Slime Rancher 2 has just been released as an early-access game on Steam and Xbox. I don’t want to get too into detail for anyone who is interested in playing the game itself.
You start the game with background story about traveling from the island you lived on in the first game to the new island you are going to explore in the game. The text screen closes and you start in your home base. The tutorial starts and explains to you the controls, the tools, and the activities of the game. You are shown around your home and they tell you about the plots, plorts, economy, and science.
The game has plots for you to buy and build containment units or farms. This is where you contain your slimes and chickens, or where you plant the fruits and vegetables that you will use to feed some of your slimes.
You get introduced to the slimes, with the Pink Slimes being your starting slimes and you feed them their desired food and they drop plorts. Different slimes require different food types and all have a favorite food. Plorts are this game’s minerals, and you sell each type for different amounts. The plort-selling system has its own stock market style, with each plort changing price every day, going up, down, or staying the same as the day before.
The game’s current map is expansive, and exploring the current map’s entirety takes hours to accomplish. Each part of the map has a node that, once you discover and interact with it, will dissipate the cloud that covers that area. When you find new land, new slimes, resources, and foods are usually there,as well. Collecting these to get money and to advance technologically are key to advancing in the game.
Alongside your exploration of the island is the science and technology of the game. Upgrading your tools and creating new gadgets help you to advance in plort production, which in turn, gives you money. You encounter slimes like largos, feral slimes, and gordos that all have different qualities from the original slimes they are built on. Story is a big part of this game, but it stays hidden under the sandbox feel of the game.
I personally love this game. I think the art style and graphics are beautiful and the story is charming. If you are the type that likes single-player, story-based games, or if you love cute and colorful games, this game is exactly what you are looking for. This game is similar to its predecessor in its base functionality, but new science, the new map, and the new slimes give the game a nice separation from the first. It has a simple structure, but the new content you continue to encounter keeps you interested for many, many hours. I currently have 13.5 hours on the game and I am not done with all of the story and advancements that are offered. This game is still early access, so there is still more content to be released and bugs to be fixed. I have had a blast playing this game, and I highly recommend it to everyone.