Game: Hundred Days – Wine Making Simulator
Genre: Simulation, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam (Windows))
Developer|Publisher: Broken Arms Games
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US Teen
Price: US $29.99 | UK £26.99 | EU € 29,99
Release Date: February 28th, 2022
Review code provided with many thanks to Broken Arms Games.
Play the Dream
Wouldn’t it be nice to just quit that dull 9-5 job and go run your own winemaking business? It sounds like quite the dream indeed. Well for me it’s that or running my own sheep farm, but I guess I have to wait a little longer for a game developer to make that one. Until then I have Hundred Days – Wine Making Simulator, which does a pretty impressive job of whisking you away to manage your very own vineyard.
You may also learn a little along the way about the process of making wine from picking grapes to selling the bottle. If you’re looking for a relaxing management game to sink into with a glass of wine or drink of choice I highly recommend this game.
Get Educated
The game features a story mode which kinda acts as an overall tutorial to the game pausing now and then during gameplay to present you with snippets of text-based story. As Emma, you have been invited to quit your boring office job to go run a vineyard. Emma is a little out of her depth since she has zero experience. But thanks to the friendly locals of varying personalities you are able to find your feet. But there are those that are not too happy with a newbie jumping into the wine game which adds some mild drama.
For the most part, the story is just fine. I didn’t care for it so much when characters waffled, but, my interest was periodically peaked when characters talked in detail about the winemaking process. I can’t say if this info is accurate as I’m not a wine aficionado but it sure made me curious to learn more. It felt like the developers were pretty educated on the matter. The story ends pretty abruptly after a few hours allowing you as the player to continue to run your vineyard the way you like.
Making a Fine Wine
The goal of the game is essentially to grow grapes in your vineyard and make the finest of wines. You are given cards to carry out various actions as they become available like harvesting crops, cutting weeds, crushing grapes, cleaning and tasting wine. When you grab a card it transforms into a Tetris like piece which you place on a board with limited space. Once laid it can take a few days for the action to take place.
Depending on the weather, like rain or snow, you may not be able to carry out certain actions and of course, you have the limitations of space on the board to place all your cards. You need to choose actions carefully through the seasons as you may not have enough space to do everything. Once you obtain more money you can spend your hard-earned cash on upgrades and expand your three core processes of farming, wine production and storage.
Choose Bottle design and Label
I found it took some time before I was able to expand things as I needed to get my head around all the winemaking processes which are very in-depth at each stage. There are many sliders to fiddle with, which will show you the potential outcome of your actions on a stat sheet. I found myself quite content during this period, feeling no rush to do things perfectly.
One of the joys for me playing the game was getting to the point near the end where you get to name your wine, choose the bottle design, label and even cork. I felt this little moment of success which was usually followed by the wine tasting where critics hated my wine. But who cares, I sure did enjoy the process. Therein lies my favourite feature about this game. It allows plenty of wiggle room to learn from your mistakes and take the odd risk in the production process to see what happens. If things don’t work out you can always take out a loan if you need more money or just roll with the punches. The basic lesson you learn early on is a slow made wine is usually of higher quality, little is produced but it will sell better.
It might seem pretty complex in the description but the game does a good job breaking you into the mechanics step by step before adding new challenges, such as handling disease and running out of space in your warehouse. There’s plenty new to learn and discover on your quest for winemaking success. And did I mention you can name the ducks in a nearby pond as well?
Calm and Relaxing
For the controls, you can make use of the buttons which are easy to pick up and use with menus being easy to navigate. Even in handheld mode, the text wasn’t too tricky to read which is probably helped by the good use of font and colour backgrounds. In handheld, you can also make use of touch controls which feels ideal for this game as you quickly find yourself clicking away at certain prompts like selling wine or clicking on a notification in the top right corner. Of course, you can create a hybrid of the two control schemes which became my preference.
The graphics are nice and calming much like the relaxing soundtrack that plays in the background. When I dipped into the game I often felt like I was going into a video game version of meditation. Even when I was messing up, which was a lot, I never felt stressed. I felt pretty calm continuing to learn from my wine production mistakes and trying to do better the next time around.
The Content
Content-wise you have the main game with the short story mode and the endless mode which is where I sunk most of my time into. Fancy a test of skill, you can check out the challenge mode which places you in set scenarios to complete. You can save the game absolutely anywhere but if you do forget the game tends to autosave now and then.
The Nintendo Switch version of the game also offers the expansion Napa Valley included in the price which basically offers a new vineyard and expands on practically every aspect of the base game. All in, you have a game that could easily keep you busy for weeks at a time. With its simple control scheme, it’s fairly easy to dip in and out if you want to venture into other gaming projects.
Conclusion – Plays Like a Fine Wine
I thoroughly enjoyed playing Hundred Days – Wine Making Simulator in short bursts. A low-level strategy game that is easy to pick up and play but has you as the player thinking about your next moves. Hundred Days does a very good job at educating the player and converting the wine production process into an enjoyable, management like game that is suitable for all audiences. Whether you like to drink wine or not, there is a lot to love here if you’re looking for a calming gaming experience. Is unlikely I’ll ever be able to retire from my job and go into the winemaking trade but this game will do just fine in its place.
Final Verdict: I Liked it a Lot
