14 DAY TRIAL // 
I was always curious to see novel and innovative game ideas in action, so normally I jumped at the opportunity to try out a game that seemed to be an uncanny mixture of alchemical and botanical knowledge with the thrill of being a Sherlock Holmes of the plant life hiding in the gardens and meadows. Let’s see if the final result manages to live up to the level of expectations.
From the beginning we need to set the correct expectations, since Strange Horticulture is a game that lacks the thrill of action and rather offers satisfaction for those passionate about puzzle games. The game is a leisurely stroll that starts in a small shop, stacked with various herbs and mushrooms. Yes, those kinds of mushrooms. Equipped with a few tools and a black cat it is up to you to make sense of what is going on.
The shop itself is located in the small town of Undermere, where the inhabitants seem to have some trouble getting along. This may be attributed to the unhealthy closeness of the houses, the evil forces lurking in the shadows or the occult occurrences. One thing is for sure though: having access to plants with various effects, you will inevitably become a trusted councilor for all the people with various hidden agendas.
Your ultimate goal is not growing the business by shepherding in more profits but getting to know the true motivation of each of your customers. By discovering the stories of the people stepping into your shop, you will slowly but surely gain control over the destinies of the people of Undermere. And by the unraveling threads of the stories of the surrounding region, in the end, you will realize how big your influence really is.
The story grows beyond the expectations you build based on the confines of your small store, but at its core Strange Horticulture uses a few simple mechanics, mainly relying on simple puzzles. As soon as you open your shop in the morning, clients will start pouring in, talking about their problems and looking for a plant. They will drop use the English or the Latin name, drop hints about the effects, or shape or color – just enough clues to help you identify what the correct one.
You will have to rely mainly on the Strange Book of Plants to browse through the description of each plant, to choose from the shelves the one you are looking for. Paying attention to the details you will narrow down the list of suspects, using the microscope for a closer inspection being the final tool to clearly figure out the plant you need.
The clues are not overly secretive, but there is a growing difficulty level in identifying what you are looking for. If you identified the plant correctly, you could use labels to tag them and thus make your life easier. If by any chance you make a wrong choice, it is not directly game over, but your stress level shown as A Rising Dread increases getting you one step closer to losing your mind.
You can recover and continue, but you need to bear in mind that beyond an autosave system there is no manual save. Focusing on the positive, correctly identifying plants can bring you new ones or new entries into your botanical tome. Since there are dozens of plants in the game, this endeavor will take up some time, representing the bulk of the 4-5 hours long game.
As mentioned already, the main scope of the game is figuring out what goes on in the game in order to make some really hard decisions. At the end of the game, you will literally have the lives of your customers in the palm of your hands, choosing one faction over the other. This confers some replay value for the game, if you are curious to see the outcomes of different choices.
You can also influence the fates of the people you encounter in a more subtle way. There are plenty of cases when your customers are looking for a result that can be achieved by several plants, each having a different side effect. Choosing one or another will influence the course of actions, but this will be revealed to you only after a few days pass in the game.
Beyond uncovering the mysteries of the plants, you will also need to uncover the secrets of the mystery letters containing clues and cyphers. Your will to explore that recharges in time will allow you to use a map in order to solve the clues hidden in these mysterious missives. When you figure out what is expected from you, your reward will usually be a plant. The puzzles themselves are not very hard, and although the level of difficulty will increase solving them will never become frustrating.
The visual style of Strange Horticulture is charming, but simplistic. Especially the character models can come across as a bit rudimentary, almost like the drawings of a very young artist. The minimalistic design fits the overall dark theme of the game, and is accompanied by a matching soundtrack, but being an indie title, you cannot expect fireworks. The simple tunes do a great job building a somewhat melancholic atmosphere but are completely forgettable.
The Good
- Novel and innovative puzzles
- An intricate, slowly unfolding narrative
- Multiple endings
The Bad
- Repetitive and slow paced gameplay
- Underused map feature
- A bit too simplistic visual style
Conclusion
On the other hand, if you consider it’s boring to spend hours and hours going through a botany book identifying plants or hunting for small details in letters in order to find a location on a map, Strange Horticulture is not your ideal experience. It is a novel game, with a dark theme and a slow pace, which is aimed mainly at fans of puzzle games equipped with plenty of patience.
Review key provided by the publisher.
