Slime Rancher 2 Review (Gaffu)
6/10
It's Slime Rancher but with better graphics and some new minor mechanics.
It really doesn't add much to the formula, and one of the thing that it adds isn't very good (resources).
One would expect the sequel of the game to add more freedom, more experimentation or something that would add to the gameplay, but as of today, it is almost as vanilla as it can be.
It may be a plus for some people, but for me it's more of a downer than anything, still it is an enjoyable game.
And adding on the materials thing, it is wrongly implemented, you just go farming predetermined spots of resources like its Runescape for minor changes on your equipment, and not even for something that we haven't experienced in the previous game, so the reward feeling is minimal. But worst even, is that if you focus on upgrading something of your equipment, but you can't find the resources because you already farmed them, you just have to wait until they respawn and that, added to the before mentioned, makes the whole mechanic not so enjoyable.
I would've loved something more sandbox oriented, a lot more of freedom, maybe even having to manually build the ranch, that's one of the ways I can see the gameplay loop not becoming so repetitive.
Or something more RPG, having slime bosses to unlock new areas, and equipment.
Even something metroidvania like, having more platforming and puzzles, and unlocking specific equipment to being able to pass those challenges by crafting it with slime rare drops that you get if your slimes are very happy.
Also an extra that could be easily fixed, is that gold becomes too abundant and you get no use for it because you full upgrade your ranch super fast. In this type of games usually the resource management of things and grinding hard but rewarding updates for the base is usually a core gameplay mechanic.
Still, it's on early access, it has been 14 of the 18 months they estimated for 1.0, the game isn't bad, and still has content to come, for that reason I give it a good review. Personally I feel this game as a "Meh".