I adore farming simulation games. There is something inherently relaxing about getting lost in the simple repetition of it all. It’s like having a warm cup of hot chocolate on a winter’s night. It’s simply divine. This is why I was surprised a few years ago when I played Slime Rancher and found the experience to be, well, just fine. It’s a notorious game in the genre, but for me, it felt a bit too abstract, lacking that all-important structure and end goal. After playing the game for a handful of hours, I put it down and never returned to it. But maybe my room feng shui was off at the time, and I wasn’t able to fully appreciate it. With the full release of Slime Racher 2, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to delve back in and give it another go. Slime Rancher 2 is undeniably a massive improvement from the original in many ways, but the fundamental issues I had are still here.
An Uninteresting Story
Slime Rancher 2 heavily mimics the blueprint of its predecessor. You continue the adventure of Beatrix LeBeau, the protagonist of the first instalment, who has now arrived on Rainbow Island to uncover the mysteries of the land. She quickly finds a deserted conservatory, which she converts into a base of operations (if you played the previous game, it’s very much like the ranch). You’re given a brief tutorial on the basic controls and how to use the vacpack, a gadget that pulls in slimes and items from the environment, and then you’re pretty much thrust into navigating the world’s landscape.
The overall plot plays a less integral part than last time, which is saying something, as it was relatively non-existent beforehand. As you explore the island, you will find drones that contain messages from a prior explorer, which refer to the island’s history. Coinciding with this, you will also have interactions with other characters that unfold through video calls, where they discuss what’s happening on the island and the scientific discoveries you uncover. And that’s pretty much it. I found myself to be very uninterested in the plot. But, then again, you’re here to capture adorable slimes. Do we need a deep, extravagant plot? Probably not.
Building Up Your Slimey Empire
Speaking of slimes, they are undoubtedly the star of the show here, and to be fair, it would be weird if they weren’t with the title name, wouldn’t it? They all harbour the same whimsical charm as before, with all the classics like pink, crystal, and tabby slimes making a comeback. The updated visuals really bring their playful nature to life, as they hop from side to side, showing their happy demeanour. It’s really hard not to smile when you first encounter these little rascals. There aren’t many new slimes, but there are a handful. My favourite by far was the cotton slime, as it exhibits the traits of a bunny rabbit, having long ears and even whiskers to boot. It somehow feels like a natural counterpart to the tabby slime.
Once you have sucked up the slimes with the nifty vacpack, you can put them in the corrals back at the conservatory. However, depending on the type of slime, they will need to be cared for in different ways, from their dietary requirements to the layout of their corral. A great example of this is Phoshor slimes, as they will completely disappear if exposed to sunlight, so you will need to purchase a solar shield if you have any intention of keeping them. There is no punishment if you choose not to feed slimes, per se, but their facial expressions will change, and they will droll a red-looking substance, which feels somewhat inhumane. I didn’t like that on my virtual conscience, so I would often only keep what I could feed.
Each time you feed them vegetables, fruits, or meat, they will drop plorts, which can be used to upgrade equipment or sold at the plorts market to earn money. So, it is inadvertently your main form of currency rather than the actual money itself. Because of this, it can be more advantageous to have slimes that are easier to feed, so you can quickly grind up plorts. Personally, I would keep ones with vegetable and fruit diets, as I was able to grow crops in gardens at the conservatory, and feed them regularly without too much hassle.
You can also merge slimes by forcing them to interact with one another. This will cause them to become bigger and chubbier versions of themselves with attributes from both slimes. It can be interesting to see all the different types of combinations, but more importantly, they will drop two types of plorts. Typically, the more you sell of a particular plort, the more its price value will decrease, so this allows you to keep the market at an equilibrium, so to speak. This encourages you to have multiple types of slimes at the conservatory and experiment with combinations to see what works best for you.
There are also blueprints that you can discover while travelling around the landscape, which will allow you to build different types of decorations that can add a lot of personality to your conservatory. Some are somewhat basic, like trees or seaweed, and others are wacky, like a carousel that the slimes can even ride. There is a lot of creative freedom in how you want to set up your base, and it’s rather cathartic to collect all the necessary resources to keep everything ticking over.
You can also purchase upgrades for your vacpack, which will enable you to collect resources more efficiently, run faster, and have increased health. You can even buy a jetpack that will allow you to travel to previously unreachable locations. It’s worth noting that it’s super important to purchase the resource harvester right away, as it will allow you to extract more resources from the environment, and you will need these items later down the line for the other upgrades. It might have been nice if the game forced you to buy the upgrade as part of the tutorial, because some newcomers could completely overlook this and, unintentionally, miss out on a lot of essential resources.
Exploration Is Where The Gameplay Excels
There is a heavy emphasis on exploration, and it is definitely where it excels compared to other farming games out there. Rainbow Island is a beautiful place to explore and features a spectacular palette of colours. It’s helpful that every location feels distinctive, with multi-coloured prairie grasslands, gorgeous ponds, and murky volcanic areas. If you want to reach every nook and cranny, you will have to figure out some environmental puzzles. None of them is too strenuous, though, which keeps things interesting when you’re exploring. It really embodies the floaty vibe you would get looking through a kaleidoscope, and it’s beyond fantastic.
The soundtrack beautifully complements the landscape, as it has a calm and welcoming vibe that perfectly matches the scenery. The sound effects are incredibly charming as well, from the noises made by the vacpack to the slimes themselves. On a technical level, the game runs well for the most part, but I did notice that when I initially booted up the game, it had a slow framerate and took a few moments for everything to appear smoothly on the screen. But it’s nothing that hinders the experience.
The first few hours of Slime Rancher 2 are a delightful experience, and it’s super relaxing to traverse the environments, capture slimes, and build your conservatory. It’s a great game to play if you’ve had a stressful day and you’re looking to unwind. However, after a while, you will likely find the slimes that you prefer using, discover the majority of the locations, and unlock the last remaining upgrades. In the end, it requires you to find your own meaning and discover a grand ambition that drives your pursuit. Just like the original, I couldn’t find it. But I definitely enjoyed my experience more than last time.
Disclaimer: Monomi Park provided a PC (Steam) copy of Slime Rancher 2 to Final Weapon for review purposes.
