Monomi Park

Published: 2 August, 2017

Genres: Exploration, Adventure, Management, Sandbox

Estimated Game Length: 14 hours

The game

If I were to think of a wholesome exploration game in under a minute, then Slime Rancher would be the first thought that comes to mind. With the colourful range of slimes, beautiful locations, and entertaining quests, it's hard not to love this game.

You start your adventure as Beatrix Lebeau, a young rancher looking for business a thousand light years away from Earth. On the planet 'Far, Far Range' — a land inhabited by slimes — you seize the chance to collect, transform, and harvest these slimes in exchange for currency.

The Positives

Addictive gameplay. The core concept of the game is simple: capture slimes, feed them, and harvest the resources they produce. Despite this straightforward cycle, the game keeps you craving more. With plenty of ranch upgrades to unlock and slimes to discover, it's easy to obsess over this cycle until you find yourself with too many resources—but still hungry for more.

Perfect stress reliever. From what I said beforehand, you may interpret the game as overwhelming; however, it is anything but. Slime Rancher is made to be the game that you control. There are no deadlines and no specific pathways to take—this is your adventure. You're free to mess around and do whatever, even as far as throwing the slimes a hoop as a minigame.

Diverse slime combinations. A large aspect of this game involves harvesting the slimes' resources for currency, and that means another aspect lies in combining highly valued slimes into one. To do this, you must feed one slime a slime resource of your choice, then it will become a hybrid of the other slime. Capturing rare slimes becomes more rewarding when you know the hybrids you create are uniquely yours.

The Negatives

Anticlimactic ending. While it is insignificant to the gameplay, it becomes clear that the developer team's skillset lies in the player's entertainment once you see the ending. The final area's beautifully dangerous environment was a perfect setup to wrap up the journey, only for the ending to be weak in comparison. It's clear that the journey was the team's focus, while the ending was an afterthought—and it's a shame that it didn't receive the same care.

Limited rewards. In addition to the lacklustre ending, the aftergame rewards become dissatisfying. For players who completed the majority of the gameplay before seeing the ending, it's easy to feel unmotivated to progress further. While there are new challenges and upgrades after the ending, they all lead to the same road. They give you an item to either sell or farm, but both options lead to increasing your currency. Then what comes next?

Overall

Slime Rancher does suffer from the same issue that other games have, which is a lack of consideration for the endgame, but that doesn't change the times I enjoyed the game. I still deem the game to be challenging, exciting, and especially adorable. An endgame issue is a small one on the large scale of things—an issue that is easily fixed.