

Slimes have a ton of personality now, serving as irresistibly weird creatures to chase – that includes the new cotton slimes that bounce around and joyously eat all your vegetables, as well as returning crystal slimes that come off as mischievous bullies in this iteration who want nothing more than to break everything in their path. This is most immediately recognizable in its presentation, which has been improved substantially. If the original was a compelling and memorable proof of concept, then Slime Rancher 2 comes much closer to a final product that benefits from years of fine-tuning – even in this early state. That’s a rabbit hole that only got deeper over the course of the first game’s developement, and I’m excited to see if this adventure follows suit.īut despite the familiarity, it’s impossible not to notice this sequel’s higher level of polish. You can also get a lot of mileage out of the returning crossbreeding mechanic, which merges two types of slimes together to create interesting and often ill-advised combinations, like the exploding crystal abominations I Frankensteined into existence.
#Slime rancher 2 ps5 upgrade
Luckily farming for slimes, gathering resources to upgrade your ranch, and exploring what areas you can access are all such wildly captivating activities that I spent well over that time just optimizing my farm and looking for secrets. I began to feel like I was out of things to do after about a dozen hours, and I encountered areas that were incomplete or blocked off in some of my first moments of exploration. In its current form, Slime Rancher 2 is fairly light on content in general. In its current form, Slime Rancher 2 is fairly light on content. Still, it’s weird that obvious stuff that would have been great to have at launch, like NPCs occupying the world or multiplayer options, have been completely eschewed for now. That said, most of the slimes that are currently MIA were probably strategically cut fat, and the slimes that have been added are more than fair trades for those we lost I don’t particularly miss the irritating, radioactive Rad slimes, for example, while the new Ringtail slimes that skitter about killing things and get turned into stone if they get caught in the sun are hilarious little troublemakers. On the other hand, Slime Rancher 2 plays it so safe that it took me a while to even notice some of the changes it’s made.Īt this early stage there aren’t too many new things added – in fact, in some ways there are actually fewer options than in the previous entry, like a reduced number of unique areas and slimes (something the first game bolstered over its own early access period). The good news is that this formula of exploring, farming, and experimenting with your slimes and their crossbred permutations remains incredibly compelling, and it’s easy to lose track of time while hanging out with this lovable gang of invertebrates. You’ll also fight gross, world-consuming Tarr slimes, upgrade your base of operations and your equipment, and fall off cliffs when you forget you don’t have enough stamina to power your jetpack. As with the first entry, you’ll run around chaotic and beautiful otherworldly environments as you collect resources and slimes, then head back to your home base to turn your jelly friends into profit just like Ayn Rand intended.


If you’ve played the first Slime Rancher, even a little, then nothing about this work-in-progress sequel is likely to surprise you. All those upgrades combine to create a satisfying and zen-like adventure that made me want to retire from the rat race of battle royales and action games to settle down on a sticky pasture and live a simple life among the slimes. It may feel like more of a Slime Rancher 1.5 at its early access release, but its presentation is still a night-and-day improvement over the original, the new slimes and areas are wonderful and unique, and movement and exploration both feel much better. After dozens of hours dedicated to wrangling balls of living goop in developer Monomi Park’s previous life sim, it feels great to be back with Slime Rancher 2 – a sequel that retains all of the original’s stickiness (in more ways than one) and ridiculous charm.
