Slime Ranching Goodness for the Whole Family

Every once in awhile a completely random game will come along that surprises you.  I was casually perusing a list on Steam and found Slime Rancher.  I was skeptical at first--the slimes just looked too goofy, it looked like a kids game, it is early access--the reasons not to buy it were clearly stacked.  So, I turned to the reviews and they were shockingly good--overwhelmingly positive and people were raving about it.  After playing it for awhile and getting my ranch up and running I can say that the positive reviews are justified.  The rave reviews....maybe not so much.

The entire idea behind Slime Rancher is that you are a novice slime wrangler trying to make your fortune.  Many varieties of slimes inhabit the world where your ranch is located and it's your job to capture them.  As you explore you come across different species of wild slimes that roam around eating and producing "plorts."  These plorts are a valuable commodity and can be turned in for coins.  Using your handy "vac-pack" you can suck up slimes, plorts, chickens, and food resources (slimes gotta eat!).  Once you've captured some slimes you can take them back to your ranch and work on creating corrals to keep them contained.  Corralled slimes need to be fed and will produce plorts whenever they eat.  You can then collect these plorts and sell them at the market that is handily located on your ranch.

My slime corrals in Slime Rancher.

After you've gathered and corralled your first slimes you can work on gathering food stockpiles and then start experimenting.  Two species of slimes can be combined to create a "largo" slime that combines the dietary needs and physical appearance of both species.  Largo slimes will also produce plorts belonging to each of the two species of slimes.  I started off with the basic pink slimes and then crossbred them with rock slimes.  As the plorts start rolling in you can improve your corrals by adding higher walls, a ceiling, or even some music speakers to keep your slimes calm.

With your corrals improved and your slimes happily producing plorts, you can set out to explore the wider world.  You will discover new species of slimes and unique resources to get your slimes producing even more plorts.  Each slime has a favorite food that will make it produce double plorts.  These foods are somewhat rare and must be discovered.  You will also discover locked doors that require a key.  Slime keys can be found by feeding "gordo" slimes until they explode.  Once you've found a key you can unlock a unique zone that holds different species of slimes that can be vacced and taken back to your ranch for corralling.  There are several different zones--a rocky mine, a lush forest, a volcanic crater, and a sandy beach.

Your ranch can be improved to grow crops and once you've gotten enough plorts you can purchase expansions which add new areas with additional space.  Once your ranch has reached a lucrative state you can purchase the slime science addition which allows you to build new items like teleporters and decorative items to spruce up the appearance of your ranch.  You can also continue to improve your characters health, energy, vac-pack, or to upgrade plots on your ranch.  Eventually you will run out of things to do...that's the downside.

I Enjoyed:
--Cute slimes.  Players want to explore to find all the different types scattered around the world.
--Easy to pick up and understand with a limited tutorial.
--Bright, colorful world.
--Management aspect is simple, but someone could spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to maximize profits.
--Family appropriate.  It would be completely safe for your kids to play Slime Rancher.  The most violent thing they will do is shoot water at evil slimes known as "tarrs."
--Hidden objects and areas encourage exploration.  There are treasure pods scattered around the world that can be unlocked once the correct upgrade is purchased.  The challenge is finding them and remembering where they are located.
--Slime science upgrade offers convenient and fun items.  Teleporters cut down on long trips to each zone and adds in decorative items for the ranch.

Needs Improvement:
--It's a small world after all.  For an early access game there is a fair bit of content and by all appearances it looks like the intent is to add more zones.  Once you unlocked all the zones there isn't much keeping you exploring.
--Can get repetitive and grindy.  Once you've wrangled up and corralled a collective of slimes you fall into a definite pattern of feeding, collecting, growing, and other ranch related tasks.  With slime science gathering rare resources requires you to travel to the unique zones (easier for some zones than others) and slowly grind out new items.  It'll keep you playing if you want to build everything.  It would be great if they could add some random events that would encourage leaving the ranch more--something like weather events that feature certain rare slimes.
--A map would be awesome.  Even though the world in its current state is small, it is still easy to forget where a teleporter is or where a certain slime door might be.  I found a volcanic zone but cannot remember how to get back to it.
--More vac-pack improvements.  I wish my vac-pack could suck faster.  Or that it had more than 4 slots!

I would recommend buying Slime Rancher with the warning that it is early access.  The structure that is in place has promise and with some work it could turn out to be a great little game.