I was excited when I saw this title. I really enjoyed Farming Simulator's logging experience. Where FS has so many different jobs you can do, surely a title focusing on only the logging industry can really improve on that experience. Unfortunately this game fails here. The only new element added is mud physics. Further just about everything else from graphics, sound, vehicles, depth and progression is lacking far behind. There are just a few pieces of equipment to start off with. Off the bat you can buy all the basic equipment you need to start logging. After that you have about 2 things to save your money for then it's GG. I understand this is an early access build, but it my opinion it doesn't even deserve to be called an alpha yet. It is more like a demo you pitch to a client before you start working on the real product. In conclusion, if you want to have a enjoyable logging experience, FS offers 10 x more content and polish, and logging is only a very tiny fraction of the game. And no I'm not an FS fanboy. I'm simply stating the facts.

Well, ive been excited for this game for a long time and i think we are off to a great start. The vehicles sound great and feel nice when driving. the crane and mechanical controls work great.i like how you can tab in and out of drive and lading mode. the log physics are ok as well. One of my main concerns at release was the terrain and how it would deform and respond to vehicles and with that so far so good. Here are my main comments ( not complaints because i know this is a new game the dev team has worked hard and i can tell).
1.the hand tools and picking up logs doesnt work most of the time. the game is very picky on where you point the cursor to do just about any hand tool input ( chainsawing,Hatcheting or even picking up the logs) and the picking up the logs is my main point because thats how you make money. Its very difficult to pick up cut logs especially of a smaller size. the game just doesnt recongnize when the cursor is on a log. and it makes loading logs in to the back of the pick up a difficult task, brings me to my next point of concern... when i finally get to load a log it typically falls through the truck bed either on the initial load or when i drive off. i think the game also needs a tie down system to lock the logs into place so they dont fly out. there are also no options to bind keyboard controls, the stock controls arent terrible just would like options. also when using the controller the look controls are inverted and there is no way to change that. and alittle optimization wouldnt hurt. the game runs fine but could be smoother. and sometimes in some parts of the map it gets really dark when looking at the ground to collect logs. but so far great job and i can see this game heading into a very good direction with great great things to come as long as these little things are corrected. I am definitely on board. :)

Let me first start off by saying the product I am reviewing is the Steam Early Access!

No, I was not paid to say any of this, this is all 100% my personal opinions of what I think about the game.

Detailed review or SKIP to TLDR

If you love forestry or any sort of logging or have a curiosity for it, or just would like to give yourself a challenge out in the forest, then I believe this game will be for you!

(Now, not to compare, but I am doing so purely from a review point to point out the key features that Lumberjack Simulator has over other games!)

The best representation to compare this game to would be Farming Simulator 17 or 19. If you have played those games before, those games do feature forestry alongside a tree harvester and forwarder. So, if you have played and used those vehicles before and enjoyed it? This game might be for you!

I see this game having a ton of potential purely because of the new physics this game brings vs the Farming Simulator series. Where I believe this game shines is that it features mud physics and actual tree falling/bending physics! Farming Simulator is pretty good, but it does not have those features.

This is where I believe the game has mass potential to give a more realistic feel that your out in the forest to cut some trees down. Combine this with a nice set of forestry vehicles such as a forwarder with a telescopic boom grapple, grapple skidder, wheeled feller buncher, and the physics mentioned above, and you have yourself a great start to a logging game!!

From my play testing, this game has excellent performance!! I have almost 20hrs (time of writing) with the game and have not noticed any FPS drops, or stutters. This is with the game's resolution set to 2560 x 1440p resolution. I set my FPS locked to 70 and games runs amazing. Performance wise, I believe this is good!! So, if you have a moderately recent gpu ranging as low as maybe an NVIDIA GTX 760, I think you will have great performance! Game is nice! It has atmospheric effects such as sun rays, fog, and shadows. Vehicles get gradually dirty. Game has a day & night cycle too. Graphics I’m sure will continue to be worked on and refined.

At the time of writing, the game has fully working mouse and keyboard controls which are not as bad as you might think. They are very usable. The vehicles are controllable, with Q, E, PageUp, PageDown, Home, and End keys. I was able to use a standard Xbox One controller and it works. I had mentioned to the developer about having the ability to re map/re bind all available controls (such as main boom, secondary boom, grapple controls etc.). This is a feature that is already on the developer's top priority list!

So very important, just like in Farming Simulator, having the ability to completely rebind your controls is very important to fully take advantage of the vehicle's capabilities and will be the MAIN key focus on having fun in this game!

This I cannot say too much on because again at the time of writing, the game is still a very Early Access title!
But what I thought was fun is having to traverse the challenging (but not intolerable!) terrain. So the game I believe will give a nice challenge trying to get from point A to B especially when you’re trying to haul a fully loaded log trailer with a semi!

But we can rest assure that obvious main goals/objectives of the game will be:

• Choose your style of logging!
  
• Choose your starting vehicles
  
• Find a suitable spot to start logging!

