Slime Rancher is one of the biggest surprises on Xbox One. Before I begin discussing the game, please note that the title is still in the Xbox Game Preview program so there are some performance issues now and again. Not only does the game offer fluid and addictive gameplay, it is quite expansive in what you can do and the strategies you have to employ. If you own an Xbox One, be sure to pick this one up.
The graphics of the title are cartoony but great. There are high resolution textures and the title runs at 60 FPS most of the time. I’m sure the performance will improve when the title comes out of the preview program. There is a lot of variety when it comes to the different slimes as well. The game is varied and never gets old.
As you can guess from the title, you’re a rancher…of slimes. Slime Rancher is the tale of Beatrix LeBeau, a plucky, young rancher who sets out for a life a thousand light years away from Earth on the Far, Far Range where she tries her hand at making a living wrangling slimes. With a can-do attitude, plenty of grit, and her trusty vacpack, Beatrix attempts to stake a claim, amass a fortune, and avoid the continual peril that looms from the rolling, jiggling avalanche of slimes around every corner.
If you think the game is all about catching slimes, it also involves fighting enemy slimes that tend to spawn when, I think, two opposing slimes merge together. Maybe they’re random but I only encounter them when there are slimes of two different types situated in the same area. For example, the first time I came across them was when blue water slimes merged with regular pink slimes. You basically have to suck them and throw them away. Eventually they end up disintegrating. I’m still in the process of figuring all the mechanics out because it’s quite a complex game.
Once you’ve sucked up slimes in your vacpack, you can build enclosures and deposit them there. If you keep feeding them fruit or carrots, they then deposit plorts. Plorts can be sold for coins and you can use those coins to upgrade your enclosure. For example, want to keep flying slimes inside their pens? Well, be sure to have a net over it. You can also upgrade our vacpack and get other upgrades. The list is quite expansive.
Another element that surprised me the most was how the game relies on exploration. While initially your area is quite limited, you can keep on opening up new sections of the map by unlocking them with coins. There you can find new slimes and much more. You’ll spend dozens of hours, if not more, playing this game. Even in its current state it’s quite a lot of content. Be sure to give this one a go if you own an Xbox One. It’s definitely a welcome addition to the catalog.
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.