Ever since the launch of the exceptional Stardew Valley there has been a steady stream of titles looking to try to capture that same lightning in a bottle and share in even a fraction of its success. What so many of those attempts have thoroughly proven though is that making something as grand and satisfying as that benchmark is a substantial challenge. Whether the issues have been with overall quality, too limited a scope, or missing that critical component of heart, honestly nothing has come all that close to this point. Cattle Country, by contrast, finally feels like a title that gets the majority of the formula right, offering a pretty massive world with plenty of resources, the core activities you’d expect from the subgenre, and more critically a variety of its own unique ranching elements that further help to set itself apart.

For me the main appeal of Cattle Country is simply the pretty lush environs you’ll be working in. Rather than being plunked down on the remains of your decrepit family farm, you’ll be allowed to position your budding homestead where you’d like it to be, and there’s plenty of space to choose from. Similarly, while it can often feel like resource scarcity is a problem in many of these games, the land is absolutely packed with all sorts of stuff to pick up, collect, and craft with. That said, I’d argue that it quickly ties into one of the more irritating early game problems, and that’s with the insufficient size of your starting carrying inventory. Once you account for all of your tools, fundamental resources, and just some excess stuff you may want to craft with or sell, you’re not left with much space. Worse, as you continue to discover new areas like the mine or gear like your gun, there are simply so many unique pieces of gear you’ll need to do just about everything that the limitation feels outright unfair. You’ll get the opportunity to help mitigate this problem through a variety of means, but it did feel like a somewhat needless frustration early on.

Where the game really differentiates itself, and adds some fresh new ideas to the mix, is with its focus on activities around the ranching life. Whether that involves periodic encounters with bandits, working a cattle drive, going hunting, and more, this is absolutely a life sim with its own distinct identity, rather than merely trying to ape the successes of others. Of course, you’ll also be able to meet people and develop friendships, or even romantic relationships, with the people you’ll encounter, but I’d argue that they generally feel more traditional overall and not as quirky and memorable.

Taking it all in, this is a refreshing and even sometimes exciting new addition to the life sim RPG family on the Switch. It absolutely has all of the elements present that are familiar, but it then more than goes the extra mile to run with its own theme, and introduce new activities and play aspects that are absolutely uncommon and worthwhile. While not everything may be as polished and balanced as it could be, there’s still plenty that helps this stand out among its peers and finally deliver on the promise of a game in the space that’s not only comparable to Stardew Valley in many ways, but that also distinguishes itself from it, something very few titles in the space can claim.