Slime Rancher

[GamingGal]

So I recently bought this game on Steam for $19.99 and it's pretty darn cute. One of the reviewers said it's the best antidepressant on the market, and I gotta agree with that The main premise is you catch and farm these little things called Slimes, which are little balls of, well, slime. They come in all different varieties and can be combined to make hybrids. Combine too many, though, and you create a Tarr, which is a bad Slime that eats and destroys everything. You're in the shoes of this rancher who just got to the Far, Far Range and is settling in and building a ranch for herself.

It's still in Early Access, but the devs seem to be improving it constantly and I just joined the forums to provide my feedback. I downloaded the game about 4 hours ago and I've already accomplished most of what I want and explored everything. So, yeah, a bit short right now, but definitely worth the money. I foresee it growing into something awesome.

Also have a video of their trailer

 

 

 

Edited February 1, 2016 by GamingGal

[sarnarus]

no thanks, if i cant spend hours upon hours grinding for no reason then how will i neglect my problems?

[GamingGal]

Let the cuteness wash away all those problems :3 Seriously, they make the cutest fucking noises. And even though I'm maxed out on things to do currently, it's still fun to run around and explore and do things.

[Misomie]

I've been watching a lp of it. Definitely going to get it when I get a new comp~

[GamingGal]

@Misomie Watching a LP is what got me into it as well. My laptop doesn't have the best specs in the world (mainly the shitty CPU >.>), but I'm able to run it on the lowest setting, which the game still looks really good on.

[GamingGal]

@Rhíulchabán I was leery of paying $20 for it, but I had cash in my Steam wallet already, so that lessened the pain

I was a big fan of Monster Rancher (the GBA version, Advanced 2), and this isn't exactly like this. Not sure what to compare this to, actually. A little like Harvest Moon and Viva Pinate had a baby? Allow me to explain.

You have a ranch and it's your job to collect Plorts, which are created by Slimes, and sell them for money. You find Slimes in the wild; they pop up like daisies and live happy lives eating whatever's around them and producing Plorts. You collect these Slimes (via a machine similar to what Luigi uses in Luigi's Mansion) and raise them on your ranch much like livestock. You make pens, feed them, and collect the Plorts they produce. Raising plain Slimes, though, isn't profitable, but raising Largos is. A Largo is a Slime that has consumed a Plort unlike the one it produces: a Pink Slime that eats a Tabby Plort will become a Pink Tabby Largo. Largos produce Plorts of each type of Slime they are. While this is profitable, it's also dangerous. If a Largo eats a Plort that isn't like the ones it produces, it will become a Tarr, which is a black goo Slime that destroys everything. And so you begin the precarious game of farming Largos but not creating the destructive Tarrs. Can you do it? Or will you become overrun?

Anyways, the game was fun. It got a bit tedious in the beginning with the running around gathering things, but a few upgrades quickly fixed that and made it a lot more bearable. It was challenging in that it was a lot of running around and ground to cover to get things done. Say I need a Honey Slime, I have to go all the way to the other end of the island (luckily they have a few teleport pads that allow you to go back to the ranch, but sadly none to go to places from the ranch). It was also challenging in the whole raising of the Slimes. You have the corrals you keep them in, but without some upgrades (which in the beginning are expensive) Slimes can easily escape and, say, eat all your veggies in the garden or all your chickens from the coop, or even mix to create Largos and potentially Tarrs. Once you are able to upgrade some corrals and get a steady supply of food via gardens or coops, you're pretty much golden from there on out and difficulty dies down a lot, back down to the tedious run-here-get-that kinda thing. It was still fun and cute, though, and there is plenty of room for different save files. Some people have different game files for different self-made challenges like a no-corral game or farming-only-pinks game. I haven't done that yet, but mainly because I like the order and calm I have going.

The game also has a lot of features that I'm interested in seeing expanded. There are already parts of the map laid out for future release that will include new Slimes/veggies/fruits/etc. The existing Zones will soon be more fleshed out as well as more interconnected I believe. The machine you sell Plorts to functions like a stock exchange in that the prices for different Plorts rises/falls each day, and I'm hoping they expand on this. There's also hope that they add more Largos or even allow for actual hybrids to appear that are totally different from the two original Slimes they were made from. Currently on the forum there are a lot of user suggestions for new Slimes and new Zones, so I'm expecting the game will grow exponentially and become it's own little world. It's easy right now because it's so small, but I'm expecting it to become harder and harder. Not like....mlg360noscope hard, but more strategic.

Sorry for the wall of text. I tend to do that ^^;

[Kinare]

I'd love a game like this, but a tad more serious. Just a tad, though, not quite as hardcore and real-feeling as Ark. I'd like many different critters, many combinations possible, and some enemies to fight - just casual silly fun the whole time but with a bit more to it. This looks a little interesting as is, but I honestly wouldn't consider even paying $10 for it. If they really went all out with these slimes though and made it feel like I basically had a bunch of different critters then that would be a different story and $10 would be cheap at that point. I don't think that's their goal here, though.

[Misomie]

My computer is literal trash though. Half the time it refuses to accept the headphone jack and it registers the mouse as double clicking a majority of the time. It also doesn't save updated software and insists the software was never updated even though it's been dpwnloaded over ten times. I'd rather not make the computer do anything it will fail at, lol. 

[Zytan]

Put 60 pink slimes in the first corral, 10/10 would throw a tarr in again

[GamingGal]

1 hour ago, Zytan said:

Put 60 pink slimes in the first corral, 10/10 would throw a tarr in again

I almost had an awful Tarr outbreak today. I have The Overgrowth unlocked and decided to let Tabbys free-roam in there since there are a hella ton of chickens for food. Well, I was trying to remove my Rock Honey Largos and one may have accidentally gotten ahold of a Tabby plort and turned into a Tarr.....and there may have been mass chaos as I attempted to throw them all in the river. Ended up with one lone Tabby survivor and no chickens >.> But! I saved the rest of my ranch!

[Zytan]

17 minutes ago, GamingGal said:

I almost had an awful Tarr outbreak today. I have The Overgrowth unlocked and decided to let Tabbys free-roam in there since there are a hella ton of chickens for food. Well, I was trying to remove my Rock Honey Largos and one may have accidentally gotten ahold of a Tabby plort and turned into a Tarr.....and there may have been mass chaos as I attempted to throw them all in the river. Ended up with one lone Tabby survivor and no chickens >.> But! I saved the rest of my ranch!

Haha, typical of cats to crap everywhere.  I'll have to update it and have a gander, it was quite limited last time I played.  Wonder if they'll add some kind of automatic food dispenser, would be nice to have rock hens automatically move to a tabby corral when there's >5 or so in the coop.