SLIME Rancher takes the survival exploration gameplay that dominates open world games and drops the survival.
I caught my first glimpse of Slime Rancher near the beginning of its early access run and bought it a few months from its official release. What is it? It’s a whole lot of farming of wild blob-like creatures (slimes) and food while using a vacuum gun through a day and night cycle to earn money. The catch is that there is no pressure.
THE game starts by informing you that you, Beatrix LeBeau, have journeyed to the Far Far Range, 1,000 light-years from earth and quickly spawns you first person, vacpack (vacuum gun) in hand on your ranch. The gun is easy-to-learn: collect and release things. You can collect slimes, slime droppings (extremely valuable rocks), food to feed your slimes, and eventually upgrade it to carry water. You can also sprint and jump, the usual stuff in a first-person game. The machinery with green lights, visible even you haven't moved the camera much, indicates you spawned in a peaceful area, encouraging playing around. Look around in any direction and you’ll find slimes, pink and bouncing, food, and possibly chickadoos (baby chickens), all in your ranch. Spin around and you’ll find your house. You are clearly at home, somewhere you get the sense you’ll be a lot. There are open plots to make secure spaces for your slimes that you probably aim to collect and it is extremely easy to understand how they work. After you gather and feed a slime, it drops the rock that you feed to a conversion machine that gives you money for it. Really that’s much of the game and it’s such a peaceful slice of the core gameplay, find and feed slimes. That’s it. There’s nothing pressuring you to achieve anything beyond this except your own willingness to discover the larger world.
THE presence of a larger world is evident from the very beginning. The machine that converts plorts (slime droppings)—there are a lot of terms—into money displays a crazy amount of plorts to be found. Entering your house will show you that you’ve got mail about upgrading your vacpack. The limits of your ranch are locked, but purchasable, and the area behind your house is all water. That creates a funnel that leads you in the only initial direction out of the ranch, which is a hallway that opens up again to the expanse called the Dry Reef, one of many areas to discover. Welcome to the world. There are more types of wild slimes and food, and you can walk straight past them into another area also filled with different slimes and food. These areas have side pockets and hidden paths. Initially, I wrote a section that outlined the dispersion of certain creatures and items among the very first few areas, but I took it out as to not rob anyone that appreciates those moments of wonder. Take it like this, every small thing I discovered made me feel like it was just the beginning of something cooler to find down the path. The game tempts you to learn about its wildlife as you venture further out. A rickety bridge, an ominous door, it's all in the name of exploration and discovery.
PERHAPS, my favorite aspect of this game is that there is no pressure in finding out what's out there. You’re not the warrior that needs to explore these lands in order to save them. You’re the farmer that wants to make the most of your stay here on the Far Far Range. Go when you feel like it. Maybe there’s a map. Maybe there's slime breeding. And perhaps farming is essential to preventing the chicken uprising. Either way, it's always a good day on the ranch.
 |
| Home on the ranch |
 |
| This is when stuff starts getting supremely weird and fun |
THE presence of a larger world is evident from the very beginning. The machine that converts plorts (slime droppings)—there are a lot of terms—into money displays a crazy amount of plorts to be found. Entering your house will show you that you’ve got mail about upgrading your vacpack. The limits of your ranch are locked, but purchasable, and the area behind your house is all water. That creates a funnel that leads you in the only initial direction out of the ranch, which is a hallway that opens up again to the expanse called the Dry Reef, one of many areas to discover. Welcome to the world. There are more types of wild slimes and food, and you can walk straight past them into another area also filled with different slimes and food. These areas have side pockets and hidden paths. Initially, I wrote a section that outlined the dispersion of certain creatures and items among the very first few areas, but I took it out as to not rob anyone that appreciates those moments of wonder. Take it like this, every small thing I discovered made me feel like it was just the beginning of something cooler to find down the path. The game tempts you to learn about its wildlife as you venture further out. A rickety bridge, an ominous door, it's all in the name of exploration and discovery.
 |
| Looks like a good day to build up the ranch. |
PERHAPS, my favorite aspect of this game is that there is no pressure in finding out what's out there. You’re not the warrior that needs to explore these lands in order to save them. You’re the farmer that wants to make the most of your stay here on the Far Far Range. Go when you feel like it. Maybe there’s a map. Maybe there's slime breeding. And perhaps farming is essential to preventing the chicken uprising. Either way, it's always a good day on the ranch.
 |
| Look at them, PLOTTING |
- Ben R.
Player of games
Player of games
Comments
Post a Comment