Cattle Country Review

When I think about the success of games like Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon, I immediately think about how fun they were, even though you had to invest a lot of hours into their experiences. Cattle Country is developed by Castle Pixel and published by Playtonic Friends, offering a feast of gameplay if you’re looking for it. Labelled as a cosy cowboy adventure life sim, I would wholeheartedly agree with that statement. Whilst it shares many similarities with the already mentioned Stardew Valley, it stands on its own two feet and is an adventure that you could easily play across several platforms, it is that good. With a good stack of very positive reviews already on Steam, you can take confidence that you’ll have a great time here.

I’m Cowboy-Fident We Can Achieve Our Goals

After you’ve done your character design and all that jazz, you’ll be introduced to the game world, and you’ll work on your mining settlement. You’ll get a town recognition checklist to work through, and admittedly, I struggled with this and still haven’t achieved all the goals. This is probably the only weak point of the entire experience in Cattle Country; the fact that it doesn’t give you any pointers or guidance on how to get these finished is a little frustrating.

The one thing I thought was amazing was the fact that my crafting tools were unlimited; it annoys me in certain games where they deplete and break. At no point did it feel like anything was too much of a grind or difficult to find, like some other similar games. I loved the casual, laid-back gameplay loop. You get a sense of people’s personality when you speak to them, and their character design pops up next to the dialogue. While there is reading to be done, it never becomes overbearing. You’ll be partaking in the usual tasks, mining, looking for food and fishing and the likes.

But the difference here is that you also have a gun should you wish to hunt or defend yourself against the game world’s bandits. Don’t worry if you dislike killing animals; it’s optional. The adventure always feels like you are embedded within the community, and you’re never too far from someone to chat with. There is a lot of charm and so much to do that this review would be super long if I explained everything on offer; it’s best for you to find it all out for yourself.

Visuals & Audio

The pixel-art design in Cattle Country is gorgeous and looks stunning on a large 4K screen using an Xbox Series X. I’d imagine this would look just as beautiful on other platforms, such as a Nintendo Switch or any other handheld device now on the market. Characters, community, and the backdrops are all wonderfully blended, and it presents as the cosy atmosphere that you’d expect from a game of this calibre. The world feels lived in not just by humans but by wildlife as well, and you’ll see plenty of it along the way, with birds and butterflies amongst others.

Character design is superb, and dialogue is well displayed as written text. Normally, I do prefer voiced lines, but I make an exception for games like this where I think it works better. Audio is as you’d expect and relaxing when you’re just strolling around the world performing tasks with a chilled soundtrack and the sounds of tweeting birds in the background.

Final Thoughts

For its reasonable price point of just £14.99, Cattle Country is worth every penny in the return you’ll get from it. There is tons to do and I’ve invested a good 20+ hours just sifting through the first year of the game and I’ve loved exploring every nook and cranny and ticking off as much as I can, making friends, protecting the community, and just losing hours gathering resources and taking in the gorgeous graphics. Not only does it bear many similarities to indie greats like Stardew Valley and Graveyard Keeper, but it puts its cowboy hat on and goes down as a must buy for 2025.