Slime Rancher

[h1]Short Review[/h1] Slime Rancher is a cute, charming, and very addictive farming sim that wraps a simple loop in a colorful world full of adorable blobs. The first several hours are slow and a bit of a slog, and the constant back and forth for resources can wear on you, but once automation kicks in and the largo combinations start piling up, it really hooks you in. Rush mode is also a great change of pace for when the ranch grind starts to feel one note. If you can get through the slow start, this one is easy to recommend. [h1]Full Review[/h1] Slime Rancher drops you onto the Far, Far Range as Beatrix LeBeau, where you wrangle slimes with your vacpack, feed them, collect their plorts, and sell those plorts to grow your ranch and unlock more of the world. I went in expecting a cozy time and a relaxing farming loop, and that is mostly what I got, with a few bumps along the way. It is a very easy game to say "one more day" to. [b]The world and presentation.[/b] This game is, obviously, very cute. The slimes are adorable, the Far, Far Range is bright and colorful, and every new area feels like a fun little discovery rather than a chore to get through. Watching a pen full of slimes bouncing around never gets old, and the whole thing has a charm that makes it easy to relax into. Even when the gameplay loop started to wear on me, the look and feel of the game kept me going through the more rough parts of the game. [b]The gameplay.[/b] As for the gameplay, this one is slow to start and ramps up as you go. The early hours are the weakest part of the game. You are limited by money, your exploration is gated by what you can afford, and your inventory only holds so much, so you end up making a lot of trips back to the ranch before you really get moving. Once the ball gets rolling, though, it is a great time (even if the inventory issue doesn't really get fixed). The loop of feeding slimes, collecting plorts, and selling them is simple and extremely addictive, and the game does a nice job of dangling the next upgrade or the next area in front of you so that you always have a goal. The moderate complexity is a plus for me too. Largos, which are the combined slimes you make by feeding one slime another type's plorts, need some actual thinking, since mixing the wrong ones can cause chaos in your pens. There are a ton of different combinations, which is a ton of experimentation to dig into, and then you also have to think about crops, chickadoos, and where to place everything so your ranch runs smoothly. It won't boom slime your brain by any means, but it does ask you to plan instead of just doing whatever with no thought. [b]The grind.[/b] This is where my frustration kicked in. Because the core loop is so simple, it can start to feel one note after a while. The part that fatigued me the most was the back and forth required for resources you excavate or the plorts you collect, since you have to haul them back to the ranch again and again. Automation is the answer to a lot of this, but it also starts off slow, so you spend a good chunk of the game doing things by hand that you know the game will eventually do for you. Alas, that stretch can feel like a slog, and it is the main reason this game took me longer to warm up to than I expected. Once the automation kicked in, the game became far more enjoyable, so it is a bit of a shame that so much of the early game is spent without it. [b]Rush mode.[/b] Rush mode is a great addition and one of my favorite parts of the package. It is a nice change of pace from the standard ranch loop, since it gives you a timed challenge with a bit of pressure behind it instead of the usual relaxed routine. If the main game starts to feel repetitive, hopping into Rush mode is a solid way to freshen things up and test what you have learned. Overall, Slime Rancher is a charming, addictive, and very cute farming sim that I am happy to recommend, with the caveat that the first several hours are a slog and the r