Cattle Country could be my new cosy comfort
Train heists and carrot harvests.
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.
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 so 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.
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).
Running your ranch in Cattle Country isn't just about collecting the crops, freshly laid eggs and milking your cattle, though. There's a bit more depth to it, and additional steps to consider for certain processes. There's a drying rack, for example, for creating animal hides, a keg for brewing beer, and a fire for cooking various dishes to keep yourself fed. You can customise your home, too, by crafting furniture, floors, lighting, decor and other homely items one needs on a ranch, such as a scarecrow to keep those pesky birds from stealing your seeds. Also, and most importantly, you can pet your dog.
Your character's skills can be upgraded as you spend more time tending to your ranch as well, often by participating in adventures that are flung your way. These seem to be mostly doled out by the local residents in the nearby town - after all, the key to having a successful ranch life depends on the people you know! - and when I finally headed into town to see exactly what kind of place I'd moved into, it definitely had a kind of 'Stardew Valley needs Red Dead Redemption 2' vibe. Well, the lifestyle side of Red Dead, anyway, not so much the dramatic cowboy backstory side. The town acts as the social hub for all residents, including a saloon where most townsfolk hang out and a carpenter if you need, well, help with wood. There’s a banker if you need advice, a sheriff in case there's trouble, and even a small school you can assist at among plenty of other things.
The in-game calendar already suggests there will be several seasonal events and villager birthdays to break up the weeks and months, and there are active missions you can go on during the day, as well as train heists if you want to liven up your adventure. But if you just want to have a quiet ranch life then you can do that too.
Kindly, in the demo, the spring hoedown celebration is moved to mark your arrival. Held in the heart of the town, the hoedown is a dance contest that lets you pick your partner, then you dance the best you can to win the hoedown champion trophy. You don't just sit back and watch it happen, oh no - there are mini-games to complete if you want a chance at winning. You need to press the corresponding directional keys shown at the bottom of the screen when they hit the line on the bar, and they'll gradually get faster. A particularly lovely detail I saw was how your character's steps will either be in or out of time with the music depending on how many keys you miss. I couldn't help but smile during all this - there's joy to be found even in failing miserably at getting your two left feet together.
This brings me to something which was without a doubt my favourite part of my time with Cattle Country - the fishing. If you've played a lot of cosy games such as Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, you know that fishing can be something that's tricky to get right - make it too easy and there's no thrill in getting a catch, but make it too difficult and you're ready to throw your rod in the water and walk away. As I strode to a little stream near the town centre, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would it be another rage-inducing venture? Absolutely not.
When you've got a bite, a small bar appears above your head as a green rectangle with a fish in it. You need to click at just the right time so the hook icon going left to right lands in that green patch (or the yellow boundary at a push). It's not so simple it's boring, but it's also not so hard that you decide that fishing simply isn't worth it.
Now yes, I can see you rolling your eyes going, 'How is that all not Stardew Valley?' But I think the answer comes down to those finer activity details, and the sense of personality in the town and its people. Some of them are quite unforgettable, and it feels distinctly its own thing by comparison. The current demo is only short, but it's made me cautiously optimistic about the full release. Going on adventures like train heists to tackle bandits disturbing your fair town and then returning to pull up carrots at my ranch sounds like just the right amount of action and cosy for me.