Slime Rancher creates approachable and addicting experience

By combining several different genres of games, Slime Rancher brings an engaging and interactive experience.

By combining several different genres of games, Slime Rancher brings an engaging and interactive experience.

Cameron Stapleton, Staff Reporter

Normally, when Steam Early Access games come to mind, titles like “Stomping Ground,” which was removed off Steam after not being fixed after months of broken gameplay, push to the front of that list. Thankfully, “Slime Rancher” a new early access game that hit Steam a short time ago, breaks that stereotype.

“Slime Rancher” is a mix of about four different genres of games: RPG, FPS, Open-world, and Tycoon. The various types of gameplay mixed together make the game extremely approachable, and downright addicting once you get used to the game’s mechanics.

You play as a rancher named Beatrix LeBeaux, whose goal is to strike it rich by raising different types of slimes- big balls of “slime” which are literally the cutest things ever. To bring in a profit, payers must keep an eye of the fluctuating stock market prices of slime plorts- valuable resources that the slimes will produce over time. Different slimes produce different plorts, the most valuable being gold plorts, and the least valuable being pink plorts.

Sometimes the graphics in early access games can leave a lot to be desired, but thankfully “Slime Rancher” is not one of those games. The graphics are cartoony, but practical for the game’s style, much like “Borderlands” or “Castle Crashers.” The worlds are extremely well-designed and detailed, offering many types of areas and resources that vary from place to place.

The ultimate goals are to make a lot of money and to live through the process. Hindering your dreams are other slimes called the “Tarr,” which will devour other slimes—or you.

There are about seven different types of slimes and six areas right now, but more are on the way. For a game that is supposedly in Alpha (first test of the game in a playable format), it has loads of content, and loads more to come. More slimes, areas, and resources are scheduled for the near future.

Usually I am understandably skeptical about early access games. Sometimes they are abandoned halfway through development, making your money a waste. Other times, games are just a cash grab to begin with, and you end up wasting your money on something completely broken that will never be fixed.

Hopefully, “Slime Rancher” will never end up in the first category, and is far from being in the second. It is definitely worth the buy, and if you end up not liking it, the new Steam return system will fix your problems (as long as you have played less than two hours and have owned the game less than two weeks).