From there is up to you to choose how you wish to transport your freshly processed logs to the sell spot to gain profit.
But for more information, I would keep an eye on the Lumberjack Simulator's website[lumberjacksimulator.com] or the game's Discord regarding current or future gameplay mechanics!

Lumberjack Simulator's Official Discord Link:
https://discord.gg/kj3Du7g

Game will most definitely be getting a lot more features and refinements!

The following features is listed on the game's website to further be worked on/implemented:

• Controls
  
• Personalization
  
• Damage
  
• Mods!!
  
• Map Features
  
• More Forestry vehicles
  
• Multiplayer
  
• Construction

So did I enjoy my playtime with it? Honestly, yes however my top priority would be to have the ability to custom bind the controls. I have almost close to 4000hrs in FS 17 and FS19 alone in purely just the forestry aspects of those games. (I did not even get those games for their intended farming purpose lol, I got them to run and play forestry). My point is that in the start when I was just exposing myself to the forestry aspect, my real fun started when I got my controls all dialed in and comfortable. When you have full control over the machines, that's where it gets fun! Now all I use is just an Xbox One controller, I love it, and can run just as fast and probably faster than actual dual joysticks.

How on earth you may ask?
It’s all about having your controls comfortably accessible to you!

Proof?
YouTube and search: umbreon ponsse buffalo (I have 2 vids featuring usage in FS17 and FS19)
Point?
Having control makes using the vehicles a ton of fun!

If you are a real-life logger, or have had some experience logging in the Farming Simulator games (and liked it at least a little) or also if you enjoy the Spintires Mudrunner games, then Lumberjack Simulator is for you! I believe this game's key highlight features over those other games is that Lumberjack Simulator actually has mud/tree physics and logging vehicles!! FS has logging vehicles, but is missing the mud/tree physics that would make it feel more realistic (plus FS can start to suffer performance with many logs at a time). Mudrunner has great mud physics...but no logging! (As in you can't cut trees and properly load them in that game!).

Lumberjack Simulator features the best of both worlds! From what I understand, (Please correct me if I am wrong) this game is being developed by just 1 person! So please keep that in mind! Also, forestry games are almost nonexistent out there. So, if you want a Forestry/Logging experience, this game will be for you!

Coming from a real life logger this game is amazing!! I've enjoyed every minute of it! Can't wait to see what all the developer has in store for the future!

Great start for Early Access! The terrain and mud physics make for a good challenge for the machines to traverse, on top of that the timber physics are very realistic. This game has a lot of potential, and the developer is clearly working very hard to make a great game, clear roadmap on what features will be added, current things being worked on, and what is in the future. In its current state, the game is pretty fun, but will be much better upon a full release. If you like logging games, you'll likely enjoy this game. Keep in mind, its early access, if you see this game's potential, and what it has in store, I highly recommend picking it up, and supporting the developer to get this project off the ground.

i keep reading about accurate physics. still havent seen any. i much prefer logging in fs19. controls are a breeze and everything just works. the grafics, even on ultra, are just not there for me. i am going back to fs19 logging

Lumberjack Simulator has a great potential, using quality physics engine and interesting tools & machinery. Already enjoyable in Early Access, but needs more content and better explanation in tutorials and controls.

For more quick reviews please follow my curator.

I was stoked to play this game when I seen my favorite Facebook streamer playing it one day. Being a former logger, the thought of this game immediately caught my interest and was expecting it to be a pretty close simulator of the job.

I was left disappointed to see that this game was full and still is full of bugs that continue to plague this game. This games controls are also super confusing, overly touchy and not touchy enough at times, and seemingly little to no support for a controller. Game play over all is a mess and just not what I would have expected it to be. I also don't know how may times I've expected this game to have an auto save feature to only be disappointed every time I've left the game to find that all the progress I've made was gone.

This game doesn't even come close to the logging experience, and I had high hopes that it would have been close. Seeing how the Farming Simulator series has put forth a lot of effort into the logging aspect of their games gave me pretty high hopes for this title being focused on logging and logging only.

I still have hope that this developer will eventually add important things, like auto save and better control schemes. I hope that they will add in different equipment that isn't locked out behind a pay wall. That is the biggest turn off for me, I would love to support official DLC, but when you want to charge five bucks to unlock a loan feature, (again, the Farming Simulator series integrated that in the game at launch), makes me want to uninstall the game.

To anyone wanting to buy this game, I would wait for it to be on some kind of mega super sale, and NOT pay full price for it. It's too much money for a game that's as "broken" as this one is. If you can't wait, purchase a Farming Simulator 17 or newer game to play. It's much better in almost every aspect, plus allows for so much other things to do at the same time.

Hopefully one day I can re-review this game and leave it a positive review. Good Luck, and listen to your player base!

Don't waste your time with FS19 if you casually game this is way better than the clunky controls FS19 has! Way better gameplay directed at logging too!

its upsetting to me that a sim game released in 2021 and updated till October 2022 can have so many bugs and issues, it is fun until you reach level 4 and have to restart practically every 12 minutes because your machinery is not working properly. its the type of game play id expect from a free indie game. I do enjoy this game it just frustrates the hell out of me that sometimes things inexplicably don't work