Slime Rancher

Just want to start by saying I love this game. I love its cheerful color pallet, cute slime critters, and even the sappy story is endearing. So why the one star you may ask, well it's because the game is showing early signs of abandonment. It starts with missing dlc that's openly advertised but is only available on every other platform. Next the Gog updates will be delayed and then entire expansions will be provided only on the other platforms. All the while the developers will claim they just can't do it because the Gog version is somehow utterly different to all the other versions that receive the dlc/updates. Then it ends with radio silence as they stop pretending to care. I'll change my review if they prove me wrong but I won't hold my breath.

Seeing as there is no review on GOG and it's new here, I felt the urge to give a short review. The game is as cute as it looks. You run around, everything wobbles and makes cute noises and it's fun. Initially. Because after about 5 hours you have seen and done everything there is to do. I bought it for a reduced price (I think) on Steam where it has been for a while but I still felt like this was an Early Access game I should have passed. It wasn an impulse buy because of the overall great look and idea. If you are one of those people that like to micromanage and optimize things (I know I do), you're also wrong. While the game is called "Slime Rancher" and it's exactly what you do, there's no real depth whatsoever to the whole "ranching" part. There is a market where you sell slime poop for money (which is awesome) and it has dynamic prices but after an hour or two I had like 2 different pens with a bunch of high-value slimes and that's all I needed. There's quite a bit of different food, and the slimes all have food preferences. In the end it never seems to matter. I read the Slimepedia (ingame) to see what food to food what slime but it just doesn't really matter, unless you feed the wrong food to cause problems so you can choose 1-2 food items to farm and you're set on that part. So, the Slime Ranching doesn't require variety, and neither does the food farming. This is my main gripe besides the lack of content, because at least the core component of a ranching game should have some depth to cause that urge to improve things. In the end, I had fun for 5 hours but I regretted the purchase. I've rechecked if some big things got added since I last played and there is none. If you really enjoy the graphics and are okay with very little content and have the money lying around - go buy. For everyone else unfortunately I'd recommend watching some YouTube videos to enjoy the overall cuteness instead and a pass on buying the game.

I had bought this version of slime rancher with hopes that while it's content was good, it would eventually get the dlc that is locked to steam for some reason and literally every other console under the sun including the switch, but alas this version of the title has been abandoned by monomi park games, the dlc has not hit gog, and nor has its steam vr tech demo. The game while good is not truly complete without this missing content, and as far as I can tell, a truly drm free version/ offline copy of this game with it's dlc and tech demo VR is simply a pipe dream now, as it has been years since the developer actually updated this version, and I can say with certainty that they do not plan, or have any plans to finish this version of the game, possibly ever, which is truly a shame. This game is really fun to play, and I mean really fun, but if you are going to give supporters of your game, a bogged down version with less content, then I am sorry but I cannot give this a 4 or 5 star due to simply being incomplete. That is all I have to say, and I am quite sad that the developer has failed to finish this version.

For starters, I can't stress this enough, if you are expecting a management and production oriented, harvest moon or stardew valley kind of game you this is NOT it. I personally found my coin's worth and then some in this cute casual exploration game. Main focus of Slime Rancher is exploring the world (other than the challange mode). You collect cute little slimes, feed them and get "plort", which is crystal shaped precious slime poo. Plort is the only thing you can sell. You do farm veggies and fruits and raise chickens in pens as well but those are used to feed slimes and can not be sold, sometimes you can trade them with neighbours if they request them. You do interract with some neighbours from time to time but it's not mandatory nor does it give significant rewards. Main focus of this game is exploration. Also farming and chicken husbandry doesn't consume much time so you can explore more. You make money from plorts and only from plorts. Money is used for unlocking new ranch zones, new abilities and items that help you explore the world further. The world is quite big and filled with many different slime types and scenery. In addition to exploring you get plenty of options to decorate your farm, make devices to help you travel faster etc and as another plus you can give your slimes googley eyes and such. Graphics and music-wise I like it very much too.