Slime Rancher 2 has been released on Steam for early access and we, having been so lucky, have gotten the chance to play it. Invited to a new island, Beatrice sets off in her boat to a place we only know as Rainbow Islands for a brand new adventure. This game has created a fun and explorative dynamic for both new and veteran ranchers alike, promising to be the coziest game you’ll be experiencing for the fall season. With bouncy slimes greeting you all around and a farm to advance, gamers will be sure to love this new installment in Monomi Park’s roster.
Gameplay
As we make ourselves at home at the Conservatory, a modest space with a handful of plots, a cozy house and a convenient underground laboratory for all of our upgrading needs, we have a tutorial starts us off with how to corral slimes and collect fruits then left on our own to swim. When Slime Ranchers first came out, I didn’t get the chance to play it so coming into Slime Ranchers 2 came with a bit of a learning curve.
However, every asset that a clueless rancher could need is available in the Conservatory. There’s consoles that go over the basic controls and functions of the game, a large screen detailing the price and types of plorts that can be sold and a laboratory underneath the Conservatory that acts as both a storage to keep all of the extra plorts saved up as well as showcase the type of upgrades that the rancher can achieve once they start making a turnaround at their farm.
All in all, our jobs as ranchers is fairly simple, collect slimes, upgrade their corrals and explore more of the map to uncover the secrets of the islands and the different types of slimes that roam about this new terrain. The game introduces some adorable new slimes that we can expect only to expand the number of combinations ranchers can discover in future updates, quality-of-life fixes and an incredibly-detailed new map to uncover and explore.
Slimes
The main island we’ll be staying on is large but an easy enough map to memorize once the map is unlocked by finding capsules that store its data. There are only a few slimes residing here in this normal terrain but already, we can see all the different types of slime combinations out in the wild we can eventually attempt to keep at home. Between the Pink, Cotton, Tabby and Phosphorant, there are tons of different combos we can try, but don’t let them get to a third plort or else you’ll encounter the Tar. Experiencing these for the first time was incredibly daunting as I was blasted with intimidating music and realized that I had accidentally downloaded a horror game. Through some advice from a friend, they become fairly harmless once you toss them out in the water or get a function to collect water to splash them with a hose. They also can be avoided when it’s daylight so if you’d like to keep from accidentally stepping into a Stephen King book, go to sleep at night.
Upgrades
The game doesn’t hold your hand, but like any good parent game dev, the resources are nearby. The corrals have different functions and explain what they do so that ranchers can tailor the corral unique to the slimes that they will be keeping and upgrading their farms so that they can get plenty of fruits, vegetables and house as many hens as they need.
Downstairs, the laboratory requires a separate storage so that upgrades for the rancher’s equipment is a bit easier to manage so it’s recommended if not obvious to sell some plorts and use other plorts to store for later upgrades to the rancher’s vacuum, dash and one day, their jetpack. It might just save me from jumping to my demise in the water with an inventory full of stuff…
Maps
Though the game is in early access, there are quite a few places to explore and expand to. Near the Conservatory, there are three other islands that can be bought for more room and plots, each having their own different terrain and some come with chickens that already inhabit the area or fruit trees that will drop at a natural rate. So once ranchers get to explore the different areas where wild slimes roam, they can unlock these expanded areas to keep them collected in.
The different areas that can be unlocked through feeding abnormally large and unbearably cute slimes found throughout the first map. Teleports unlock so that ranchers can just warp over to the new areas that feature a more diverse landscape of corals and high mountaintops on one island, and a hot savana type area on one of the other islands. Be warned however, because once you adventure out to these two islands, you will encounter more slimes that are not quite as patient to be pushed around as the ones at the beginner island and they can give quite the beating if ranchers aren’t careful.
Final Impressions
Overall, Slime Ranchers 2 is absolutely enchanting with its adorable slimes that bounce around, drool if they are hungry and stack themselves as if trying to escape their corrals when they get antsy. They are so full of personality and the world is a beautiful canvas of art to explore. Even watching the Tar slimes explode in the daylight is a wonder because there are several different colors of fireworks that sprinkle off around them. At first the map seems to large and intimidating, but it’s quite easy and comfortable to memorize especially since you’re going to be running across it so often day to day. Although I was a fresh slate when I came into this game, I found it really easy to learn the rules, experiment on my own and learn the right things to do to where I didn’t feel like an absolute moron for not playing the first game. It might even be a game I have to revisit because I enjoyed this one so much and I’d like to see what changes will be coming to the game.
The only unfortunate thing I experienced about the game is a lighting detail when you go from one brightly lit room to a dark room such as the underground laboratory or into one of the Phosphorus slimes enclosures that keeps out sunlight. There is a strange dimming aspect that can sometimes glitch and cause a bit of a flashing when the game is trying to compute the sudden change. As someone who is sensitive to flashing lights because they can cause migraines, this made the game harder to play for longer periods of time.
I’m confident this will be addressed in the future as the game continues to further develop and run out updates. Already the devs seems to be aware of its players by removing the head bobbing for those with motion sickness. I really appreciated that feature and since they are experimenting with lights in this game, I look forward to their future updates and fixes in the future.
Final Review: 4.5 out of 5 Stars
Jordan is a student studying Digital and Print Journalism at the University of North Texas. After discovering how much fun gaming journalism can be, she hopes to make a career in it once she graduates. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys playing games such as Genshin Impact, Ace Attorney, and Fire Emblem or watching Murder, She Wrote late at night on weekdays.
