Cattle Country, developed by Castle Pixel, LLC and published by Playtonic Friends, is available on Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch now. Cattle Country throws you into the year 1890,
In Cattle Country, you’ll run your own farm; you’ll need to do activities like growing crops, tending to animals, fishing, mining, building, and more. I enjoyed fishing the most, sitting by a lakeside, seeing what I would catch; it felt therapeutic, with birds singing in the background and the wind rustling the leaves. I also loved foraging, journeying around the lands, exploring, stealing the lemons; I became the sour bandit. While I would have loved to sit around fishing and foraging all day, the aim is to get as much money as possible and grow your farm to become successful. The game can sometimes feel grindy while you await the cash to pour in, but I enjoyed my time with it. Not all is peaceful, however; you will run into trouble – bandits! The combat is handled with a little mini-game where you have to click at the right point, but when I came across nasty animals, I’d just have to aim and shoot with my revolver. I enjoyed the combat; it broke up the gameplay a little, which added variety. The new update that has just dropped adds a lot more to the combat side of things. You’ll come across more bandits and be able to take on bounties, which adds to that Wild West feel.
Cattle Country doesn’t focus heavily on story; instead, you hear about the world around you, like a letter from a friend, to mark new achievements or help fix up the town. To learn more about what’s going on, you’ll establish relationships with people. Through this system, you learn more about the town. As you progress, you’ll learn skills through little quests; they act like a tutorial that also pays off with rewards. I believe Cattle Country could have had a better story; however, with all you can do gameplay-wise, it doesn’t feel like the lack of a big story tanks the game.
The graphics are similar to other farming sims of the same nature, still a pretty game to look at. Each character is unique in look and style. The animals are damn right cute. The music is perfection; it fits in with the Wild West theme, and a certain Arthur Morgan… is the narrator, which is the icing on the cake. I could have easily left the PC with the game running, closed my eyes and visualised myself there because it encapsulates the era perfectly. A lot of effort has gone into making this game fit its theme, and it shows.
Verdict
Cattle Country is enjoyable and a lot of fun, with plenty to do. It is one of those games that grips you from the get-go. The progression is fun, if not a little grindy in places, but I loved it. There is, however, something playing on my mind with this; it’s both a positive and a negative depending on what you’re looking for. I think it copies Stardew a little too much. The icons, the UI, the way everything reacts in-game feels a little too similar. However, the developers have created a lot of content that separates it. In one respect, if you’ve played the heck out of Stardew Valley and there’s no content left and you want something similar with fresh content, Cattle Country is the perfect game. However, if you want something different entirely that breaks the mould a little in farming games, this ain’t it. For me, it was different enough due to the Wild West setting. Cattle Country gets a certified Yee Haw!
