Cattle Country is a brand new life simulation game developed by Castle Pixel and published by Playtonic Friends. We previously shared the game's announcement back in December of 2024, but during these past few weeks Playtonic gave us the change to experience a demo build of the game ahead of its Steam Next Fest debut!
We've been sworn to secrecy during this time, but now that the demo is out for the world to play, we can finally share our own first impressions of the game. And let me tell you, I was pleasantly surprised.
Related: Interview With The Developers of The New Life Sim Cattle Country
Before I continue on, it is important to note that the build I was playing was a demo built to serve as a preview. It contained roughly two hours worth of in game days to live through, and was pretty up front about the different core features of the game. The vast majority of the map was sectioned off, so I couldn't explore everything, and there were only so many events that could be viewed. Obviously things also moved much faster in the demo, and by the end of it I had hundreds of items I could buy, craft, and place around the world... I just didn't have the time to do it all in a single run.
That being said, the main game will be different. As with real life, Cattle Country will ask you to work for your rewards, and will have much more content than what I was given the chance to see. I briefly spoke with Sophie, the marketing lead for Cattle Country, about the game's content, and was informed that the main game will even feature bandits and train robberies; so there are plenty of cool things to look forward to when the game releases, and this demo is clearly just the beginning "core" of the game. But I still loved it.
Beginning a New Life:
Cattle Country follows in the same line of other life simulator/farm games. You are the main character, and you are moving to a new town to start a new life. One interesting thing about Cattle Country however, is the fact that the intro message to your new life is narrated with voice acting, and asks you additional questions that are not typical of this genre.
Not only did I get to pick my first name, last name, and my ranch's name, but I got to name my town as well. This is something you usually see in Animal Crossing, but have little to no control over when it comes to farming games. Usually it is a set in stone village, and you have to live with that; however here there seems to be a bit more control. Choosing your last name also has characters calling you by it, with the kid characters often referring to me as Mr (Ms and Mx were also options). It is a nice touch, and is something carried throughout the entire game, as all of the characters have full names associated with them. This makes realizing relationships a bit easier, and I personally really liked that.
Once I was settled into my new ranch, the game quickly came at me with the tutorial. I was given the option to skip it, but I decided to sit though it and see what it had to offer. It didn't take me long to realize I knew everything though, so my eyes kinda glazed over as the town's mayor Archibald tried to go over everything with me. I was thrown a steady stream of tools, which I already knew how to use, and was shown all of the key objects placed around my house.
Of course we had the shipping box, have to make money after all, the water pump, the work bench, the furnace for creating crafting materials, the storage box, and of course how could we forget the drying rack for my skinned pelts... Wait what?
That was the moment where I realized maybe this game wasn't what I was used to, and that I was truly in store for a completely new take on the genre!
Old Mixed With the New:
Similar to past Story of Season (Harvest Moon) games, or even other farming simulators like Stardew Valley, Cattle Country takes a familiar concept, and puts its own spin on things. The core mechanics of this game are nothing new, and they honestly do not need to be. You have your farm, you have NPCs to talk to and become closer with, side stories to unlock, people to marry, plants to grow, trees to cut down, rocks to smash, items to craft, and objects to place to customize your village and farm/ranch to your liking.
These are all "standard" features, and all worked pretty much how I expected. Heck, even hitting placed objects with a pick axe allowed me to pick them up and replace them, which isn't something the game taught me, but I just knew it was how it worked. While some may see this as the game being a clone, I personally see it as being a "if it's not broke don't fix it" type of mechanic, and I love how familiar it felt from the get go. It was like stepping into a new Story of Seasons game where I'm here to experience more of what I love, but with a new twist. That's exactly what Story of Seasons did with Rune Factory, which is fantasy based and added combat, and that is also what Cattle Country is doing for the genre as a whole.
Being a "wild frontier" inspired game, the wilderness and setting itself plays a major part in what Cattle Country really is. The game even has a date displayed at the top right to remind you that we are at the end of the 1800s, and the world itself is completely designed around that time period. We do not have advance technology, and the wilderness is out there to get lost in and eventually shape to your own liking.
Just like in real life, the world begins filled with trees, plants, etc, but as you get to work cutting things down and building up your ranch, it drastically changes in appearance. What was one woodlands can be shaped into a bustling business of your choosing, with countless items to decorate it with. Sadly the demo didn't allow me enough time to cut everything down, but by the end I had at least created some nice fenced in areas, and pathways between my future plans (that didn't have the time to come to fruition).
On top of this shift in setting from what we usually see, even familiar mechanics do in fact work a bit differently.
Since the demo provides you with a lot of different facilities and items to try out, one of the first things I placed was a bee hive. Typically in these games the bee hive will generate honey or honey combs for use over time, but here things worked a bit differently. Instead of waiting for the hive to do something, I was surprised to see actual bees show up and take the time to fly back and forth between flowers and the hive! This made me rethink my plan of cutting down all of the grass and flowers to make room for buildings, as taking them out would've cut off the bee's supply. This was completely unexpected, and it didn't take long for me to start noticing other little details like this as well.
Birds flying through the air, bears and other animals watching me from a distance, and being able to see fish physically swimming in the stream Animal Crossing style was all really nice to see. It helped the world feel alive, and once again was something you rarely see with this type of game. Of course hunting is also a thing, so it makes sense to have them, but for my time with the demo that wasn't my carrier choice. Instead I was focusing on exploring as much as I could, and making use of the items that were given to me.
However, I did venture into the mines, and once again I was met with a surprising change.
