Chilling Out and Bouncing Around in Slime Rancher VR

So, the other day I was talking with my Discord VR buddy (/waves at NV) about a VR game I want to make. While I was discussing it with him, he noted that in some way what I was describing sounded a lot like the game Slime Rancher. 

Slime Rancher is one of those games that I had always heard mention of, but never really looked at. This is a six- or seven-year-old game at this point, and honestly, I can't believe I never checked it out to be honest. So, because my buddy mentioned it, I absolutely had to go check this game out.

Caging up the Big ol Pink Rock Slimes

My kids were equally shocked I had never played Slime Rancher when I talked to them about it. In their words, it's just a chill tycoon game that's easy to play. 

Although chilling with Slime Rancher sounded pretty good, I was more excited to try the VR playground version of the game that you get for free when you purchase the base game . . . despite the warnings from Goldtail the Steam reviewer.

If you launch with Steam VR, you'll get a smoother graphical presentation, but from the get-go you're greeted with a control scheme using Vive controllers.

Those controls translated over to Quest controllers, however, took a lot of getting used to. I'm not sure why the joystick wasn't used to just move you around . . . instead you needed to point yourself in a direction and use the squeeze trigger on the left controller to move you forward. To rotate your head you have to downclick to the side with the joystick to tilt 15 degrees. Once I figured that out though, it was really no problem navigating the environments.

(Important to note, you can launch the game with Oculus VR from Steam, but I got a lot of graphical stuttering when I did . . . controls weren't much better tbh.)

Rubber Ducks and tons of toys in the base for you to play with

The playground comes with a home base and three world environments: a glowing mushroom swamp, the standard desert mountains, and zelda-esque ancient ruins.

pink slimes and meow slimes playing together in VR

You can use your suction gun much like you do in the base game of slime rancher to suck up slimes, goodies, and plorts. On the quest controllers you'll need to click down on the right joystick to shoot those objects out.

All in all, there's really no game here to play aside from feeding slimes food and putting them in cages to make them combine. Really, this is just to see the world of Slime Rancher all around you in VR fashion, which is pretty fun. Getting in a cage full of bouncing slimes is kind of fun. You'll get knocked around and feel surrounded by happy little slimes.

Magical Green Goobers of fun!

I take that back, there is "one" game-like element that I found. In the desert mountains environment, you can find a basketball hoop that once you shoot a slime into it, queues some new music and floats up and down while you try to make baskets into the hoop with your captured slimes. (side note: it's not that easy to do -- those slimes are slippery!)

Shooting baskets with slimy bois

If you're looking for a fun environment to run around in and own a copy of Slime Rancher, jump on in and check it out. Once in a while you can find Slime Rancher on super discount. I actually bought it for an astounding $2 in November during the autumn sale, but typically when it goes on sale, it's $5, which still ain't bad.

Happy Dueling!