HIGH Adorable slimes and fantastical environments.

LOW The frustrating progression system.

WTF The ethics of my “ranch”.

All the way back in 2016 I picked up a Humble Bundle containing the original Slime Rancher and tried it on a whim. Stardew Valley had only just been released and the indie farming mania had yet to fully take effect. So, while it had some problems, Slime Rancher felt fresh and I was quite taken by it thanks to the whimsical charm of the Far Far Range, filled with all its gelatinous inhabitants. Many hours were spent enjoying the feeling of discovery as I explored new areas, built up my ranch and let it devolve into Dickensian work standards as overcrowded cells of slimes generated income for my capitalist vices.

Over eight years later, Slime Rancher 2 finally got its full release and I was eager to get back and start rounding up some colorful creatures. After finally making my way through the main content, let’s just say I have some thoughts…

To set the scene, the player reprises the role of Beatrix LeBeau, an intrepid slime rancher who has made her way to a new land with a conservatory most could only dream of, ripe for turning into a brand new Slime Ranch. Alongside is her trusty ‘Vacpack’ — a gun capable of sucking in and firing out nearby food, slimes and the occasional decorative pot.

The system is quite simple — catch a slime, feed it food and out plops a ‘plort’ which can be sold for sweet, sweet cash. Different slimes have different food preferences and conditions needed to keep them, so if the player wants to “catch ‘em all” they’ll need to expand their ranch with a number of different environments. Amateur geneticists can also crossbreed slimes by feeding them each other’s plorts (I would advise not dwelling too deep on this) creating a larger and feistier, but also more profitable Largo Slime.

For the first act of the campaign I was enjoying myself as the trappings feel immediately similar to the original Slime Rancher. I was a little disappointed to find the majority of slimes were reused from the first game, but SR2 manages to maintain the same whimsy and comical interactions as slimes bounce around looking for food and bumping into each other. The initial areas are relatively colorful and diverse, and the player will have some immediate goals to fill out the ranch and get a few key upgrades.

On that note, Slime Science is back from the original and has a much larger role to play. Alongside stockpiling plorts, the player will need special science materials that randomly spawn around the map. Initially this added an element of excitement as I stumbled across rare resources and hurriedly carried them back to base. (Slime Rancher 2 assumes the player loves running, by the way — it forces them to do it a lot!)

One of the main areas Slime Rancher 2 has evolved is in the use of this Science to unlock both utilities and decorations. Warp devices move people and resources, utilities to help recover health or stamina, and aesthetic pieces liven up the ranch and bring it to life.

Overall, there’s a lot to like here. Slime Rancher 2 is split into two distinct acts, and the first is certainly a continuation of the original formula. Act 2, or “The Grey Labyrinth”, is where the story truly starts — and frankly, I consider this section to be actively harmful to the overall experience. Judging by player reviews I might be in the minority, so allow me to defend myself.

As I made my way further out from my main base, the sheen started to wear off as trekking through the same landscapes time after time became frustrating. There are a couple of portals and shortcuts that help skip some of the journey, but the ability to create teleporters is locked until almost the very end of the game. An issue, since Slime Rancher 2‘s primary focus becomes less about ranching and more about exploring as the adventure progresses.

Worse, there are not one, not two, but three RNG resource grinds in order to get to endgame, which just means running around in circles to find the needed items — and maybe I’m just going crazy, but I’d swear the RNG odds decrease for areas that have already been explored until time passes to reset them. This often resulted in me having to go back to base and do a long runback to grind more resources because I hadn’t found all the rare spawns I needed.

With limited stamina that takes slightly too long to recover, these grindy late game utility unlocks, and lack of focus on the actual ranching, Slime Rancher 2‘s second half was not a great time. Achieving these goals were often met with relief that I didn’t have to grind further or deal with frustrating mechanics any longer, rather than being excited about finally getting a cool, new toy. It’s just not enjoyable, and feels like such a weird design choice in an otherwise cozy title.

It’s not all bad in the back half, though. The later stages do feature the most impressive environments the series has to offer, and numerous times I stopped in awe to admire the scene before me. The dynamic soundtrack is also consistently good throughout. Some of the new slimes have interesting designs and quirks that immediately made me want to add them to the collection. The story… well, the story doesn’t actively detract from things and does justify some interesting world events and settings.

Ultimately, Slime Rancher 2 is a strange beast. On paper it has everything the original does, and more. More slimes, more unlocks and more imaginative environments. Sadly, the frustrations overshadowed many of those positives for me, as many of the new additions actively work against the tone of the experience. Quicker access to fast travel or unlimited stamina would go a long way to easing these complaints, and make me feel less like my time was being wasted.

I’ve been rather negative on its latter sections, but for those who enjoyed the original Slime Rancher, it manages to hit many of the same pleasant notes — but maybe have a guide handy to minimize the travel and grinding. 