The Shift to Side Scrolling:
Typically in these types of games the mine is your main source of gaining materials. You walk in, you smash rocks, sometimes avoid enemies, and then make your way down to the lower floors. It is an extension of what you do elsewhere in the game, and the deeper you go the better rewards you can get. Often you're also limited by how much energy you have, or by how strong your tools are, and you typically have to head back before it gets too late and you pass out.
All of these mechanics return in Cattle Country as well, and there are places in the overworld where the game plays similarly. Outside of the mine itself looks exactly like this in fact, and is only a quick ride away by horse! It is what is inside the mine that is different, and this is where the game changes from a top down point of view, into a 2D side scroller.
When I first entered the mine, my first thought was "this is Terraria!" And I wasn't too far off thinking that way. The game shifts to a side view, and you are given additional tools to start digging away and building your own mine. You can chip away at the ground or walls to destroy the blocks around you, and you can place ladders and platform ledges to give yourself a foothold to get back to higher ground, or cut away at walls you can't stand in front of. There is also a help button to escape the mine if you get stuck, and torches to place to help light your way. It ultimately lets you customize the mine itself, and isn't your simple "destroy blocks to get resources" setup that you might expect. It simulates what it was like to actually mine in the real world, with your own tunnels and mine shafts to guide your way.
Again, I didn't have a lot of time in the demo to mess around with this initially, but the mayor stands near your house and will instantly warp you there if you want to create a save dedicated to only mining. It is a nice touch for the demo, and lets you experience more of what the game has to offer during your limited time.
Mini Games:
Besides having a side scrolling section to the game, Cattle Country features mini games, with the demo letting me compete in a dance off for the start of the season. It was a basic music "hit the notes" mini game, and the reward for completing the event in first place was a trophy. The game also allowed me to choose my partner for the event, which may or may not have impacted our relationship.
Additionally, some of the other side events also featured "mini games" where I had some say over how the event itself played out. It wasn't anything major, but it was cool to see this type of control, and it made me wonder how my choices would be used in the full game.
Fishing is also an activity on its own, with a wide variety of fish to collect, sell, or even cook. Catching fish requires timing, and seems to get easier with better fishing rods. Of course this is another feature one might expect out of Cattle Country, but I'm happy to confirm that it is in fact a part of the game.
The Relationships:
Of course Cattle Country wouldn't be a full life simulator if it didn't include a robust relationship system, and I am happy to say that it is in fact here.
The game seems to feature a large cast of characters, and 18 of them can in fact be romanced. They all have their own personalities, and triggering event scenes with them gives you different dialogue options to choose from. Saying the right thing seems to improve your standing with them, and also changes the way the scene plays out (as I just mentioned above). Being nicer to someone or flirting with them will take you more towards the romance path, while being distant or not caring about their interests gets a completely different reaction out of them.
It is hard to say how these choices will actually impact the relationship, as the demo only allowed me to advance so far, but having choices to begin with is a nice change of pace as well. It makes things feel a little more organic, and gives you more control over your character.
My Thoughts and Hopes for the Future:
After everything was said and done, I put quite a few hours into the game across multiple save files. I tried dedicating my other saves to focusing on specific parts of the game, while my original was me simply playing how I would normally. I didn't realize there was going to be a time limit when I first started it up, and I feel like that would've altered my initial playthrough of the demo if I had known. All the crops I planted ended up never being used, outside of my first harvest, and I really didn't need to spend the time planning out my home.
That being said... This demo did leave me with a lot to look forward to.
As it stands, I really do like what I see. It gives me that "warm cozy" feeling I want out of a game like this, and I didn't find myself frustrated by anything I came across. It was a relaxing playthrough of the (roughly) first week of the game, and I got to know some of the characters and locations in the process. A lot of these buildings weren't used to their full potential in the demo, but I still had fun exploring them and seeing what they had inside. I also didn't use many of the dozens of crafting recipes I was given, but I reviewed them and captured some screenshots in the process (which can be viewed in the kinda random image gallery below). Simply seeing them gave me a lot to think about though, such as how I would use the items in the full release, or which ones I would want to focus on getting first.
I'm also looking forward to seeing exactly how the hunting system will play out, and how adding bandits will change the game's landscape. Will I have to worry about my ranch being ransacked while I'm out on the town? Will I get held at gunpoint while me and my horse are trying to explore? And what about the train? What other uses will there be for it? I have a lot of questions the demo didn't answer, but they give me even more of a reason to play the full release.
Honestly the only weird decision I came across in the demo was while using a controller and having to hit the "start" button to back out of menus. Hitting the typical "back" button didn't seem to do anything, and it took me awhile to realize how to close out. This wasn't an issue when using a mouse and keyboard, but it did throw me off the first time I wanted to check on something and couldn't back out once I switched controls. I guess technically my previous statement isn't fully correct, but it was more confusing than it was frustrating.
Speaking of controllers, I also tested Cattle Country using Steam Link to a handheld device. The device I used had a 4.7 inch screen, and I found that the game still was perfectly playable on it. I didn't have any issues with seeing what I was doing, nor were there any issues with text size. In fact, the game felt at home on a handheld device, and took me back to my days of playing Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town on the Game Boy Advance. Which honestly, Cattle Country in a way reminds me of a GBA game, especially because of the clean pixel art style that really helps make the game pop.
I know I'm beating a dead horse at this point (don't worry my horse was fine!), but Cattle Country ticked a lot of the right boxes for me. It seems to be everything I'd want out of a life/farming sim, and then some. Of course there is always that feeling of having to start over after you've poured so much time into other similar games, but that quickly goes away as you become acquainted to this new world and the differences from other titles.
To put it simply: Cattle Country is a familiar game that is set within an unfamiliar frontier. It retains the soul of what makes this genre so enjoyable to play, while having a heart all its own.
To learn more about the game, check out our Interview with the Developers.
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