Image via Monomi Park
One of the things I loved most about Slime Rancher was the feeling that I had truly escaped to a different planet. A blend of cozy music, laid-back mechanics, and simple objectives made the journey through the Far, Far Range a soothing and meditative experience. While the core mechanics of the original title appear in Slime Rancher 2, the sequel is not the relaxing escape I was hoping for.
Slime Rancher 2 takes place after the events of the first game, where the main character, Beatrix LeBeau, has seemingly abandoned her original farm and everything built for a new adventure on Rainbow Island. Most of the new location will look familiar, from the Plort Market to Beatrix’s little house, but, this isn’t the same gentle adventure from before.
Key Details
- Developer: Monomi Park
- Publisher: Monomi Park
- Price: $29.99
- Platforms: PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox X|S
- Review Copy Provided: Yes
Slime Rancher 2 Is More Colorful And Beautiful Than Ever
Slime Rancher 2 is absolutely beautiful. While the original game was always a colorful wonderland, the updated graphics and models of the sequel bring the world to life in a new way. Colors are brilliantly saturated, environments are teeming with life, and even the weather patterns feel crisp and new.
After going through an extended Early Access period that led to a 1.0 release in 2017, the original game was held back by the technology of the time, and Slime Rancher 2 really embraces updated graphics in a way that is immersive and creative.
One of my personal favorite examples of this is with the communicator that displays messages from NPCs. The updated character profiles are sharp and lovely, bringing these familiar faces to life. I found myself eagerly checking for new messages, as I was always excited to see Beatrix’s friends on screen.
The Resource Grind is Real
In the first game, players spent the majority of their time farming Slimes for Plorts (Slime poop). Plorts would then be sold for money, which was exchanged for upgrades and decorations. In the final build of the game, resources could be extracted via a slew of bobbles, but grinding for these wasn’t the core of the game.
In Slime Rancher 2, grinding for resources becomes the sole focus of the game, and it gets frustrating quickly. Gone are the days of casually keeping Slimes and earning cash. Players will abandon their Slimes to spend days out searching for a collection of difficult-to-obtain resources and specialized upgrade parts.
To mine resources, players must first obtain the VacPack upgrade to extract things. Once obtained, specialized nodes throughout the map can be destroyed for small quantities of resources like JellyStone or Radiant Ore.
While this sounds completely reasonable at first, the grind becomes all-consuming within just a few upgrades. Everything in the game has to be crafted, and to craft anything, plots, money, and resources must be stored. The first few upgrades aren’t bad, but they quickly become more expensive. Additionally, players are hampered by a four-slot inventory, no pre-built travel pads, and environments so huge that going back through them repeatedly to mine ore nodes because a monumental task.
Add to this that item transporters are expensive to build, and refinery links autodrop resources into the crafting pool, never to be returned, and Beatrix’s life becomes one of harvesting resources and dragging them back to the base. It seems like a far cry from the relaxing life of the previous game, with wonder and curiosity exchanged for a gruesome mining gig with no end.
I Missed My Slimes
Early in the game, I realized there was very little point in keeping Slimes at the Conservatory. Instead, I farmed Hen Hens. I farmed so many, that they completely took over my entire base. Within thirty hours, there were so man Hen Hens that they spilled out the front door, down into the basement caves, and beyond the easy reaches of the main base areas.
The reality was, farming chickens felt more human than keeping Slimes. Besides never being at the base, which left the captive Slimes starving in their miserable little tanks, the reward for keeping them wasn’t very high. It ended up making more sense to go out and gather up Plorts from wild Slimes than waste time trying to care for them.
Slimes that were kept for the goal of farming money ended up causing issues, as the Plort Market would devalue any Plorts regularly sold. Additionally, building Slime enclosures costed more than it is worth to keep things inside the pens, as that money could have be going toward upgrades.
I had no incentive to open other areas, and when I finally did, just to see what was there, these areas also became Hen Hen houses.
I remember spending hours lovingly caring for the Slimes on my farm in Slime Rancher, but Slime Rancher 2 doesn’t seem to be much of a ranching game at all, and it felt more like an industrial farm for plorts I needed to keep making gadgets.
Final Score – 7/10
Slime Rancher 2 is beautiful. It runs well on my PC and the world is vibrant and exciting. However, gameplay is hampered by a structure that is so punishing and grindy that it doesn’t feel anything like the game before it.
Those who are looking for the same relaxing experience as Slime Rancher won’t find it in Slime Rancher 2, and may become as frustrated as I felt trying to grind through the requirements for all the crafting.
For anyone who enjoys a grind, this isn’t a bad option. It’s just such a shame that it seems to be missing the heart that made the first title such a wonderful and timeless experience.
**Bonus Action was provided with a Steam PC code of Slime Rancher 2 for the purpose of this review**
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