Southfield is a sandbox farming sim from Radical Forge featuring insane ragdoll physics and wacky crops. Read on to learn everything we know, our review of its Closed Beta, and so much more!
Everything We Know About Southfield
Southfield Plot
Like most sandbox games, Southfield focuses on creating a vibrant world for players to explore and shape rather than having a set narrative. Set on the titular island of Southfield, you play as Bud, a lively creature born from the island's soil and beholden to its bounty.
In Southfield, you can cultivate farms, set up intricate production lines, and build bases with friends, all while fending off the mischievous Ruffians that emerge at night. As you delve deeper into the island, you'll uncover its hidden secrets, meet intriguing characters, and discover its diverse landscapes.
Southfield Gameplay
Southfield's gameplay is a whimsical blend of factory automation and farming simulation. Players start with basic farming and resource management, gradually automating these processes as they advance.
A standout feature of Southfield is its lively cartoon physics, affecting both your character and the world around them. It’s common to see factories and other Buds playfully tossing fruit and processed materials around, creating a delightfully chaotic and vibrant environment for automation.
Southfield Release Date
An exact release date and time for Southfield is yet to be announced but we’ll update this article with new information as it comes out. The game’s Closed Beta will be available until May 31, 2024, and can be joined by requesting access directly from the game’s official Steam Page.
Southfield Review (Closed Beta)
Too Wacky, Too Unpolished
When I first started playing Southfield, I wasn't sure what to expect. The game projected a wholesome vibe, and previews of farms and conveyor belts suggested a blend of Lightyear Frontier, Satisfactory, and Stardew Valley. All of that was succeeded by wacky movements and oddly projectile automation options that, while disarming, were actually quite novel as I was getting into it.
However, the novelty wore off quickly. What initially amused me soon became annoying. Clever mechanics turned tedious, and creative ideas became inefficient. As I delved deeper into what Southfield had to offer, it became clear that novelty alone isn’t enough.
Before we head into it, let’s discuss what exactly Southfield is. Southfield isn’t a survival game nor is it a social-based farming sim like Stardew Valley. Instead, it is an open-world sandbox simulator with farming, factory automation, and exploration elements. There’s no pressing reason for your sudden agricultural endeavors, you kind just are doing whatever you want.
With that settled, let’s go through how the game plays.
Built Around The Wackiness
One of the first things that struck me about this game is its embrace of wackiness, and not just in its aesthetics. From the get-go, you’re born from the ground itself, and your first task is to slap some trees in a Minecraft-esque fashion. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, the repetitive slappy sound effects do start to become grating after a while.
Then you try to run, only to find there’s no sprint button. Your only option for faster movement is to curl into a ball and roll around like Sonic the Hedgehog. It’s creative, sure, but the two-button input needed for this marginally faster (and less controlled) movement feels unnecessary outside of its novelty.
As you explore, you stumble upon whimsically named fruits scattered about. Picking them up isn’t a simple button press; instead, you have to grab the fruit and yank it by moving backward, all while dealing with unpredictable ragdoll physics.
These scenarios highlight a recurring theme: Southfield revels in its wackiness. While the game never shies away from its quirky nature, the additional mechanics meant to enhance the novelty can make routine tasks like farming and factory automation feel unnecessarily complicated.
Ultimately, this wackiness becomes more of a hindrance—a humorous but tiresome obstacle that turns even the simplest chore into a drawn-out ordeal.
Decidedly NOT A Factory Sim
Let's roll into the rest of Southfield’s gameplay, particularly its factory automation. To its credit, the game features a world grid and dedicated conveyor systems, which are strong foundations for any factory automation setup. However, it's clear that Southfield wasn’t designed with this focus in mind, and it shows in the execution of its factory management elements.
The basic mechanics are straightforward: machines convert raw materials into processed items, and conveyor belts transport these items efficiently—at least in theory. However, the game’s inherent wackiness turns what could be a functional processing plant into a chaotic bounce house.
Instead of utilizing standard hoppers, droppers, or similar machinery to move items from conveyor belts into machines or storage spaces, Southfield opts for a more whimsical approach: machines that fling items across the room. This adds a layer of unpredictability as items are subjected to the game’s quirky physics, often resulting in a disorganized mess.
This quirky design choice, while amusing, is unnecessary and detracts from effective gameplay. Good game design should prioritize functionality and user-friendliness, especially in games featuring complex mechanics. The situation is further complicated by the fact that you can ragdoll when interacting with these machines, turning a simple walk through your production line into a potential hazard.
Farming, Crafting, and Exploration are Okay
I’ve delved into Southfield's quirks, so let’s shift focus to its strengths. While the game’s farming and exploration aspects are decent, they are somewhat hindered by the previously mentioned unnecessary wackiness.
Aiming at your crops can be tricky, and gathering fresh produce from the wild is oddly tedious. However, the farming experience includes enough downtime to prevent these issues from becoming too frustrating. Exploration, though occasionally odd due to the aforementioned hedgehog-like traversal, remains optional and doesn’t significantly detract from the experience.
On the brighter side, the crafting system is refreshingly simple and quick, and resource management is streamlined compared to the cumbersome process for wild produce. Overall, these elements of the game are functional and relatively unaffected by the wackiness.
Though they don’t particularly stand out, they provide a solid foundation for the gameplay that I wish the devs favored instead of what we actually got.
The Makings of a Great Base-building System
I’ll conclude this review of Southfield’s Closed Beta by highlighting its standout feature: base-building. This aspect of the game is intuitive, robust, and brimming with creative potential. The flexibility of using various materials for all prefabs means every base can have a unique appearance, simply by changing the building materials on the fly.
The world grid system helps maintain symmetry and order, though it can be a bit tricky when building vertically. What truly impressed me was the game’s edit mode. While it’s moderately useful for managing factory machines and belts, it’s downright brilliant for base-building.
Edit mode divides each prefab section into a 3x3 grid of nine sectors. This allows you to add and remove pieces from the grid, transforming basic walls into windows and doorways, and creating uniquely shaped foundations. This feature extends to adjacent pieces, enabling the construction of large windows and expansive doorways for those with grand architectural visions.
Although the base-building feature isn’t fully polished yet, and I wouldn’t mind seeing more prefab types and material options, it provides a solid foundation amid the game’s wacky physics-based gameplay. These robust base-building mechanics are a strong anchor point for Southfield’s overall appeal and could be its big-ticket moving forward.
