Rancher: A New Life Wants to Be Much More Than a Farming Game – But Early Reviews Are Mixed

The basic premise of Rancher: A New Life is straightforward: leave city life behind and move onto an American ranch that needs serious work. Roofs and walls need repairs, rooms can be painted and redesigned, and the workshop can eventually be expanded with additional tools and equipment. Even an abandoned pickup truck can be restored, repaired and repainted. The result is a mixture of ranch management and the hands-on renovation mechanics normally associated with repair and restoration games.

There is considerably more beyond rebuilding the property. Players can grow crops in garden beds and greenhouses, harvest fruit and prepare meals in a kitchen, on a barbecue or over a campfire. The current Early Access description lists more than 29 recipes, ten harvestable plants and several external locations including a gas station, veterinarian, garden shop, animal market and agricultural store. Fishing, mushroom gathering, photography, swimming, ATV riding, shooting and horseback exploration are included as well. Bills even matter: failing to pay them can result in the ranch losing water or electricity.

Animals naturally play a major role. The current version includes horses, dogs, cats, multiple breeds of cows and chickens, as well as bees. Livestock can be cared for and bred, diseases are part of the system and grass can be turned into hay. Dogs can help herd animals, while players can also move livestock from horseback or an ATV. Wildlife such as boar, deer, elk, rabbits, wolves and foxes is present too, with attacks potentially threatening animals and fences.

Despite that broad feature set, Rancher: A New Life is explicitly unfinished. Sim Farm currently expects Early Access to last roughly one year. Planned additions for the full version include online co-op, sheep and goats, stables, horse racing, more ATV tracks, additional recipes, gold panning and an abandoned mine. Controller support is also still listed as unfinished. The developer says the price is expected to increase gradually as more features and content are added.

That unfinished state is reflected in the reviews. At the time of our check, Steam classified the game as Mixed, with 63% of 205 user reviews positive. That number will naturally continue to change. Interestingly, both supporters and critics often agree on one thing: the concept is appealing and there is plenty to do. Positive reviewers mention the amount of content, the relaxed pacing and the satisfying process of cleaning and restoring the ranch. Some also praise the developers for continuing to work on fixes shortly after release.

The negative reviews focus more heavily on friction in everyday tasks. Players report buggy objectives, limited guidance, awkward controls, optimisation problems and activities that feel slower or more complicated than necessary. Cooking, woodworking, painting, climbing ladders, driving and watering crops are among the mechanics criticised in longer Steam reviews. Another detailed review describes an interesting overall vision but argues that the current implementation remains visibly unfinished. Several critical reviews also show developer responses, suggesting the team is at least following the feedback being posted.

For now, that may be the best way to describe Rancher: A New Life: its biggest strength and its biggest risk are essentially the same thing – it is trying to do a lot. Ranch renovation, farming, animal breeding, cooking, fishing, photography, vehicle restoration, horseback riding and multiple mini-games create an unusually broad simulation. Players looking for a polished finished product should therefore take the Early Access label seriously. Those who enjoy following young simulation projects may already find plenty to experiment with. There is not yet much professional critical consensus to compare against Steam either: Metacritic currently lists no critic reviews for the game.