[h1] Slime Rancher 2 [/h1]
[h2] Introduction[/h2]
A game I’ve seen a lot of people hate on, and while I definitely have some things I don’t like about it, I still had a lot of fun. Slime Rancher 2 is far from perfect, but there’s something about its cozy atmosphere, silly slimes and satisfying progression that kept me playing.
[h2] World & Atmosphere [/h2]
The world is beautiful. It’s colorful, bright and full of life. There wasn’t really a section where I walked through and thought, "Yeah, they clearly didn’t work enough on this part." It’s also much brighter and more colorful than the first Slime Rancher, which I know is something people hate on because apparently it’s "too colorful", I actually love it. It gives the whole game this cozy, dream-like atmosphere, and the dynamic weather makes it even better, walking around Rainbow Island while it’s raining just gives me this really nice, safe feeling. It’s one of those little things that makes you want to stay in the game for a while.
The problem is that the map is HUGE. By the endgame, I felt like I was spending more time running across the island looking for resources than actually doing what the game is supposed to be about ranching slimes.
Automation is also a massive downgrade for me. Drones are expensive and come way too late, and even once you have them, you simply can’t automate everything you need on your farm. You’ll still have to manually deal with feeding slimes and collecting plorts from different corrals, while in the first game this was much easier to set up.
So my biggest complaint with the world is basically too much exploring, not enough ranching.
[h2] Story [/h2]
The story is simple and mostly delivered through the classic read a dialogue box and click to continue format. You can completely skip over it and still have just as much fun, because the gameplay is clearly the main focus.
I do like how they continued Beatrix’s story and moved her to an entirely new island. It feels like the developers took the very simple story from the first game and tried to build something bigger now that they had more budget to work with. The problem is that you can only develop so much from basically nothing.
There is a little boss fight-ish moment toward the end, if you can even call it that, and I actually liked it. It was a nice little surprise and something different from what I expected.
Still, the story doesn’t really end in a satisfying way, so I wouldn’t call it one of the game’s strongest points.
[h2] Gameplay & Mechanics [/h2]
I like the gameplay, but the progression can be painfully slow and tedious. The new mechanics are great, the systems feel well put together and the game is generally pretty polished. I also didn’t encounter many bugs, which is always nice.
But the resource grind...
You want to build drones to automate your farm, but drones themselves require resources, and you need to explore the map to get those resources. So you end up running around collecting materials to build automation that is supposed to stop you from having to run around collecting materials. And even after all that, you still can’t fully automate your ranch.
This is something other players have complained about too, especially because the drone system can feel like it requires a lot of setup and investment for something that should eventually make ranch management easier.
Another thing I personally found mostly useless is the amount of decoration. I understand that the game is aimed at a specific type of people, but I simply didn’t care about it. I barely used decorations except for the Sanctuary, where they actually have a purpose, and maybe placing a random statue because it looked silly. Otherwise, I ignored the entire system.
[h2] Music & Sound [/h2]
This is where the game shines. The music is really good, but what I love even more is how the soundscape changes depending on what’s happening around you and what the weather is doing. It gives me this incredibly safe and cozy feeling. Especially when it starts raining, the music and ambient sounds just make the whole island feel peaceful.
It’s addictive in that weird way where you can spend way too much time doing absolutely nothing important and still enjoy yourself.
[h2] Achievements [/h2]
The achievements are ok. Most of them are pretty reasonable, but completing the Slimepedia was definitely the big one.
You need all the slimes, toys, resources and weather conditions, but thankfully you don’t need the Radiant Slimes that were added later. The problem is, once again, RNG.
I played for around 130 in-game days without getting a Slimefall. And then there are the toys, which can only be obtained from the market. It refreshes at 12:00 in-game and gives you a random toy from a pool of 24.
So if you’re specifically hunting for one toy, you’re basically sitting there with roughly a 4% chance every refresh.
That’s not difficult, you just wait.
Aside from that, though, the achievements were pretty enjoyable and didn’t give me too much trouble.
[h2] Conclusion [/h2]
I really like Slime Rancher 2.
It’s not a 10/10, and honestly, not even a 9 for me, but it’s absolutely not a bad game. It’s beautiful, cozy, quirky and clearly very well-made. My biggest problem is that sometimes it feels like the game forgot what made the first Slime Rancher so enjoyable. I wanted more ranching, more slime management and less running across a gigantic map looking for resources.
But at the end of the day, Slime Rancher 2 is supposed to be a chill game that you can pick up every now and then, relax, play with some silly slimes and have a good time, and it does exactly that.
[h2] 🏁 Completion Verdict: [b] Worth the Run - 8/10, A beautiful, cozy and well-made sequel that gets held back by tedious progression, expensive and late automation, excessive exploration and some brutal RNG. Still absolutely worth playing, especially if you loved the first game like I did. [/b] [/h2]
