Slime Rancher 2

Too similar to the first game, in fact I find it easier to just start up a new save in the original game than to muster motivation to play this sequel. It lost the "magic" the first one had. There is more "grind" with less of the vibe that made the original so fun for me. Other reviews hit on this odd feeling, like it's missing something but hard to pin down what that is. I just defer to "it lost it's magic" and the original is still a blast to play

There will be no game ending spoilers in this review. There will, however, be spoilers for the large zone that makes up the second half of the game. You have been warned. I want to say that I would recommend this game to anyone who loved Slime Rancher 1, but while I absolutely loved Slime Rancher 1, I have very mixed feelings on the sequel, and therefore can't really do so. Let me start with the things I love. The crafting resources are placed at a random smattering of a pool of locations out in the world and no longer require a resource collecting gadget to gather. To help find them, there is a resource tracking item you can buy (It's classified as a Slime toy, amusingly enough), and while it is a bit fiddly it can be a big help in tracking specific things down. The personal upgrades are crafted now, taking unique modules that can be found out in the world by exploring. The Gadget placement system now allows you to freely place gadgets largely wherever you want, both in the Conservatory and out in the wider world. The game, like the first one, REALLY incentivizes exploration, putting things to find all over the map. Rarely did I explore a difficult to reach location that I wasn't even sure you were supposed to go and not find something special placed there. The weather system in the game is beautiful. I didn't even consciously realize the first game doesn't have any sort of weather system (outside of maybe the Glass Desert and the firestorms), but in the second game they fit in REALLY well and I think are a wonderful addition. It's hard to compare one to one, but the map feels much bigger than in the first game, with new things to explore, shortcuts to open, and Gordos to pop. Now for the things I didn't love. The Quantum Drones feel like they should be an improvement over the drones in the first game, and before I get to the negatives I will give a few positives. They are no longer physical entities that can block items you are shooting or vaccing using the vacpack. The water battery system is gone, replaced with the need to feed them plorts, and can be overcharged a lot so the drone can run for days at a time. The drones can be placed out in the world to collect plorts, food, or resources. Unfortunately, that is about it. The drones themselves take a few rare resources, difficult to obtain plorts (you can combine these specific slimes with another that is easier to feed as a Largo, but it's still a pain), a not insignificant amount of money, and a unique drone module. These modules can be obtained by exploring mainly, though there are a few other ways to obtain them, and there is a limited number of modules you can obtain, meaning there are a limited number of drones you can make. The first game had an advanced Drone you could get from Viktor that could perform two separate tasks, yet the Quantum Drone can only handle one task. While you can place the drones out in the wider world, their range is so laughably small that you'd have to use multiple drones to even cover a rather clustered resource such as wild honey (And I feel like the strongest use case would be to gather rarer resources, such as wild honey). Within the Conservatory, they still only cover one section of the farm. With how expensive and limited these drones are, it feels like they should be able to cover the entire Conservatory, a larger section of the wider world (perhaps even a defined "Sector" of the map, such as the area most of the wild honey is found in, or the area most of the lava dust is found in, as those are rather distinct zones.), and perform specific tasks (Bring X food to Y corral), preferably multiple tasks at a time (2 or 3). I honestly wish they had kept the original drones in the game, made them the less expensive option that was as good as the drone or advanced drone in the first game, and made the Quantum Drones worth the price and limited nature. The interactions with your friends at the other ranches through the message terminal are great, but it feels like there are far too few of these conversations. Beyond a certain point, every message just becomes one of a small collection of "I'm giving you a blueprint as a gift", which feels a bit robotic and disappointing. I didn't even feel like I was that far into the game when these became the only messages I really got either! The ability to go to each of their ranches, talk to them there, and play their individual minigames is completely missing as well, meaning they feel much more distant, and you are entirely missing out on the extra ranch spaces you would have gotten in the first game. I understand that you have gone a ways out to a different location, but teleportation technology exists in multiple forms, and I would have loved to see either new takes on the old minigames, or new minigames entirely. These minigames awarded certain gadgets, such as the advanced drone blueprint, and were a unique option to make money, and I feel Slime Rancher 2 is lesser for their absence. I do not know if the team behind the game plan to add something like that in the future, but the game has had its full release and they are not here, and their absence is thus going in this review. The Grey Labyrinth feels altogether massive and confusing, especially with how long it takes you to get to map reveal nodes in some areas. And while it is a massive space, it somehow feels less... engaging than the outside world. The Dream Land feels like it is so far out of the way that I only went maybe 5 times in the entire game, and each time felt like I was overextended and worried about filling up my inventory or falling off the edge. The pathway you reveal to the ending location of the game was completely empty outside of an entrance to a side area, and something needed to complete the game (avoiding spoilers here). There were no resources, there were no slimes, it was just... eerie honestly. I had so little reason to walk down this path outside of getting to the destination that I put a 2 way teleporter to SKIP it. Had there been ANYTHING of interest on the path I would have been less likely to do so. I think the Shadow Plorts and slimes are a neat idea, though it wasn't initially clear to me what I needed to do to get them to give me plorts. However, the unstable plorts and unstable resources in general were a massive pain in a way I don't think was intentional. The unstable plorts and unstable foods flinging themselves out of my vacpack at random was obnoxious, especially with the randomness of Prisma Stabilizers and the rarity of Stabilizing Gates, causing you to lose a good chunk of your gained plorts before even being able to find a way to stabilize them. The Stabilizing Gates were out of the way and practically useless for stabilizing the unstable plorts into Prisma Plorts. If they had been a gadget you were able to pick up and place in the world yourself, I feel like the Gates would make far more sense. The "lock" timers on certain gadgets encourage you not to use them. For instance, putting down a resource link forces you to wait a minute before you can put resources into it. I understand the idea of not letting players abuse the ability to place and pick up these gadgets, but all it is doing is immediately punishing the player for trying to use the gadget in the first place. I think that instead of a minute to wait before putting items in (or in the case of 2 way teleporters use the teleporter), time that is likely just spent waiting for it to wind down (especially if the reason for placing such a gadget is a full inventory), the lock timer would be better served by forcing the player to wait to pick up the gadget, either a timer after placing it, or a timer triggered when attempting to pick up the gadget. (Review continues in comment)

It played fine for the first hour, then out of nowhere everytime I would go to use my mouse my game would freeze and then unfreeze when I stopped moving my mouse.