Dev: Monomi Park
Publisher: Monomi Park
Origional Release Date: January 14 2016
There is a certain style and vein of games that I’d classify as the relaxation genre. They’re often of simple, easy to play games that often let you just kinda zone out and enjoy them while listening or doing other things. Slime Rancher is a part of this genre in my opinion, and it’s really adorable and fun to boot.
The basic story of this game so far is very simple. For reasons that are unknown at the start, you’ve set off on your own and purchased a slime ranch on some unknown world. Equipped with your trusty vacuum gun and some determination you set out to make yourself a fortune while exploring this strange slimy world.
As you explore and gather various slimes up you’ll occasionally come across a few interesting things. This can range from something as simple as some new fruits or veggies, to the massive and incredibly adorable Gordo Slimes.
These gargantuan slimes need as much food as possible, feed them their specified food and eventually they’ll burst. Once they do you have the chance to get a few rewards for freeing them. Aside from the splitting into a bunch of smaller versions of themselves, they can and often do drop 2 boxes that can house rare fruits or veggies, as well as some extra money for your trouble. On top of all this they have the chance to split apart into either a teleporter or a slime key.
The teleport will more often than not lead back to your ranch in some capacity, or on the flip side it can be a teleporter that will take you off to a portion of the slimey world that is far away, or impossible to access otherwise.
On the flip-side, the Slime key, in a way, is similar to the teleporter in what it gives you. The slime key after acquiring it will sit inside your inventory and, with some exploration, you will stumble upon this big ancient doorways, using your slime key on them will unlock the gateway, giving you access to an entire new zone to explore.
With a new zone now open to you, comes new slimes, new fruits veggies, and adorable hen hen and roostero’s to collect. As you explore the zone you’ll come across more Gordo’s and doorways, and the process rinses and repeats until you have the whole world opened up for you.
In order to progress in this game, it will require you to put in some good ol hard work back at your Ranch. You’ll need to pen up these new and crazy slimes, as well as buy expansions to your humble ranch. Don’t worry if you think your going to be stuck on your own when figuring all this out though. The game has a handy little thing called the Slimepedia. With each slime, hen hen, fruit and veggie you find this Slimepedia gets updated with new information. So don’t worry you’ll always have that to refer to if you can’t remember the preferences of a slime!
These expansions can include a dock, an overgrown jungle, a science/experimentation hut, and a dark murky crystal cavern. Each has it’s own uses and benefits for what you’ll more than likely end up using them for.
As the world opens up to you, and you come across increasingly stranger and more valuable slimes, you will occasionally get messages from someone claiming to know you. There is a sort of sad story within these simple messages and I highly recommend reading them.
While I played through slime rancher I often discovered something fairly surprising for an early access title. The game runs as smooth as butter for me. It managed to stay well over 60fps, though it did have moments where it struggled, though this was mostly due to the large number of slimes, and items scattered about giving my CPU a run for its moneys.
At the end of the day Slime Rancher is a very cute and adorable game that’s nice to play while you’re trying to relax. It has enough depth to be interesting on its own and as time goes on and it’s development continues it only serves to get better.
Slime Rancher can be found on Steam for 19.99$ USD or your regional equivalent.
Gamer's Elegy 