Slime Rancher – Overview

EPIC Games Store has continue to bribe us with its free games trying to compete with Steam, Origin and others now with another title – Slime Rancher!

I haven't heard about this game since few days ago when it was announced that it will be set for free on EPIC Games Store for two whole weeks! At first glance i was not that interested into the game but after half an hour playing it totaly got my attention.

Slime Rancher is, i dare to say, a cute/adorable first person „shooter“ sandbox game where you play as a Beatrix LeBeau who is a young rancher who set out for a life a thousand light years away from Earth on the planet “Far, Far Range“.



The story about the game is short and somewhat similar as it is in all other farming games. There was a famous rancher Hobson Twillger who has passed his ranch on to you, and your goal is to get it back up to its old fame and run it while you discover the hidden secrets and interesting slimey monsters around this mysterious planet and dominate the Plort Market.

There is something special in befriending and populating slimes on your farm that is growing every day with them. After couple of hours playing the game, it would probably get very boring to some people even though there is always some action and problems around the farm like slime escaping, attacking or just making huuuuge mess on your farm.



Player is equiped with the VacPack that does almost everying. As the name says it is some kind of a vacuum that you can use to vacuum up the majority of items and the creatures also. Weather it is vegtables or a group of slimes, or even a mysterious treasures that i was lucky enough to find, all of them can be stored inside the VacPack so you can take them back to your farm.

World is very interesting and colorful. Graphicaly, the game reminds me a bit of an old Playstation 2 games but with a modern look to it. Every new area of the world has its own seasonal feel and they are unlockable with a substantial amount of currency.

The slimey creatures will occasionaly try to escape and eat your chickens and vegtables, so you would have to buy upgrades to increase the height of the enclosures, or calm the slimes with music because they would othervise cannibalise one another. Thankfully those upgrades don't cost a lot, so you can pretty much do almost everything at the beginning of the game. You can breed two slimes together for unique varieties, all with their own temperaments and dietary requirements.



There are few things i didn't like in the game and one of them is that the inventory space is limited at first until you get upgrades, and another thing that i didn't like was the fact that many times you can accidentally absorb many objects that you didn't want to vacuum with your VacPack. Still, those are not that much of a problem, the biggest problem is that the Slime Rancher is all about the grind...

Is the game worth it? For free definatly yes, but for €15 no way...

Pros:
- adorable visuals
- upgrades and customisations are addictive to achieve
- cool world, lots of things to discover

Cons:
- can get boring after a while
- grinding

I give it 3.5 stars out of 5 :)

Thanks! I was considering if I should play it.