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Always remember to use your head, but let your heart do the thinkin' every now and again. It might surprise you.


Introduction

Slime Rancher is a superbly well-written exploration adventure of a young rancher who leaves Earth on a thousand-light-year journey to a strange land but develops a keen understanding of love, loss, life and death as she explores the land of Far, Far Range.


🟩 Positives
🟥 Negatives


🟩 An excellent story that captivates both heart and imagination.
🟩 Plenty of slimes and combinations to try out that your creativity will seem almost boundless.
🟩 A surprisingly large amount of things to do in the world coupled with a strong core gameplay mechanic.
🟩 The beautiful art style that masterfully counterparts a serene and soothing soundtrack.
🟥 The vacpack you use as your primary tool only has four available spaces. Travelling far distances can quickly become tedious when you run out of room.



Story

You experience this journey as Beatrix LeBeau, who is a would-be slime rancher arriving on the Far, Far Range after a thousand-light-year voyage from Earth.
Throughout the game, as you progress across the many biomes available to explore, you start to receive mail from her love interest back on Earth, named Casey, who begins to tell you a story of their time together and what ultimately provoked Beatrix to leave.
To contrast the above obviously doomed-to-fail love story of Beatrix and Casey, you discover messages left behind by Hobson, the former owner of Far, Far Range, that tell you his tale of saying goodbye and how he fell in love and where that all eventually guided him.
Slime Rancher warmed my heart and provoked thoughts of a brighter tomorrow. These emotions have been harder and harder to experience in the past few months and to travel on this journey just when I needed it was simply sublime. The writing is impeccable, and the messages are meaningful, with pacing that ensures you are calm and relaxed the entire way through.

Gameplay Analysis

Exploration, but with a twist.
Slime Rancher isn't a simple farm game. At its very heart, it is built around exploration and discovery. Equipped with your all-purpose tool, the Vacpack, you will be required to bring back all sorts of things from all corners of the Range and use them to upgrade your farm. These can vary from slimes of all kinds to plorts (the reason you farm slimes at all) and even raw materials you will need to complete science experiments and construct gadgets.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2879323871
The vacpack only has four slots, but these slots are upgradeable and can store more of each item as you progress, but again only four items total, ever. Running out of space can be frustrating as there can be quite a considerable distance between the start and end of the game, and running out of room can become quite a time-consuming venture.
Something strange in your neighbourhood.
The entire reason anyone would want to farm slimes is because of a thing called Plorts. Plorts are shiny shards that resemble the slime they come from that are generated when a slime has been fed food within its diet.
These can then get traded on the ranch for profit, and thus the life of a slime rancher begins.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2879324385
The further away from the ranch you travel, the more rare and valuable the slimes you discover will be, so travelling is more than just for exploration it will also help you actually progress the campaign and improve your ability to make money.
On top of the already significant abundance of slimes in the game, you have the opportunity to create hybrid slimes called Largos. These are formed when a regular slime of any type eats a plort of a different slime, it will then become the hybridisation of the plort it ate and its original form. This is a great way to farm multiple plort types in a single pen.
A farmer's life for me.
Living on Far, Far Range is more than just exploration and farming slimes, it is about science, experimentation and creativity. Almost every facet of the farm is amendable, which allows you to choose where you place your crops, and pens are entirely up to you. You can make your farm as pretty as a picture or as efficient as a factory floor. The choice is entirely your own.
This is further progressive by unlocking different inventions through scientific discovery once you open the lab on the ranch. You quickly begin to utilise your materials in new and interesting ways and improve your quality of life immeasurably through the use of gadgets that you can place across your farm.

Audio and Visual

Slime Rancher did not just captivate me with its incredible storyline and charming gameplay. It resonated through my entire being with its stunning art style that seemed to only deepen in complexity as the story drove onward. With every new awakening of the plot, the world would change to encompass it.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2879323812
This is entirely true of the soundtrack, as it evolves in perfect symbiosis with the story and biome transition. How the music plays with your emotions and unfurls upon the new realms of exploration is simply magical. Unfortunately, the animation sounds and overall atmospheric audio lacks any diversity.

PC Performance and Specifications

I did not see my framerate dip below 60 FPS for the whole campaign with settings as high as they go at 2560 x 1440 resolution.
RAM: 32GB (Under Load Usage: 33%)
CPU: i9 10900KA 3.70GHz (Under Load Usage: 19.7%)
GPU: MSI Ventus RTX 3080 (Under Load Usage: 41%)

Final Thoughts - Excellent

Review chart here.
A near-perfect score. This game absolutely blew me away beyond expectation and beyond reason. This game is more than just a game. It is a genuine experience that has changed the way I see lots of things in my life, and I sincerely hope I can hold onto this feeling for as long as I can. Slime Rancher is a must-play experience regardless of price.
If farming slimes with Beatrix didn’t bring peace to your weary heart, traveller. Head on over to Hell, Purgatory and Paradise to experience something truly out of this world.