— Adam Sharman

Rating: 6 out of 10

Buy Slime Rancher 2 – PC – PS – XB

Disclosures: This game is developed by Monomi Park and is self published. It is currently available on PC, PS and XB. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 15 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There is currently no multiplayer option.

Parents: The game has an ESRB rating of E10+ due to Fantasy Violence. Evil slimes known as Tarr that will consume friendly slimes are able to be toggled off on game start, however the player can still be damaged and bitten. All “fighting” is done by launching enemies away or shooting them with water. 

Colorblind Modes: There is no colorblind mode.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles, but there is no audible dialogue — all story is conveyed via text. (See example above.) Slimes do make noises but they do not affect gameplay with the exception of the lucky slime which does have a jingle to indicate its presence. Without a matching visual cue, it is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls on both keyboard and controller.

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HIGH Incredible attention to detail with great graphics and unique building types.

LOW A janky camera and constant bugs.

WTF Why is it so easy to bribe officials?!

Pax Augusta isn’t quite a spectacular Roman triumph, but it is certainly a valiant effort from a solo developer that could earn the admiration of city-building fans. In this title, the player takes on the life of a minor Roman official climbing their way to riches by managing colonies. While the detail and ambition is impressive, Pax Augusta suffers from bugs and technical frustrations that hold it back. However, with some polishing, Pax Augusta could rise like Rome itself.

The underlying premise of Pax Augusta is to build a Roman city from the ground up using structures such as houses, gardens, and temples. The core gameplay is about citizen and resource management. Expanding too quickly leads to resource shortages, so Pax Augusta prioritizes slow and steady growth, as opposed to rapid construction. The idea is extremely promising, and paired with a well-known historical period, the immersion aspect is exceptional. Pax Augusta, at its heart, feels like an old-school city-builder
utilizing the iconic Roman setting.

Diving into the positives, the building mechanics are well-implemented and the graphics are riveting. The main goal is to increase population to obtain more wealth and reputation, allowing the player to rise in the ranks of Roman nobility. Players can do things like build, manage food and production, and trade.
The town ‘layer’ is where the main gameplay happens, but there’s also an outer map that allows the player to buy resources from other villages and move around the Roman empire. The progression from a village to a town is satisfying, and milestones are marked with new building unlocks and higher class citizens. The needs and design system also balances challenge and enjoyability. Citizen satisfaction is based on how happy people feel in their home, which is influenced by variables like access to food, water, and distance from the town center.

A unique mechanic cities offer is a forum, which is essentially a town hall. As the player gains more population, the forum needs to expand, and elements like calendars and shrines can be added. Additionally, the forum is built square by square, and with a variety of choices, the player has a lot of room to let their creativity run wild and build authentic architecture.

The graphics and art style in Pax Augusta are great. The design leans heavily towards realism, with a good veneer of authenticity. White-marbled temples and wooden market stalls amplify the feel of a Roman town, and buildings stand out and are easily identified, even when close to each other. The world map depicts a grassy landscape with paved roads and markers that make navigating clear and organized.
Unfortunately, Pax Augusta is held back by potentially game-breaking bugs.

First of all, the camera is janky. It constantly glitches or freezes when the screen moves, and it gave me a bit of a headache moving around. Also, when loading the map, it took a long time to render the buildings, causing stuttering and glitching before eventually crashing. The story mode has a bug where if the player leaves their town to go to the world map, the questline is broken – this happened to me multiple times, and I was never able to get past the third quest in the story.

The user interface is clean, and the tutorial does a decent job of explaining how each button works, but there are some mechanics that are overly complex. For instance, to put on a show, the player has to construct a theater, construct a shrine and pay augurs to reveal the omens, and then hire a theater company from the world map before finally being able to choose a compatible month to display a performance. Mechanics like these largely discourage the player from building specific buildings because the effects they have are negligible compared to the hassle it takes to pull them off.

The senate (spoiler: it’s me) has deliberated on Pax Augusta and sees a lot of potential. The building effects are well developed and its fundamental mechanics prove to be entertaining. The graphics are also a positive talking point, creating a realistic feel that can transport the player a few thousand years back. However, Pax Augusta – at the time of review – remains incredibly unpolished and riddled with bugs, some of them which simply can’t be ignored. It’s clear that the developer put time and passion into this
project, and if the bugs can be ironed out, it will be a solid title for history and city-builder fans to enjoy.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10

— Eddie Guo

Buy Pax Augusta – PC

Disclosures: This game is developed by Roger Gassmann and published by Senatis. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This has not been rated by ESRB. There are mentions of slavery, but as expected for a city-builder, there is very little violence, gore, or cursing. The main focus is on strategic development which makes this game suitable for most ages.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game has no dialogue and everything is communicated with big text boxes that cannot be altered/resized. There are no necessary audio cues. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Pax Augusta Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

High Some decent character stories.

