Cattle Country PS5 Review

Cattle Country on PS5 was sent to me by Castle Pixel and is a game I followed for a while. You may remember my coverage of the Cattle Country (Steam Fest Demo) where I had a lot of great things to say about the Steam demo. So you may be wondering, did this translate to the final version, and more importantly, did it come over to the PS5 version all that well?

To put it simply, yes, it did. The game starts out with the mayor giving you a quick tour of your farm, and by that he says Hey, this is your land, here is a tent and some stuff, put it wherever you want. He gives you everything you need to squeak out a quick living and leaves you to it.

From here, many things can happen; he gives you a list of tasks you should do. They will give you nice rewards, help you level up your skills, get to know the town, and earn some money. This will also get you some basic things like a gun, a fishing pole, and some mining gear.

If you have played any cozy farming game, you pretty much know the routine: plant crops, go fishing, dig in the mines, upgrade your equipment, raise animals. You can upgrade your tent into a house, into a mansion, eventually, if you want.

What really matters is what sets these games apart from other games like it, and that is what this game does well. The mining, for example, isn’t just walking into a mine and digging until you find a ladder. It really is just a massive mine with hundreds of levels that you dig in, you build a series of platforms, ladders, and even an elevator to get up and down or side to side. None of this is locked by anything; if you have the materials or the money, you can just make or buy this stuff and go to town.

The game world itself has enemies in it, and if you want, you can just shut them off in the options menu. The game doesn’t punish you for this choice either. So if you want to go mining and chop down trees and not be bothered by bandits or bees, feel free. The choice is yours.

You will also be helping the town go from being a mining town to a fully recognized city, if you want. You obviously have the option to ignore all this if you want, but there is a list of things to do to make this happen. For example, being connected to the outside world by a train, and having a citizen worth a million gold. Which is you, by the way, start tossing money in the bank and collect interest. Literally, the game has a bank you can store money in, and at the end of every season, 2% interest is added. Compounding interest is a real thing.

I have a lot of fun with this one, and while I would never call this a Stardew Valley killer, I will call it a good Stardew Valley alternative, and that is all it ever tried to be. 8/10, give this a shot. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.