The first DLC for Barn Finders, titled Amerykan Dream, adds a few new maps full of new items for players to salvage with their Uncle Billy. Barn Finders takes place on Ameryka, an alien planet similar to the United States. Similar to games like House Flipper, Barn Finders has players explore abandoned barns and bid on abandoned storage units to find treasures they can fix up and sell in their pawnshop. In the background, an Agent named Agent investigates signs of alien activity in these various abandoned places.
The core gameplay of Barn Finders can at first be addicting as players interact with the various environmental objects to find items hidden in the deepest corners of any building. However, Barn Finders fails to keep players' attention too long. Repetitive stages, a lack of difficulty or challenge, and tedious activities like washing, fixing, and assembling items can get old rather quickly. While it is possible to return to previous maps and find a few new objects, generally once players clear a mission, there is little reason to return to that map. The Barn Finders Amerykan Dream DLC offers three new stages and a new storage auction in the spirit of Storage Wars that attempt to extend the lifespan of the base game.
Unfortunately, despite adding some new content, Barn Finders Amerykan Dream is incredibly short. Depending on how quickly players explore each stage, the DLC only contains around two hours of content. Gameplay is almost entirely the same as it is in the base game, with no added challenges or encounters to spice up the formula. Players search the stages for job items, clear away recyclables for money, destroy junk for resources that can be used to repair broken items, and collect treasures to transport and sell.
There are a few simple puzzles players can solve to access job items and hidden areas, like putting together a playlist on the jukebox of a diner based on records hanging on the walls to access an underground bunker. There are numerous hints toward the solutions for these puzzles, but they are not particularly difficult to begin with. The new mechanic requiring players to spray and pacify swarms of bees and destroy the hives to move freely about the map is an interesting idea. However, it is extremely simplistic and only applies to DLC stages, which feels like a missed opportunity to have introduced new obstacles and unexpected encounters in the game's early stages.
The story holding the Barn Finders Amerykan Dream DLC together is flimsy at best and nonexistent at worst. Players explore the three stages on the instruction of a younger version of Uncle Billy, who, after drinking moonshine with the player, urges them to chase their own Amerykan Dream and get rich. As players are already doing that in the base game, this plot falls somewhat flat. Additionally, none of the jobs and stages in the DLC really relate to one another. While Barn Finders is not a particularly plot-driven game, this lack of direction harms the content overall and makes it seem like something that could have been added to the base game as a free patch rather than a paid DLC.
For players who enjoyed the base game, Barn Finders Amerykan Dream offers more of the same. There are new opportunities to explore abandoned buildings and bid on valuable storage units, more ways to earn quick money, and a few new puzzles to solve. Like the base game, however, this DLC lacks the challenges, length, and variety needed to maintain player momentum and increase replayability. It feels like developer Duality Games missed an opportunity to introduce more new mechanics and deeper, varied challenges to Barn Finders, and without much extra content in this DLC, it's difficult to justify the price. Barn Finders Amerykan Dream currently sells for $11.99 USD on Steam, where the base game goes for $19.99. While fans of Barn Finders looking for something new to do in-game will most likely enjoy Amerykan Dream, it may be worth waiting for a really good sale to check out this DLC.
Barn Finders Amerykan Dream is available for PC. Screen Rant was provided a Steam code for the purpose of this review.