Low Poor pacing and barebones gameplay make getting to the stories a chore.

WTF Pretty much everything hippopotamus-related.

No matter how many mean things I say about Flat Eye over the course of this review, I want readers
to know right off the bat that I think its decision to make the UI diegetic is kinda genius. As a new ‘manager’ for the remote Iceland outlet of the omnipresent Flat Eye corporation, the player is given an in- game desktop with a number of different apps to track their progress, as well as a camera feed to their store — it clearly resembles the isometric view of a resource management or RTS game.

The player is tasked with assisting a mysterious AI — the controller of Flat Eye corp. — who wishes to understand humanity and determine its future. To further this goal, the AI gives the player a bevy of tasks that take the form of quests.

From this distanced perspective, the player is asked to make cutthroat decisions about which new
dystopian products they should start selling to maximize profits (an assisted suicide booth, perhaps?) or which worker they should hire. In a clever way, Flat Eye equates the dispassionate management sim gamer with the average capitalist middle manager, seeing in both the potential for an experience centered on what happens when a human being is forced to cooperate with a Machiavellian economic system that prioritizes cold, inhuman efficiency.

This system, Flat Eye seems to argue, is destined to fall into chaos and unpredictability. Not even the greatest AI humanity has ever seen can truly navigate this chaos without a human touch. This notion is
argued with reasonable skill through Flat Eye‘s first act, but as the story continues to progress, the
careful balance between story and gameplay begins to fall apart. The problem is that gameplay just isn’t that deep to begin with.

The protagonist controls a single clerk who can place new features in the store to generate cash or energy. As each day progresses, customers file in and out of the store, and it’s up to the clerk to ensure they are happy by placing sufficient features to prevent long lineups, and repairing features regularly to prevent breakdowns. I will admit that this is a tough ask at the start, when the player also has to find time to manually work the cash register. I would often have to choose between repairing a critical structure and ringing up a product, and doing one meant the other customer was pissed.

On one of these early days, almost every structure in my store lost power due to my poor panicky management, making my clerk resign and all my customers leave. Ironically, I loved this moment. It left me feeling quite optimistic about Flat Eye as a simulation! Sadly, as soon as the player unlocks self-serve cash on the tech tree, this sense of tension more-or-less vanishes. After that, gameplay usually consists of hitting fast-forward and watching cash pile up while occasionally placing new structures and left-clicking on the ones that need repair.

One can dig into all the technical minutiae in order to maximize profits — there’s a screen that shows the number of customers waiting at each station, for example — but there’s no point given how easy it is to coast through. Flat Eye‘s story progression is largely tied to purchasing and placing new structures from the tech tree, which attracts “Premium Customers” who converse with the player in a visual novel format. When talking with them, the player can pick dialogue options and make decisions that impact the lives of these characters (and, eventually, the ending the player will get).

These character storylines are… a mixed bag. They range from interesting Black Mirror-inspired dystopia diversions like the lady who’s been drugged into thinking she’s a hippopotamus, to rambling yarns with poor control over their tone. If Flat Eye was just a visual novel, this extreme variance in quality might be tolerable. However, the problem is that to trigger these conversations and move the story forward, the player needs to acquire Tech Points to spend on the skill tree. These points are acquired by leveling up the manager, which is done by acquiring ‘stars’ from their end-of-day corporate evaluation.

I found it quite easy to get four to five stars at the end of almost every day — many of the randomized side missions that grant bonus stars require no effort, and the daily expected revenue only tracks the player’s total money on hand, not the money that has been exclusively generated that day. This means that I could just sell a bunch of high-value items to reach the required revenue for that day, and then just coast until closing time.

Power failures, clerk deaths or resignations all cease to matter at a certain point and Flat Eye becomes a waiting game, forcing the player to trudge through an agonizing gauntlet of empty days as they kill time while waiting to level up so they can advance the story by one more notch. Flat Eye had something good going for it at the beginning, with its frantic pace rubbing uncomfortably against its aesthetics of antiseptic capitalism, but by the time I approached the end, I felt like my time as a player was being wasted.

One could argue that my boredom was an intended result of Flat Eye‘s ludonarrative theming, but I just don’t buy it and that diegetic UI just wasn’t enough — I’ll be taking my business elsewhere.

— Breton Campbell

Disclaimers: This game is developed by Monkey Moon and published by Raw Fury. It is currently
available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 8 hours of play were spent in the game’s single-player mode, and the game was
completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

According to the ESRB, the game is rated T and contains Drug Reference, Violence, Suggestive
Themes, and Use of Tobacco. The violent scenes mainly involve the accidental deaths of clerks, and are
fairly non-explicit. The other references to mature content are mainly contained in the story sections, and
there is also an in-game option to toggle off disturbing content.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard at Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered or resized.
Given that all the dialogue is subtitled and clear visual cues are given for every action in the game, it can
easily be completed without sound. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Flat Eye Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.