Lumberjacks aren’t really prominent over here in the UK. We seem to protect our trees and only cut them down as a very last resort. In the rest of the world, deforestation is rife and obviously, as someone who cares about the environment to some extent, I don’t condone the scope of the damage that has been done. That said, being a Lumberjack and having a justification to get into hacking into trees with a high-powered chainsaw and then continue with the logging side of things sounds pretty fun.

Getting into this trade is clearly dangerous and I’d imagine at times complex and unpredictable. The great news is that you can jump into the boots and wield your axe with Lumberjack’s Dynasty, which is now available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. In an ever-growing list of titles in the simulation genre, you’re probably wondering whether this one is worth it. Let’s find out!

Introduction

After a short period on Windows PC, Lumberjack’s Dynasty has dropped for console gamers. After plenty of power washing and house flipping lately, I decided to grab an experience in the great outdoors this time around. With most simulation-style games there doesn’t ever appear to be any storyline whatsoever, so I was surprised to see one here.

In Lumberjack’s Dynasty, you are bringing your farming expertise to the table as you play as a nephew who has come to support his family’s farm which is struggling to function properly. With your auntie and uncle cracking on and ageing, their thoughts are to flog off the family business and move on with their lives. The hope is that with your help the farm will not have to be sold and that with the opportunity of getting stuck in and making it profitable and workable that the once thriving farm will be successful once again.

I really loved the approach to the backstory and that the game set you off on a path of purpose instead of just chucking you out in a field chopping trees down. With its open-world setting, you’ll be able to go about your adventure completing tasks within the operations of the business. You’ll be going about your work day, ensuring you’re well fed, rested and looking after your wife and family alongside the hard graft.

Gameplay

Firstly you’ll be entirely focused on rebuilding everything to how it needs to be. You can’t run a business without money though and to make the revenue you’ll be doing tasks for others in order to build up some funds in your bank. You’re slowly introduced to how to operate your logging machinery, and how to cut and strip down trees into smaller pieces to enable you to sell them for cash. Sadly, I instantly noticed a plethora of bugs here with parts of trees completely vanishing and commands to cut sections not responding. When you’re seeing glaring issues in the first ten minutes of a game, alarm bells start to ring.

Lumberjack’s Dynasty does a great job at explaining how to carry out actions and complete certain tasks and it is a world rich with things to do. If you’re a fan of the repetitive grind of simulation games then you’ll perhaps love the workload on offer. Aside from watching trees fall down after you’ve chopped them there are many other ways you can spend your time. Neighbours may need your assistance with repairing their property, you can go and milk some cows, get your chef’s hat on and do some cooking, get your fishing rod out and catch some fish and even grow some veg in the fields.

I had no issues throughout with the control scheme and most tasks were straightforward, there are some real janky and questionable camera angles that hinder the experience at times though. Aside from this though, most of the gameplay loop was satisfactory with enough variance to make you always feel like there was stuff to get done.

Time To Sleep

The most frustrating part for me was when it came to having to rest and return home at the end of the day. With the map being quite large you’d end up driving your tractor home, and we all know how slow they drive. I understand the team were probably aiming for realism here but it became a boring end to whatever fun you were having. If you’re a fair distance away as well, this often added five or so minutes to your playtime to just then return to what you were doing anyway. If there was a skip feature added here, it could have given players the option to choose.

Graphics & Audio

The visuals in most sim-style games are usually poor to average at best. I’m no expert but I imagine the reasoning for this is due to the small teams developing these games and the logistics of trying to achieve solid mechanics in a vast landscape. Sadly Lumberjack’s Dynasty verges more towards the poor side when it comes to the graphics. Draw distances are a little bit of an eyesore with assets and textures popping in far too late. This is a shame as when you stand static and look around, everything around you looks alright if I’m honest. Voice acting is equally as bad with the speech and lip movement consistently out of sync. I tried not to let this bother me since I was genuinely interested in the community elements of the game, but it was immediately noticeable.

In Conclusion

I’m a little gutted with Lumberjack’s Dynasty as there is a fantastic concept here that is held back by dated visuals, bugs, glitches and some other factors that could do with being fixed. Mechanically the game is sound and there is plenty to see and do if you can skip by the factors I’ve mentioned. I do hope the development team continue to work on this project to iron out the flaws because there are some solid foundations laid and the story really made me want to stick with it.

Sadly though it needs a bit more TLC before I can recommend it as a purchase to anyone. If they can sort out the bugs and tweak some areas within the infrastructure of the game then it would be a title that would easily rival the Farming Simulator series. For now though, I’d keep an eye on it and see if they make improvements over the near future.