Strange Horticulture

A game that you can play for half an hour, or a day. You have to put some thought into it, but it's not too difficult. Nice and soothing background music and a fun story.

really fun, cute plants, the hints were helpful but not.... degrading lol. the clues within the game itself can be quite complex so it's still challenging

[b] 3/10 - Unique concept, but there's no real game underneath. [/b] The puzzles solve themselves in one obvious step and never really get harder. The occult story is predictable and plain. It also didn't really scratch that relaxing itch despite all its simplicities. I get the appeal but if you are looking for something more than sorting and categorising plants [u] I would look somewhere else. [/u]

This is a great little mystery/puzzle game. The dreary dark academia vibes are fantastic. You have free reign to organize your shop of plants however you like. It is a very short game. Very limited "replayability". I went through the storyline twice (and it was a bit tedious the second time), and then just reloaded old saves to change my choices rather than going through the entire storyline again. I've now hit all of the achievements after only 10 hours of gameplay, and at this point I don't think I'll pick it up again. But for a cheap game that's worthwhile. I think I hit all of the endings, but they don't all have achievements and I don't think there is a way to check in-game so I'm only 90% sure of that. I really like the storyline. At its surface, you're just trying to learn about the plants that you're growing/selling in the shop you inherited. The town and larger world around you is struggling through some paranormal happenings, and through the characters who visit the shop you learn more and more about what is going on. You have some limited choices to control how things play out. I really like the writing, especially the endings. There is definitely a deeper allegory about those who seek power over destruction vs those who hope to actually help the situation. And I think the text of the game strikes the right balance of not trying to forcefeed you a moral while also depicting natural consequences of the choices being made. Overall I strongly recommend this game. The plant identification gameplay was incredibly fun for me. The storyline was worthwhile. Short and sweet.

У меня основные претензии в интерфейсу. Просмотр растений в близи перекрывает кучу пространства. А полка с растениями это вообще ужас. Постоянно мотаешь туда-сюда а сделано это через наведение на край окна. Можно же было сделать через колесико мыши. Было бы так хорошо. Описания в книге иногда расплывчатые. И честно, я бы побил того лаборанта, который так пишет. Почему вы нарисовали сечение растения, а нам дать сделать разрез и посмотреть внутрь не дали. Это же нелогично. Или когда у грифов показа вид снизу, а мы даже покрутить горшок не модем. В общем играть было не удобно.

Game is simple enough to not overwhelm you, yet interesting enough for you to keep playing. The main gameplay is solid... but man, there are so many chores! 1. You need to memorize a lot of stuff, and it's such a pain to go back to the book and refresh your memory, since there is no search function. 2. I want to explore more, but there is a timer + chore I need to do for this: why?? 3. I wish the game made the plants a bit more distinctive in their features. To make the game seem more complex, they have multiple plants that look similar, drawings that don't make much sense, and sometimes, you simply find yourself stuck because you didn't solve previous puzzles. The game expects you to play quite linearly, but the gameplay allows you to solve puzzles in your own pace. This conflict results in player fumbling about, wandering where things went wrong. Sometimes, it's the other way around. You are stuck in a puzzle, and you think you have to solve it with what you have now, but then you realize after using hint that you just haven't unlocked a new clue to solve that puzzle yet. This just bad game design :( Anyway, the game is still a solid 7; it wasn't that long of a game and I enjoyed the moments I played the game. (much more in the first half)

Очень душная и скучная игра. Головоломки бесят - ты ищешь долбаный цветок по описанию, просматривая мелкий цветочный ряд раз за разом... А потом тебе нужно найти уже известный цветок и ты пытаешься вспомнить где, блин, он. Можно же было как-то сделать нормальное масштабирование, а не эту (за) лупу... Карта - симулятор гляделок, всматриваешься и ищешь бурый мелкий текст на бурой бумаге, в надежде, что глаз зацепится. И как же бесит, что надо ждать её откат... На персонажей пофиг, атмосферой не проникся, я просто механически делал даваемые задания. Не, понятно, что творится какая-то оккультная хренамантия, но масштаба не чувствуется. Под конец задушнился геймплеем, использовал подсказки и прохождение. Потраченного времени жаль.