Strange Horticulture

The developers have shown that a slower paced game with more simple graphics can be very rewarding. This is a game to play when you want to chill out. It's also a game located in the lake district of the UK, which is so nice (that its not in the US or some fantasy place because developers are concerned about appealing to a broad demographic) well done you for having the guts to do something unique, and makes me want to visit the district again! The puzzles feature a reasonable degree of challenge without having a level of difficulty that would ruin the fluidity of the gameplay. I took a punt on this and it paid off. Can't wait for the next game they put out!

I was very happy with this game. It was short - but having multiple endings means I will definitely go back and play it again. The puzzles were fun, the story is very cool, and the theme of occult mystery and plants is unique. I hope to see more games like this from this company.

WARNING: If you're the hardcore gamer that likes the challenge for the sake of it, this game is not for you. This is a game where you take your time solving puzzles and enjoying the story. Relaxing. The puzzles are clever and, although the always follow the same schema, they never feel repetitive. They are challenging enough, but never unfair. You'll never really get stuck anywhere, since there is a clue system and, when you "die" (you never really die in this game), it's juts another puzzle before you can get back on track. The story is quite interesting. For those who read the Spook's Apprentice novels, the setting will look very familiar. There are several endings, where you basically choose which side you want to stand for, although you won't really replay the game to see them all. The problem is: aside from a few path branching in the storyline, the game doesn't really change much. The puzzles are the same, the plants are all the same etc. By adding some randomness (plants changing name, colors etc. characters showing in a pseudo-aleatory order, kind of side quests etc.), the game's replayability will have improved a lot. to Hence my 4 stars instead of 5.

If you like plants, obscure puzzles, and a sort of fantasy vibe, this is a great game. The puzzles sometimes get really obscure, though, so I several times had to look up walkthroughs. In addition, and more importantly, the controls/interface is not very well designed in my opinion, and are sometimes hard to use and there is zero tutorializing.

I very much enjoyed my time with this with the writing getting waaay darker than I was expecting from a flower game. My *only* complaint is that some of the encyclopedia descriptions are very vague leading to several instances of wildly guessing. This does only happen a few times though. Grade: A-