Imagine this – rain is lashing against the window, the outside world is murky, grey and cold – you’ve just gotten soaking wet running to the shop to get some essentials you completely forgot you ran out of. Your bones are cold and you’re starting to believe that bears have the right idea when it comes to hibernation. What would work very well now would be a cup of tea and a cosy game containing welcome surprises to keep you on your toes – the Cattle Country Steam demo could very well be the one to tick these boxes.
Cattle CountryDeveloper: Castle PixelPublisher: Playtonic FriendsRelease: TBAPlay the demo on: Steam
You’d be forgiven for looking at Cattle Country and wondering just how its blend of pioneer farming differs from Stardew Valley, if at all. But in the short time I played, it became quite apparent that it’s developing a personality all its own and finding a space to nestle itself into.
First of all, I spent far too much time with the character creator, which is by no means a negative – there were so many choices for hairstyles, clothing styles and other customisable elements that let you make the character feel like your own without having to grind away in-game for a single shirt. However, there also weren’t many choices that customising my character became overwhelming at any point. There seemed to be a delicate balance there of just enough and not too much. There’s even the option to choose your own pronouns, and NPCs throughout the demo used the correct ones I’d allocated to my character.
Cattle Country | Coming to PS5 & Nintendo Switch! Watch on YouTube
Eventually I let my purple-haired hero venture away from customisation and into Cattle Country. This is where the comparisons to Stardew Valley are arguably the strongest, as instead of a farm, you own a ranch that you can build from the ground up with crops, cattle and various enterprises to make sure you’ve got a place to call home. Your progress is saved at night when you sleep in your bed, but mercifully, there’s a fast travel system, so if you don’t feel like walking all the way into town you can teleport there instead thanks to the handy Archibald, who pretty much always seems to hang around on the edge of your farm (which is not at all concerning in the slightest).