Slime Ranch 2's first review: The long board is very long, the short board is too short

On Steam, "Slime Ranch 2" in the "early experience" stage received a total of 11,491 reviews, of which 10,922 positive reviews and 569 negative reviews, with a stable score of 95%.

In the 569 negative reviews that are not dazzling, I voted.

I like the predecessor of the "Slime Ranch" series. In addition to not buying the "Colorful Skin" DLC, I have basically experienced the content of the main body. But my understanding of the previous work "Slime Ranch" is precisely the reason why I gave "Slime Ranch 2" a bad review from the player's perspective at this stage.

Compared with the "sequel", although this work has a "protection period" of "early experience" stage, it is still more like the HD material package of the previous work.

Of course, this has to start with the previous work.

If you follow the game news in previous years, you may remember the sudden hit "Slime Ranch". The gameplay is so simple that it can summarize "Rain Story + Slime" in two keywords.

This "Rain Story Like" work deletes a large number of traditional ranch games' farm tool upgrades, crop planting and economic gameplay. The only core of the gameplay is to let players tame various slimes, use the "stinky" pulled out of slimes to make money, and then open up more areas and raise more slimes.

Nothing interesting, but it can't stop the cute little slime.

"Slime Ranch" provides players with jelly-like slimes with 3D modeling, and also designs many categories for the slimes. From the most basic small powder, living in water/magma droplets/flame slimes, they will create spiky crystal slimes on the ground, they will blind you mosaic slimes, and even quantum slimes that will turn into quantum states at any time.

These slimes are not just "skin replacement" for basic fans, each slime has characteristics that meet the settings. When the bomb slime is fine, it will "bang" around you. The radiation slime will cause radiation damage to the surroundings. After the whirlwind slime gathers, it can cause several huge tornadoes in the ranch.

Although the characteristics are different, the same sentence is still the same - all slimes are ridiculously cute.

Because of this longboard that grew to break through the sky, "Slime Ranch" became popular. This independent game that began its "early experience" stage in 2016 has sold 5 million copies as of January 13, 2022.

The sales of 5 million copies is a terrible number, but the success of "Slime Ranch" is not even reflected in the numbers.

In "Little Red Book", search for the keyword "Slime Ranch", and a total of nearly 500 results can be found, all of which are players who share game experience and spontaneously "Ming" the game.

YouYou can even see the "Slime Ranch" where the Mod author uses love to generate electricity, such as "Terraria", which has a high appearance rate in the early stage.

Based on the popularity of the first generation of works among the players, the sequel "Slime Ranch 2" has naturally received a lot of attention since its promotion.

On September 22, 2022, "Slime Ranch 2" appeared in the player's vision in the "early experience" stage, and people obviously still remember the cute little Slime. On the day of writing the review, it was about one month on sale. According to conservative estimates, the sales volume of the sequel is at least more than 200,000 copies.

Obviously, whether it is the total of five million copies of the previous work or the 200,000 copies of the sequel that was sold for one month (doubtedly), Monomi Park, the team of the "Slime Ranch" series, has already reaped returns far exceeding the cost.

But the problem is that the development completion of this sequel when it debuted is inversely proportional to the attention it received.

First of all, as a work that has systematic simplification, but its essential gameplay is still "Rain Story Like". "Slime Ranch 2" has not even designed the most basic task system in the previous work. The only task system that can be used as a player in the current game is missing, which means that players will start the game in an unguided environment.

Of course, it is not difficult for players who have experience in the previous work to get started. Even if you have never played the previous work, the "No-book deal" gameplay of "Slime Ranch 2" is very clear. But the problem is that in addition to being a soft-guided task system, this game lacks too much.

For example, basic map marking guidelines.

This game has a large number of complex maps, and functional props such as portal manufacturing blueprints are all hidden in the corners of the map.

These functional props directly determine the players' completely different game experiences. Do you like to spend a lot of time finding a way, and have to cut out the map's direction just after taking two steps, or do you prefer to move quickly with one click after making a portal?

The answer is obviously the latter.

But the problem is that "Slime Ranch 2" does not optimize such problems, and even the simplest way to find the way, or important props prompts are set.

So, "Hurrying on the Road" has become a boring and boring first lesson that players need to learn by themselves.

Realistically speaking, due to the existence of the prop jet backpack, it was not difficult to rush through the perspective of the floating view. However, the sequel's jet pack is exactly the same as the previous one. After the player rises for a few seconds, he will hit the "air wall", and the room for rising is extremely limited. In essence, it is still just a slow "two-step jump" with a stagnant effect.

The "Treasure Ball" hidden in corners

The time you wait for energy recovery during the journey will bring a lot of disintegration to the player's game process. At the same time, the player actually didn'tThen you can explore the map with all your heart.

In the early stage of exploring the map, considering that returning to zero physical strength will lose all items, the "wild storage machine" requires a lot of resources, and the sequel has not even "restored" the "automatic mining machine". All map resources in "Slime Ranch 2" require players to obtain repeatedly and carefully.

If you want to create functional props that increase the gaming experience, players have to constantly repeat the resource collection. And this kind of repetitive work that is worthless obviously has no positive feedback than catching/feeding slimes or selling crystals to make money.

Of course, even for convenient taming slimes, it is difficult for players to feel satisfied. In Slime Ranch 2, money has almost become the most useless resource. A series of lack of systems around money allows you to make money all the time, but you can't spend it.

In the previous work, those small drones that remained as cute as Little Slime did not appear in the sequel. The most basic "infrastructure" is nothing more than pastures, chicken cages and orchards. Even vacuum guns don't have any new mechanisms, which makes people a little boring.

The new scene is indeed beautiful

The only thing completely new is several new types of slimes. I don't intend to deny that the new Slime is cute. The cool little bat and the little raccoon that deserves to be beaten are both plus points that are so cute in this game. But the problem is that the new little slimes are almost the new content of "Slime Ranch 2".

This is obviously not enough for a "sequel" with a predecessor with a sales of five million.

Of course, "Slime Ranch 2" is indeed only in the "early experience" stage at present, but for this work that has received so much attention, it may not be necessary to be so anxious to deliver it.

The report card with a sales volume of five million can at least ensure that the new work has sufficient development funds and respond to players' expectations in a better state. Instead of hurriedly putting a plate of half-baked overnight dishes on a silver plate and serving it on the table.

But as a reviewer, I still have to say responsibly that apart from not responding to player expectations in terms of "gameability", "Slime Ranch 2" is actually quite qualified in terms of a work in the "early experience" stage.

However, the large amount of fog on the map and even in development has to wait for a long time. If there is one in the previous work, it may not necessarily be one; if there is one in the new work, it will not be shown.

As for the moment, players entering the game during the "early experience" stage must endure the collapse of development curves, unreasonable values and mechanisms, and key blueprints that are difficult to find once ignored. At this time, the only thing that can drive players to continue the game are those still cute little slimes.

Obviously, these newly unveiled little slimes have endured too much.