Cattle Country review

Intro

There are few games that match Stardew Valley’s level, but in search of something similar I found Cattle Country. This game is heavily inspired by Stardew Valley but adds its own twist. A western twist to be precise.

Story

There’s not much of a story. The game starts when your character arrives at a patch of land in a mining settlement. Your general progress is followed through letters sent by a friend you left behind. He’ll comment on your achievements and tells you his own life experiences. What I found really cool, is that these letters are narrated by the one and only Roger Clark, a.k.a. Arthur Morgan.

Story rating: 6

Gameplay

Who has played Stardew Valley instantly feels at home in Cattle Country.

Farming, foraging and hunting

You start with a tent and immediately can start your farming life. Smack your hoe, throw some seeds, spill some water and wait. Or you can do other stuff, like foraging and hunting. Foraging is nothing special but the hunting is quite new. You start with a gun which you’ll need for shooting animals and bandits.

Shooting deer, foxes and birds will give you materials you otherwise need to buy. Once in a while some bandits will jump in your way giving you the choice to give them money or try to shoot your way out. The last option triggers a mini game in which you have to press a button in a given rhythm. On success, you shoot the bandits and you get some money from them. On failure, you lose some money and end up at the doctor.

Mining

You can also enter the mine in search of minerals and treasures. In contrast to Stardew Valley, the game shifts to a 2D sidescrolling perspective here and you get the ability to jump. More like Terraria. You make your way down and need to build ladders and elevators to get back up. There are also some enemies you can shoot with your gun or hit with your pickaxe. Some enemies also appear outside of the mine. If desired you can turn of all enemy encounters in the game settings.

Social

A key part of Cattle Country is engaging with the villagers. You need to grow in friendship levels to unlock new parts of the game. You do this by talking to the villagers and giving them gifts. The developers made this easy for you as all villager locations are shown on the map (so you don’t have to search for them) and every villager has a list of items he or she loves and hates (so you know what to give them and what not).

Cutscenes are triggered at different friendship levels. After these cutscenes, new items, buildings or projects are unlocked. The game doesn’t tell you this, though, so you need to figure out by yourself who you should befriend to get a certain item or building. In order to fully complete the game, you need to maximize all friendship levels.

Gameplay rating: 8

Graphics

The visuals are spot on. Vibrant colors change with the seasons, the sprites look great and the environment feels lively. Birds, squirrels and foxes roam the fields and scatter on approach.

Graphics rating: 8

Audio

The audio is also on par. The background audio has a subtle country melody which mixes nicely with the sounds of the environment. The sound effects are also great, but may sound a little too familiar compared to Stardew Valley.

Audio rating: 8

Conclusion

I enjoyed Cattle Country a lot. I needed online guides to discover how to progress, so that can be improved but once I new what needed to be done I happilly farmed and socialized away.

At some point, as with a lot of lifesim games, repetition kicked in. I got a thriving farm (with cattle), was married to a villager and developed the town quite a lot. A few tasks remained but that required quite some grinding so I decided to leave it like that.

Also, I’d like to mention that I encountered no bugs in my 50+ hour playthrough. Early reviews I read mentioned a lot of them so the developers has done a great job.