Gaucho and the Grassland | PC Review

July 27, 2025 Zack Parkerson

You put a cowboy in anything, and I’m immediately paying attention. Gaucho and the Grassland presented me with an intriguing and new spin by focusing on a Latin Cowboy. It also seemed to be drenched in Brazilian history and mythology, and I’m always down to learn about something new. Backed by the kind of passion only indies can bring, it seemed like there was a lot for me to look forward to.

Down the Ol’ South American Way

Gaucho and the Grassland is ostensibly an adventure game at the forefront, though I wouldn’t fault you for assuming it was a farming sim at first glance. You’ve inherited your recently deceased Father’s farm, but also his calling in life. He looked after the various realms or lands in the area, and now it’s your turn to step up to the plate. The deities of each land have recently become unsettled or annoyed, and you have to calm them down.

You do this by helping out the citizens in each realm. After a certain amount are assisted, you then navigate a labyrinth while dodging a snake-like entity in the sky. Once this is done, you meet with the deity themselves for one last favor they want. This is the pattern for all three realms, and it shouldn’t take you more than six hours to do it all.

Let Me Help You With That

The problem is that even in its short run time, I was bored to death. I’m all for a cozy game, but Gaucho and the Grassland threatened to put me to sleep. I often referred to it as Chores: The Video Game. Every task a citizen wants from you is either a boring fetch quest or to fix something using a set of materials. There is no narrative setup to these or interesting characters to learn more about. It’s some random person sending you on some menial task. It’s the worst side quests from every video game brought into one adventure.

Adding to the tedium is the resource gathering. You break apart stones or logs into craftable items, akin to any survival game. I wouldn’t mind this too much if it was simply for building up my home farm. Maybe it would be a nice way to break up the pace of the main adventure, even. Give it a sense of progression to show off your growth. But considering nearly every quest, including those aforementioned deity labyrinths, require bountiful materials, the game is actively dissuading you from investing those resources into your home farm. Your home is only for aesthetic purposes (it offers no material payouts), so there’s no reason to invest in it aside from your own joy. Considering every piece of fence you build means nothing but more busy work for the fetch quests, I couldn’t bring myself to want to invest the time.

It Belongs in a Museum

The only redeeming qualities are the Brazilian cultural ones. I did actually learn a decent amount about their mythologies, and it inspired me to look into the country more than I otherwise would have. It’s easy to tell the team wanted to share more about their homeland with the rest of the world, and I love the passion involved. It’s genuinely heartwarming.

Nonetheless, I can’t recommend Gaucho and the Grassland in good conscience. It’s monotonous even after a couple of hours, which is a miraculous feat all on its own. All things pointed to this one being an easy game for me to love, but it honestly just made me want to nap every time I booted it up.

To hear me talk about Gaucho and the Grassland, be sure to listen to the July 22, 2025 episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 1:16:16 time stamp.

This review is based on a PC copy of Gaucho and the Grassland provided by Jesus Fabre Games for coverage purposes. It is also available on Mac, Linux, and at a later date on Nintendo Switch.