Is Lawn Mowing Simulator a Casual Game?

[Napoleon Blownaparte]

I played PowerWash Simulator and thought I might give Lawn Mowing Simulator a try but all the lawns seem to be timed. Is there a casual option in the game where you can take as much time as you like and not feel like you're on a timer?

[DrNewcenstein]

Take as long as you like. There's a "suggested time to finish" and you get a bonus if you do it in that time, but the contracts won't automatically end if you go over. So far I've only done one out of dozens within the time limit. I'm anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes over, on average.

[BobKlobb]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Take as long as you like.

As long as you have all day to finish uninterrupted. No save in progress makes it not very casual at all.

[Napoleon Blownaparte]

How long do some of the endgame lawns take to cut? Not being able to save mid-lawn seems like an issue if those lawns are going to take hours. Also, don't you need to finish in a good time to get good money to buy good equipment for future lawns?

[DrNewcenstein]

Actually you are limited on gas/battery power and the money to refuel/recharge (but it appears to be extremely cheap), as well as machine wear.

And it took me over 2 hours to do one site. I saved 10 minutes by doing it again with a bigger mower with a higher cut, then going over it again at the requested cut. That's actually a PITA because the areas you need to cut don't stand out well. You have to keep hitting the "detective vision" thing. However, I did find that if you activate it while moving, it stays on until you move the steering wheel. Don't know if that's a bug or feature, but it helps.

Anyhoo, it's not as chill as I had hoped it would be i.e. just mindless mowing.

It's more like Lawncare Business Simulator, since you have to go through the whole money management, employee management, and business management routine. I'm guessing after you complete the "business", you'll get "free roam" where you can just cut grass and not deal with anything?

Just load up a c h e a t for money, buy everything, hire everyone (when you can), train them, equip them, and send them out on jobs while you collect trash and do easy jobs. Their performance usually matches yours. Take the lowest difficulty jobs for yourself, give them the hard ones, you do it flawlessly in the time limit, they do theirs flawlessly in the time limit.
They don't get time bonuses for the pre-game walkthrough, though. But if you find a $500 valuable, they find one, too.

Still, I'd like a mode at the start where you can skip the "career path" and just mow different lawns with an immortal mower.

The base game is free on Amazon Prime (Gaming) right now. Doesn't look like the DLC is available there, but then I didn't look and it didn't hit me in the face.

Something I did notice, though, but I don't know if it's the difference between the Amazon version and Steam version, but if you suck at the beginner missions, you end up with no money and contracts that require a mower you don't have and can't afford, so you can't progress. But, if you work those early contracts and git gud, you unlock more workable contracts and can actually make some money. It took me a few hours (those pesky flowers and the weed whacker, and that crappy soft soil that makes you get fines if you turn more than 60 degrees at once). I eventually did unlock more contracts that I could use the non-Eco mower on. Like I said, bug or feature, I don't know.