Slime Rancher is a 2017 first-person shooter life simulation video game developed and published by Monomi Park, released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, and Xbox One. The story follows Beatrix LeBeau, a plucky, young rancher who sets out for a life a thousand light years away from Earth on the ‘Far, Far Range’ where she tries her hand at making a living wrangling slimes.

Positives:

• Good graphics
• Good music
• Fun gameplay
• Fun open-world
• Lots of content
• Lots of exploration

Negatives:

• n/a

Campaign:  The game is played in an open world and from a first-person perspective.  The story follows players as Beatrix LeBeau, a rancher who moves to a planet far from Earth called the Far Far Range to live the life of a “slime rancher”.  The story is not really deep but the aspect of building Beatrix’s ranch is a fun story.  We get little tidbits from the former owner of the rancher and his experiences in Far Far Range.

If I had a problem with the game it would be the lack of exposition of the characters.  There are some pretty interesting characters whom you really only communicate with through email or on the computer.  Beatrix has a friend named Casey who emails her often and it’s nice to see that our heroine has had a life on Earth.  This gives a lot of great depth to the character and where she’s come from.

The campaign is actually pretty solid and I’ve easily clocked in thirty plus and still have a ton of exploring to do.  (4 out of 5)

Gameplay: Players construct their ranch and explore the environment, in order to collect, raise, feed and breed gelatinous living organisms called slimes.  Players feed slimes the appropriate food items so that they produce “plorts”, which can then be sold in exchange for Newbucks, the currency required to purchase upgrades to the rancher’s equipment or farm buildings.

Slimes come in various sizes, shapes, and characteristics.  Different types of slimes can be combined and enlarged by feeding a slime a plort from another species, making them noticeably larger and able to produce multiple plorts.  However, if a slime combines more than three traits by eating two different plorts, it becomes an aggressive malevolent black slime called the “Tarr”, which devours all other slimes around it. The player can pump fresh water from ponds and springs to splash and disintegrate the Tarrs.

The player moves the character around a variety of environments, and can collect slimes, food items and plorts by sucking them up with their vacuum tool called a “Vacpack”.  They can only store a limited number of items and item types at a time and must go back to their ranch to unload their collected items before being able to collect more. Players can buy and upgrade various enclosures to house their collected slimes and upgrade the character’s home, and vacuum. (5 out of 5)

Graphics/Visuals: Visually thus is a really vibrant game.  Everything from the different environments to the slime themselves is designed with simple yet bright designs that make for a cartoonish-look. The levels are pretty diverse with great attention to the models, textures and lighting. The slimes themselves are really adorable. (5 out of 5)

Score/Music: A simple yet enthralling melody, the game has a really “smooth” soundtrack. There have been plenty of times where I just let the menu play just so I could listen to the ranch theme. The sound design is definitely good. The slimes have this really adorable bubbly notice when they’re hopping around and interacting with things. (4 out of 5)

Replay Value:  Most of the game’s replayability comes from its exploration and maintenance of your farm.  There are several large areas for players to explore with plenty of hidden paths to find, pods with special resources to unlock, and slimes to capture.

Players have the ability to customize their ranch any way they see fit.  The plots can be used for corrals (where players house their slimes), gardens (where players grow their crops), coops (where players raise chickens and hens), ponds, silos, and furnaces.

Also, there are requests from other ranchers for specific resources and slimes which can be searched for and can give access to rare resources which can be utilized to make a more efficient ranch.

There is a lot of great content that is helps flesh out the world that can be found in the slimepedia (an in-game encyclopedia for those who haven’t caught on).  The slimepedia is separated into six sections which are the slimes (gives information on slimes encountered throughout the game), resources (gives information about the numerous plorts and food types, ranch (the different sections of the ranch and what their purpose is), tutorials (information about how the game is played), the world (gives information about the setting), and slime science (gives information on the various gadgets that can be crafted).

At one point in the game, players can even customize their slimes.  So this game has a lot in terms of replayability. (5 out of 5)

The Verdict: In the end, Slime Rancher is a simple but surprisingly addictive game.  There are hardly any problems with the game outside of the repetitiveness and backtracking.  However, the game stands tall in terms of its fun gameplay, brilliant graphics, great music, high playtime, and depth of content.  Slime Rancher gets 5 out of 5.