic weather events disrupting your harvest, or rain turning fields into muddy, low-traction challenges. The simulation stays firmly grounded in the basics.

A look inside Farming Simulator VR’s greenhouse

When I’m not busy washing vehicles or working the fields, I get to test my green thumb in Farming Simulator VR’s charming little greenhouse setup. The game gives me six wooden greenhouses where I can grow everything from strawberries and tomatoes to lettuce, radishes, pumpkins, and eggplants.

With this 1499 dollar garden hose and spray gun, the sprouting plants in the greenhouse are watered in no time at all. | Image: Giants Software / Mixed

Like real gardening, everything requires hands-on effort. First, I have to buy seeds through the tablet store, then carefully scatter them in the soil and water them. The watering process is delightfully tactile — I place my watering can under the tap, turn it on, wait for it to fill up, then channel my inner gardener as I water each plot. Once the seeds sprout, I need to keep the weeds in check so they don’t steal water from my growing plants. When harvest time comes, I hand-pick everything, load it into crates, and carry them to the sales terminal where I can sell my produce with a simple button press.

The greenhouse gameplay loop is genuinely fun, especially when you’re starting out. The upgrade system offers some nice quality-of-life improvements — things like garden hoses and extra crates that significantly speed up your daily tasks. However, the progression system feels somewhat limited, lacking long-term incentives to keep playing. A notable omission is the inability to unlock additional greenhouses or new plant varieties.

This limitation extends to other aspects of farm management. While I can use my earnings to unlock new fields like “Mighty Harvest” to the west and “Timeless Waters” to the south — not to mention upgrading my vehicle fleet and tools — it’s a far cry from the main game’s extensive progression where your farm continuously expands and eventually gives you access to hundreds of different machines. Perhaps the biggest disappointment is that there’s only one scenario to play through, leaving little room for variety in your farming journey.

My verdict on Farming Simulator VR

For the first few hours, Farming Simulator VR delivers an enjoyable virtual farming experience. The VR interactions feel natural and intuitive, a few machinery models show attention to detail, and the catchy soundtrack keeps you engaged while achievements regularly pop up to reward your progress. It’s a solid appetizer for anyone curious about the Farming Simulator series in VR.

However, veterans of the franchise will quickly notice the game’s significant content limitations. Major gameplay elements from previous titles are conspicuously absent – there’s no livestock management system and forestry activities have been completely stripped out.

Nice Easter Egg: You can find the LS15 package in the lounge on the second floor of the workshop. | Image: Giants Software / Mixed

The game also lacks the variety of environments we’ve come to expect. The Farming Simulator 25’s Asian map, which will let players cultivate rice fields and unlock region-specific equipment, has no equivalent here. Making matters worse, the single available map feels cramped and limiting — after just a few hours of play, you’ll have exhausted most of what it has to offer.

Looking ahead, I’m hopeful that Giants Software will apply the lessons learned from this VR experiment to deliver a full VR update for Farming Simulator 25 before the end of the year. Recent successful VR adaptations of major titles like No Man’s Sky and Resident Evil 4 have shown that the gaming community eagerly embraces these kinds of comprehensive VR updates when done right.

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