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- Iceberg Interactive
- Iceberg Interactive
- Iceberg Interactive
- Iceberg Interactive
Strange Horticulture
Released On: Jan 21, 2022
83
6.4
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
83
69% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
15% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
83
69% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
15% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Strange Horticulture is a shining example of why indie games are worth the time to look into. The art, sound, and story show that simple and subtle design is truly transcendent when the execution is done well.
Strange Horticulture is a true hidden gem and a pleasant surprise to start the year on, a delightfully quirky and charming puzzle game that puts a unique spin on botany and requires you to develop a green thumb in order to succeed, largely thanks to puzzle design that truly excels in creating simple yet challenging orders. Backed up by an intriguing world that allows for a lot of interesting lore behind each plant and a relaxing atmosphere, this is something fans of puzzlers should check out. Pardon the awful pun, but it’ll grow on you.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 33 User Ratings
6.4
30% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
55% Mixed
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
15% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 33 User Ratings
6.4
30% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
55% Mixed
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
15% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
A genuine delight. Atmospheric and enchanting. Puzzles are interesting and free from timers. Very chill and relaxing to play.
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PC
A beautiful and engrossing detective game packed with mysteries, puzzles, and intrigue.
I was pleasantly surprised by Strange Horticulture. It sports an extremely satisfying loop of collecting, cataloging, and solving puzzles.
This isn't just the most satisfying detective game since Obra Dinn, but one that has a similar transportive quality, the world unfolding like a flower's petals as you steadily cultivate your knowledge of it through the wonderfully weird plants that flourish within. [Issue#369, p.118]
What a strange and delightful game! You’ll spend many hours tending to weird plants and dealing with occult mysteries – and it works so very well. If, that is, you like your simulation games and don’t mind a bit of routine.
While the gameplay is simple and the core loop of identifying plants and making customers happy might be too repetitive overall, Bad Viking’s slow-burn title might end up feeding a green thumb that some players didn’t even know they had.
Loved it. Wish there was a little more agency. Like real consequences to getting the puzzles incorrect. But the game was delightful. I loved having to try to identify plants.
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PC
Interesting gameplay that makes discovering fun. The story is ok, but its just a bit dull overall. Wish there was just one or two more elements to the gameplay or story that would make it more intriguing.
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PC
Ctulhu, papers please!
Puzzle games always were pioneers of genre mixes. This game is also a fresh mix of Collectable game, Papers please with Lovecraftian horror.
Visual (8/10) Graphics and music are very atmospheric, on the other hand nothing very special. I like character arts, interface and other staff on your desk, I feel comfortable there, instead of the parts when you go somewhere or see some horrible things. Flowers are the main visual and gameplay element and I can say that they are beautiful and has a lot of real life prototypes. So everyone who love plants will enjoy this.
Gameplay (7/10) The main gameplay mechanic here - find new flowers and give them proper badges. Sounds boring, buut in fact to find this flowers you need to do different mini quests, and all of them are DIFFERENT, it's great because I don't feel I'm farming this flowers. It feels like real adventure to me, you collect flowers to have more puzzles and to use it for more complex tasks like creating elixirs. I don't like that after 12 days you will have a lot of papers on your desk and it may be difficult to find proper blanc with clue. Puzzle task are also good - first you will need just to find proper flowers, after each day you will need to do a more complex decisions. If you do something wrong - you will have mind debuff and after 3 fails you will need to restart day. It isn't so annoying like in Mind Scanners, on the other hand this fails don't reflects on the ending. While in MS and PP you were always in stress.
Story (7/10) I love Lovecraftian horrors and stories, so I can say this story is interesting but not very excited. Endings are also very straightforward and it's easy to predict what will be in the end. Characters are below average. In game you will have something like near 10 characters, but in fact really main characters are only 4 that have impact in story endings. It's not a big minus in puzzle game, but they are really not involved in main story. All in all adventure and story is good and I feel satisfied about it.
I can recommend this game for all puzzle lovers, florists or Lovecraft fans. This game is really good but you don't want to play it more than one time IMHO
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PC
I've played the game for two hours and have given up. So far, there are just two types of puzzles. Work out which plant is which, and following some clues to a point on the map. Each puzzle is simply rewarded with either new plants or new pages in the book, and neither the puzzles nor the rewards feel ... rewarding. After two hours of gameplay, I'd hope for some variation, or a stronger storyline, but neither emerged. While the theme is rather original, I simply didn't find the game fun. Perhaps it gets better beyond the two-hour mark, but I'd rather cut my losses.
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PC
Summary Welcome to Undermere, a quaint town surrounded by hag-infested forests and rugged mountains. You are the Horticulturist, owner of local plant store Strange Horticulture. As a cast of colorful customers come by your shop, you are quickly thrust into an occult mystery stretching back hundreds of years. Strange Horticulture is an occult pu...
Platforms:
- PC
- Nintendo Switch
- Xbox Series X
- Xbox One
- PlayStation 4
- iOS (iPhone/iPad)
Initial Release Date: Jan 21, 2022
Developer:
- Bad Viking
Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Genres:
