To pay homage to your favorite piece of media and create something that would eventually equal that level of fame is not uncommon in the gaming landscape. Stardew Valley, for example, revitalized the farming sim genre for a new generation, while its developer was simply trying to recapture the whimsy he felt while playing Harvest Moon as a kid. And how ironic that his game would become so synonymous with these types of games that it would, in turn, spawn a legion of similar farming simulators for people aching to leave the daily grind for the peaceful farm life.
Cattle Country makes no excuses, recreating a very similar feeling to Stardew Valley, firmly holding its influences on its sleeve. Although this is not an entirely bad idea per se, it is imperative to bring something new to the table in order to avoid the blatant comparisons to what came before. In that regard, Cattle Country does a few things right, but it does not feel unique enough in its proposal to embark on a new life.
New Horizons
Greeted by a letter narrated by the iconic Roger Clark, voice of Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2, Cattle Country drops you right in your untilled piece of land to make it your own. A couple of avatar customization options and their brief tutorial, which mostly trusts you to find your way around the farming ins-and-outs, directly assumes this isn’t the first rodeo for whoever picks up this game. This can be a curse or a blessing, depending on how you approach video games.
The way it all works is rather straightforward. Gather materials by either cutting trees, breaking rocks, or fishing, to create new furniture and create new dishes. Outside of the craftable items available from the get-go, as you level up each of the available skills, such as farming, new items will be available next to new dishes to cook. All of this freeform approach to create your own experience is commendable, but those who want a more narrative approach will not find themselves as reflected as the world feels reactive to your actions with no overarching plot to drive the story beyond making more money to make the town bigger.
Big Aspirations
Developer Castle Pixel made its name with the endlessly charming Blossom Tales games. Inspired by A Link to the Past, these poke fun at themselves and the genre at large, delivering a fun, mechanically sound top-down adventure that knows exactly what made these games great and recreated that without flying too close to the sun. Cattle Country, on the other hand, feels more of a middle-of-the-road adventure between Stardew Valley and its own thing.
Cattle Country‘s gorgeous pixel-art style is quite eye-catching, and wandering into town or stumbling by the town’s untouched forests truly feels as cozy as can be. Minute details, like birds flying by, the chimney’s smoke, and different shapes or colors of trees, make strolling a joy.
All That Glitters
That said, not long after, the feeling of the game being painfully slow will set in, harming it along the way. One of the most important aspects of any video game is the distance you will travel without it feeling like a chore, especially in a game where you walk, day in and day out, to meet characters in town or out to fish at the nearby lake.
There are some scripted sequences, such as getting to meet Sheriff Tom or getting assaulted by bandits, which you may shoot with a timed minigame for extra gold coins for your business ventures. This shows a welcome spark of creativity that feels sorely lacking from the rest of the game, and it’s a nice change of pace from the usual everyday grind.
With a calendar to tell you when there will be special occasions, every so often there will be events in town that serve as opportunities for your character to mingle. With the expected change of seasons, its lackadaisical gameplay loop at least feels prettier with the coming of a new sporadic look.
Does It Spark Joy?
Regarding farming sims, it feels like if you have played them once, you have played them all. From starting with your hoe, pickaxe, scythe, axe, and watering can to grow your empire to eventually getting married to a partner of your choosing in a big house, we have done this song and dance before. This emphasizes the need for whichever new game in the genre to do something different to break out of the mold established from Harvest Moon all those years ago. Regrettably, Cattle Country is not that game.
But then again, it doesn’t need to be. Retreading old steps to inspire familiarity is exactly what some fans of the genre are looking for: more of the same, without much tweaking to the formula, to keep consuming the same type of game. And I don’t blame them. Comfort food tastes good, especially in times of need. But talking from a personal perspective and considering the developer’s previous games, perhaps I was hoping for more than what I got. After all, expectations are the thief of joy. For everyone else, there is a perfectly fine farm sim with charming characters and another farm to live in, if only for a moment.
Thank you to our PR Partners and Playtonic Friends for the review code for Cattle Country. You can find Seasoned Gaming’s review policy here.
