Gaucho and the Grassland Review - A Bumpy Ride Through a Beautiful Countryside
Fans of farming sims expect a familiar rhythm from new entries in the genre—harvesting, crafting, exploring, and building. Gaucho and the Grassland clearly follows the example set by its predecessors while introducing cultural elements based on South America. Underpinned by mythological figures, capybaras, and Spanish dialogue, Gaucho is charming and filled with potential.
You play as a gaucho (or gaucha), a South American rancher. As such, the focus of this farming sim is on raising and tending to animals rather than growing crops, which is another factor that sets Gaucho apart within the genre. Alongside your loyal dog and horse, you must restore the land and bring back the protectors for each region from the Mystic World. To rid each area of the Boitatá—a mythical serpent—you must help residents by building houses, splashing water on overheating cows, putting out wildfires, and guiding people through the harsh landscape.
The cultural elements of the game feel deeply embedded, rather than simply dressing up familiar mechanics in a new aesthetic. However, despite the meaningful premise and aesthetic, the execution often stumbles. Gaucho is held back by some clunky systems, frequent bugs, and design choices that get in the way of flow—a particularly important factor in a genre that is designed for escapism and relaxation. The aspects of Gaucho that are worth celebrating are buried under layers of rough UI, broken quests, and awkward game feel. Movement can feel sludgy, tool upgrades don’t meaningfully speed up gathering, and Cusco the dog often gets stuck while digging up items. Gaucho doesn’t really lend itself to relaxing on the couch with a controller. You can’t use the D-pad to navigate menus, instead needing to move a cursor around with the joystick. The camera also requires constant manual adjustment, making it difficult to traverse.
Many of these issues are excusable, but I was also often interrupted by some more serious bugs. I traded resources for an iron pickaxe that never appeared in my inventory, my horse would sometimes disappear mid-challenge, leaving me floating in the air, and some quests would break so entirely that they could only be fixed by reloading my save file. I usually love engaging with building and customisation, but I stopped trying when the structures on my ranch got ‘stuck’ and could no longer be moved. My fences also randomly changed the direction they were facing, refusing to keep my animals penned; this feels like a particularly critical issue, considering the focus Gaucho places on ranching.
All of these challenges were really disappointing because I genuinely enjoyed the story and the way it made the environment evolve with new buildings, foliage, and weather. I wanted to dig into the post-story content and continue strengthening my relationships with the various NPCs, but I found it hard to stay engaged when I kept being interrupted by issues, some minor, some severe.
Unfortunately, the game’s strengths—its visual style, its cultural grounding, and its charm—don’t make up for the friction of playing it. But it’s not without potential. There’s something wonderful about seeing a uniquely South American take on a well-worn genre, complete with folklore, language, and rural tradition. With a few more passes of polish, bug fixing, and a serious look at accessibility and usability features, Gaucho and the Grassland could be something special.
As it stands, though, it’s a beautiful dream saddled with frustrating realities. And it’s hard to build a life in the grasslands when the ground keeps shifting under your feet.
Gaucho and the Grasslands was reviewed on PC with code kindly supplied by the publisher.
