Cattle Country Review

Game: Cattle Country
Genre: Adventure, RPG, Simulation
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam (Windows), Xbox One/X/S and PS4/5)
Developer | Publisher: Castle Pixel | Playtonic Friends
Age Rating: US 10+ | EU 7+
Price: US $24.99 | UK £19.99 | EU € 24,99
Release Date: May 27th, 2025

A review code was provided, with many thanks to Press Engine.

From the developers of the Blossom Tales games, we move from fantasy lands to the wild west in Cattle Country.

Will Cattle Country be a trail-blazing simulation, or will it feel like herding cats?

Journeying into Cattle Country

Before you get into Cattle Country, you need to create your character. You can select a skin tone, hair style and colour, and a set of clothes. There’s enough to get a variety, but not as wide-ranging as some games. You also need to select a ranch name, your character’s first and last name, and the town name.

Your adventure then starts with a stagecoach journey with Jeb, who asks you a few questions about your reasons for coming to Cattle Country. It’s a fun way to start and when you arrive in town, Archibald (the mayor) will lead you to the area of wilderness which you will get to call your own.

If you are a beginner in the genre, then Archibald will explain how to farm or for a seasoned pro, he will say that you’ve come prepared – either option you will have a full set of tools, and some seeds, as well as a tent, craft table, mailbox and shipping bin. This means it’s totally your choice as to the position of these essentials. Before Archibald leaves, he gives you a few tasks: meet the locals, harvest some crops, and cook some food.

It’s then up to you to start your new life in Cattle Country.

Life in the Cattle Country

Farming follows a familiar routine to a lot of farming simulations: hoe, plant, water, and wait. There are no quick winners in Cattle Country, flowers (which can also be foraged) take 5 days, but everything else is 6 or more days. There are plenty of different crops, many of which grow in multiple seasons.

As well as arable, you can raise livestock, although it’s only chickens to begin with. You’ll need to buy a building blueprint, and once placed on the land, Maggie, the carpenter, will construct it for you. Animals can be bought from the ranch in town and at various festivals.

To fill your time whilst waiting for the crops to grow, you can go fishing. When you first meet Mary, she will gift you a fishing rod. The fishing mini-game consists of trying to stop the bobber on the green fish icon in the bar. Stop on the yellow and you’ll get another go, but let the bobber move backwards and forwards too many times, or miss completely, and the fish will escape.

The land in Cattle Country is full of rocks, trees, shrubs and flowers, so there is plenty of foraging for fruit and mushrooms to be done. There is even a beach with a few shells. Flowers don’t sell for much, but can be used (along with other resources) to craft furniture, and there’s a lot of décor and furniture to buy or make, so you can customise your tent and ranch.

There are no floors to wander round hunting for a ladder in the Cattle Country mine, it’s just a great big vertical area to dig down through. Jeb will give you some rope ladders, platforms and lamps to get you started, and challenge you to get down to level 25. Although you can craft more supplies, you will also dig them up, along with food and treasure. There is a huge range of minerals and ores to discover, as well as the more lucrative gemstones. It’s one of the best mining experiences I’ve come across, and I haven’t unlocked the dynamite yet!

If you have the ‘Enemies In The Mines’ option selected, then you will be ambushed by rats, spiders and flying bugs. Your trusty six-shooter will make light work of them, alternatively you can just turn off the option and enjoy some mob-free mining.

Your Cattle Country Friends and Enemies

Introducing yourself and making friends in Cattle Country is important, as it will open up quests and more items to craft and cook. The journal details the likes and dislikes of each character, with most liking something relatively easy to get hold of. The NPC conversations are a little repetitive, but as your friendship level increases, you will encounter cutscenes which give some insight into the characters. Many activities are sequential, so you’ll be able to upgrade your tent to a log cabin once you help complete the Town Hall.

There are various festivals throughout the Cattle Country year, most with a mini-game to celebrate it with. If you haven’t managed to introduce yourself to everyone, the hoedown in early spring is a great opportunity to meet and greet. I’ve played through three festivals, and the rodeo is probably one of the best festivals I’ve played in this genre of game. The country/line dancing music varies for the festivals and normal days, but it is very, very quiet, even with the volume at maximum.

It’s not all “yee-haw” and “howdy pardners” in Cattle Country, this is the Wild West and there are bandits lurking in the woods. Although you can pay up when one (or more) jump from a tree, you can also opt for a shoot-out – just pull the trigger at the right moment to win. Lose and you’ll end up in the capable hands of Dr. Andrew, with less gold than you started. As well as bandits, there are health-draining creatures, like vultures or snakes, lurking in the trees and undergrowth. However, similar to the mine enemies, there is an option to exclude all overworld enemies.

Cattle Country Gameplay

The controls in Cattle Country could be explained more, especially as some have a dual purpose, e.g., shooting when you are holding the pistol, or swapping the inventory row. However, once you’ve figured them out, they are fine and don’t require the multiple ‘hold, move, press’ movement which some games do. Although there is no touchscreen functionality, Cattle Country plays as well in handheld mode as it does in docked.

There are three save slots, and the game autosaves when you sleep. If you try to stay awake all night, you will collapse at 2am and need to pay for your hospital treatment.

The review is based on a pre-release version, which did have an update during the review time, so some of the issues I first encountered were resolved. However, the names of my pets and hens still ended up repeating letters, for example, Kkiittttyy. Some of the same items didn’t stack properly, almost like they were a different quality without it being shown as such, and using the furnaces or opening chests, after being in the mines, required careful line-up and standing further away. At present, you can’t take photos or videos via the capture button on the Nintendo Switch – the images used in this review are taken via an external capture card.

In addition, although I didn’t particularly notice any frame-rate issues, the loading time when you move between the different areas on the map, or as you enter/leave buildings is really long. The screen will go dark for a moment, and then go totally black for 5+ seconds, which is disruptive to the flow of the game.

It takes about 20 real-time minutes to play a Cattle Country day, although it depends on how many cutscenes, conversations or searching through chests and menus you do, as the in-game time pauses during those activities.

I’ve started a couple of playthroughs (before and after the pre-release update) and clocked up over 30+ hours. However, I’ve still not encountered some of the activities you see in the trailers, like the soap-box races or have a high enough friendship level to contemplate marriage, and considering it’s called Cattle Country, I have yet to herd any cows! That said, I’m keen to keep playing and find out where my pioneering life will take me.

Conclusion

Cattle Country is a rootin’-tootin’ addition to the farming/life sim genre. There are a few issues which need taming, especially around the loading times on the Nintendo Switch.

However, there is so much to do in Cattle Country! Engaging festivals and mini-games, intriguing character stories and one of the best mining experiences I’ve encountered. Cattle Country will be riding into my top games for this year!

Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up

 

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