The gameplay ended up being surprisingly dynamic and customizable. I originally thought I'd catch a few slimes, organize them, upgrade the ranch, and that'd be the end of it, but there's much more to Slime Rancher than first meets the eye. Largo slimes (a mix of two slime species) made the game far more involved. It felt great when I figured out that I could mix certain slimes together to not only give them a diet that's easier to manage, but also create more plorts (items mainly used to make money, craft with, and make largos) in the process. I wasn’t a fan of how difficult it was to move largos. You can only transport one at a time and can’t bring them through teleporters, so ranch renovations were pretty tedious.

Uncovering new parts of the map and finding new slimes was always exciting, and once I got to the end of the first map, I started to become intrigued about how the game would continue. I was pleasantly surprised to find a whole second map to explore. At this point, I had read some of the messages scattered around the map, and was interested about some sort of ending. When I reached the end of the second map, I found a conclusion of sorts, so I was a little surprised at the lack of credits. I was even more surprised when I saw the credits several minutes later while checking my in-game inbox, where a different and apparently "main" story had been unfolding. For a while I found this story to be unsatisfactory because it was quite detached from the gameplay and lacked an emotional impact because of it, but that very well might have been the point. The story being told through emails from the lover you left behind to become a slime rancher showed the detachment from love and focus on adventure.

The lab made ranching so much easier and hands-off. It let me craft items, like drones and warp tech, which created much more fluidity in various tasks around the ranch. My only complaint about the lab was that it felt like it took too long to get access to it, but that could very well just be because of my own gameplay approach. My ranch was stressful to manage for awhile without access to drones, market links, refinery links, teleporters, etc. but became extremely easy and efficient once I managed to get a few of those pieces of tech.

My biggest complaint about the game is that, despite various ways to upgrade your gear, the upgrades are somewhat lacking. First off, you can only hold four different items at any given time, with no upgrades to hold new items besides water. As few as four singular, but slightly different, baby chicks could prevent you from holding anything else, but hundreds of slimes and food items could fit the same amount of space just fine. Second, movement around the map became monotonous very quickly, despite upgrades for that too. You can increase your energy and eventually place teleporters down nearly wherever you want, but the amount of energy you have to sprint and to use your jetpack was insufficient in many situations. The jetpack itself is also incredibly inept, both using a lot of energy and not elevating you very high in the air. Despite these areas for improvement, the upgrades you get access to do end up making your life easier.

I found it really enjoyable when I got access to NPC ranches and special tasks, it made the world feel much more alive and added several hours of gameplay. You don’t really get a chance to interact with the other ranchers in a significant way before visiting their ranches, but they get a chance to shine when you finally do. Despite my critiques, the game was some chill fun and is a great game for completionists who have some extra time on their hands. Great buy at a discount.

I really love this game and i hope that the owners will see this and give me the dlc for free i have it on my xbox 1 and its so fun i hope your have fun too.

Slime