By: Vincent Justin Mitra
In this off-the-beaten-path game full of action, adventure, and strange but cute creatures, players take on the role of Beatrix LeBeau, the new owner of a ranch in an area of a distant planet known as the Far, Far Range. The planet is home to a wide variety of slimes who are farmed for their extremely useful and valuable “plorts,” little gem-shaped resources that slimes produce after being fed.
The slimes themselves are rather diverse. They’re generally the size of a basketball or a beach ball, and have a range of quirks, such as the firefly-like Phosphor Slime who only comes out at night, or the explosive Boom Slime. The slimes live in different areas of the Far, Far Range so you’ll need to explore if you want to find the cutest or most economically valuable slimes for your farm.
Other than the wandering slimes and assorted chickens, the player is entirely alone in their explorations, adding to the sense of trailblazing and pioneering as they tame the wild frontier. Occasionally the player will come across messages from a man named Hobson Twillgers, the eccentric former owner of the ranch. In the messages, Twillgers fondly describes a given area or a particular variety of slime, and offers advice on how to proceed. This provides a brief bit of backstory and is the closest thing the game has to a guiding hand.
The game is incredibly calming. It’s like puppy therapy if the puppies were blobs of goo and you could sell their poop. Everything from the pastoral settings, to the bright colour palette, to the cute slimes, to the relaxing solitude of movement helps contribute to a sense of peace. The slimes that populate the areas outside the ranch are mostly content to hop around, bumping into each other and eating. The game also lets you set your own pace, giving you goals and puzzles to solve, but no pressure as to when they need to be done.
The little details in the environment further add to the enjoyment. Things like the sounds of chickens clucking nearby, or the tittering of slimes as they hop around, and even the bloops and plunks your Luigi’s Mansion-style vacuum pack makes as it sucks things up or shoots things out are super satisfying.
Slime Rancher is not the next Halo. It isn’t Call of Duty, or Grand Theft Auto, or League of Legends, or even one of the big ticket sports games like FIFA. There’s a lot of those, and people who want them know where to find them. Slime Rancher is a nice, relaxing, visually appealing game that is perfect for whenever you’ve had a long day and need to decompress. It’s a game that feels good.
Following its early access release in 2016, Slime Rancher had its full release on August 1.
