Lawn Mowing Simulator 2 is exactly the sort of game that sounds ridiculous when you try to explain why you’re enjoying it. You’re cutting grass. That’s basically it. And yet, several hours later, I found myself genuinely annoyed because I’d missed a tiny strip around a flower bed and ruined what I thought was a perfectly mown lawn.
The sequel moves the action to the USA and once again puts you in charge of your own lawn-care business. You start relatively small, taking on contracts and gradually building up your company, buying better equipment and taking on larger and more complicated jobs.
The actual mowing remains as satisfying as the first game. There’s something incredibly relaxing about arriving at an overgrown lawn and slowly turning it into something neat and organised. Finding an efficient route around a garden, getting the cutting height right and watching the percentage creep towards completion shouldn’t be particularly compelling, but somehow it is. It leans into the classic endorphin-releasing mechanic of Powerwash Simulator, with the pleasure of being ‘in’ nature.
One of the biggest improvements is the grass itself. It has been completely reworked for the sequel, with different heights, weeds and flowers making lawns look considerably more natural. More importantly, it’s much easier to see where you’ve actually cut. That might sound like a tiny improvement, but in a game entirely about mowing grass, it makes a massive difference.
There’s also now a lot more to do than simply sitting on a mower. You have additional equipment including string trimmers a leaf blower. Clearing leaves involves blowing them together and eventually collecting them using a tarp. I didn’t expect leaf blowing to become one of the highlights of a videogame I’ve played this year, but here we are. It provides some much-needed variety and has exactly the same oddly satisfying quality as mowing.
The career side has also been expanded. Your headquarters is now an actual location you can walk around rather than everything being handled through menus. You can manage contracts, maintain your equipment, expand your fleet and hire employees as your company grows. It’s hardly Football Manager with lawnmowers, but it does a better job of making it feel like you’re actually building a business rather than simply selecting the next level.
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There’s a good selection of licensed machinery for those who know their lawn mowers, and I enjoyed gradually moving onto bigger and more capable machines. Different locations also require slightly different approaches, ranging from fairly straightforward residential gardens through to much larger commercial jobs. Locations can change when you return to them too, so revisiting somewhere doesn’t necessarily mean completing exactly the same job again, with different types of debris and weeds/leaves all over the place.
On Series X, it looks good rather than spectacular. The improved grass is obviously the star, and seeing a messy lawn transformed into neat stripes can look surprisingly impressive. However, there is this effect of ‘flickering’ as the grass moves in the sunlight and wind, which can make your eyes got a bit funny. This was worse in the first game, and whilst improved, is still a bit of a pain after a while of staring at a lot of green.
There are two problems really: one is the jank, and one is repetition.
Despite everything added, it sometimes feels a bit rough. Graphical improvements are welcome, and it doesn’t look bad, but when your character stops and starts in a weird judder, and then sort of falls up a kerb, it is jarring.
And even with the new equipment and expanded career, you’re still going to spend an enormous amount of time driving backwards and forwards cutting grass. Some of the bigger contracts can outstay their welcome, particularly when you’re hunting for that final tiny patch you’ve somehow missed. If the basic idea doesn’t appeal to you, nothing here is going to change your mind. Powerwash 2 learned that this frustration in the first game could go a long way towards enjoyment once fixed. The developers here didn’t quite get the memo.
Lawn Mowing Simulator 2 isn’t trying to be exciting. It’s a game I can put on when I don’t particularly want to concentrate on a complicated story or spend an evening getting destroyed in Arc Raiders. I can stick something on in the background, mow a few lawns and watch my business gradually grow. It’s repetitive, occasionally tedious and absolutely not going to appeal to everyone.
But I also can’t deny that looking back at a lawn I’ve just spent half an hour meticulously cutting and seeing perfectly straight stripes is ridiculously satisfying.
It’s a bigger and better sequel that understands exactly why people enjoyed the original. And it’s still more fun than mowing my actual, real-life lawn.
Reviewed on Xbox Series X
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