If you were like me prior to playing Horticular, you might've seen it and thought, "Oh, cool, a simple Gardening Simulator with some decoration features", and while that's not 100% wrong, I wasn't prepared for the shocking amount of little details in this game that make it addicting and fun. While you can only experience the first portion of the story during the Demo of the game, it does allow you to keep playing Sandbox to your heart's content, and I definitely played more hours than I needed to in order to review it.
For those who haven't heard of Horticular, the premise of the story is that you've been summoned by mysterious little gnomes to restore a long-lost garden. Your job is to restore the garden, attract animals, and build to your heart's content. Design and re-design as much as you want and grow your magic to make tending the garden even easier.
Of course, this was just the Demo, but we get a pretty decent idea of the game from it and honestly, I enjoyed it more than I care to admit. Normally I uninstall demos after reaching the end of the story portions but Horticular is still installed and being played in my downtime, so I hope that gives you an idea of how much I enjoyed it.
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One Big Bad Guy Behind It All...
From the start of Horticular, you'll get a decent introduction to the story. There'll be spirits coming down from the sky and talking to you, gnomes employing you to fix up different things in the garden or attract certain animals, and evil gnomes sending you hate mail threatening your garden. It's all quite comical and enjoyable with the simple cutscenes, the in-game mail system that a lot of the story is delivered through, and how it all flows together with the garden-building aspects. I mentioned above that I wasn't expecting this game to be as detailed as it is, but I was incredibly impressed about the thoughtfulness that went into delivering the story in a clever way that was still conducive with the phrase, "peaceful gardening sim". I'm excited to see how it'll progress in the main game, but as there isn't too much more to the story (yet), I won't spend any more than a paragraph talking about it. I do love the premise thus far though and am invested enough to want to see what happens next. It seems as if there's one big bad guy behind the constant destruction of our garden and I need to find them to give them a piece of my mind considering they've been pestering my critters non-stop.
Comfy-Cozy Gardening Sim Meets Zoo Tycoon Habitat Building...
Let's touch on the gameplay aspects, which were another feature I'm happy to say was far more detailed than I expected. I'm not 100% sure what exactly I was expecting but it was far simpler than what Horticular is. I was pleasantly surprised to discover just how much this game offers though.
The main point of the game is to acquire land, decorate it however you want, and create beautiful little habitats for the multitude of critters that will become attracted to your garden if you set it up properly. That being said, there are a ton of tiny details that go into it that can't be summed up into a sentence. In fact, just to attract a little critter you'll need to have an area decorated how they want in order for them to even consider your magical garden a place they can live, and after they move in, you'll need to ensure their environment stays safe from decay or evil gnomes.
Touching on decay and evil gnomes, the biggest source of turmoil for your peaceful garden is the fact that the plants will decay over time, and if you're attacked by a swarm of said evil gnomes, they'll work to decay it even faster. Of course, you're blessed with magical abilities because of those voices and friendly gnomes we mentioned earlier (you'd think we'd gone insane), and you'll be able to use said powers to restore decayed plants and fight off the swarms, as well as heal any critters or gnome keepers that get hurt in the process. It's an aspect of the game that adds so much replayability and humor to it that I adore it. That isn't me saying that the base-level gardening simulator isn't fantastic (because it is and we'll get to that in a moment), it's me saying that these interactions add a level of fun to it that makes it more appealing to those who don't want to sit and just garden all day. There's enough variability in what's going to happen to keep you on your toes, ready to defend your garden at all costs... but preferably at a lesser cost because... money.
In terms of the base-leveling gardening aspects, I'm blown away by the number of customization options the game offers. From different ground and water types to the array of different flowers, crops, trees, and rocks, to dozen of miscellaneous garden decorations, I really felt like I had all the tools to create a pretty and peaceful garden that would be unique and original to me. This made me particularly happy when designing critter habitats because there's not just "one" type of thing each critter likes, rather, a broad overview that states you need x amount of foliage, x amount of solid ground or water, etc. Each habitat had variation to it and I can already see the endless photos of everyone's different gardens now with this as a possibility.
Another thing to mention is that how you go about unlocking different upgrades, items, and tiles makes it feel more like a quest-style, progression-based, management game. You'll complete tasks and challenges for your little Gnome friends, such as attracting a certain amount of critters or using a certain number of a specific tile, and they'll reward you with something shiny and new to spice up your garden even further. You also have a rotating shop that changes its inventory every few days and allows you to purchase things that you might not unlock in the game for a while. On top of everything else, you'll have an upgrade shop that allows you to buy upgrades for everything from how long it takes your tiles to build, providing price discounts in the shop, increasing your magic to do more damage to evil gnomes or heal good ones, and even just how much money you make on a daily basis. It honestly feels as though they've left nothing out. If you've read a few of my reviews you'll know how I feel about Demos and how they can be a hit or a miss, but this one is definitely a huge hit. You can absolutely bet I'll be playing and reviewing the full release.
There are a few more features I haven't mentioned, such as the fact that if you've discovered a specific type of critter you can select them in your journal and set your vision mode to habitability - think of the vision modes for zoo / rollercoaster tycoon sims that allow you to see happiness, hunger, etc, yes, this game includes those for decay, animals, habitat areas, and habitability, it's awesome - in order to see what you're missing in a specific zone to make it habitable for all the little critters you want to attract. I used this tool an insane amount as I wanted my garden jam-packed with critters and I'm happy to report it is.
I feel it necessary to mention "Hortic Day" in the game, which happens every 10-ish days and is an event that runs for 5 days. You'll get a task such as, "place as many items as possible", and depending on how you perform, you'll be awarded a ranking and some bonus prizes for achieving different tiers. I actually found myself waiting to spend my money until the Hortic event would start and then go crazy decorating, or doing whatever it asked of me, in order to achieve as high a score as possible. Within just a few Hortic days I was placing Top 10 and unlocking some cool prizes that would normally cost an arm or gnome-leg so I was happy to receive them free.
One last thing I appreciated was how this game's income works. Obviously, you're running a garden full of gnomes with no other outside visitors except for the annoying "click" that refuses to stop torturing your poor, peaceful little space, so having an income system would be a bit odd, but they did theirs well. You earn income for every item (well... almost) in your garden and bonuses for things like "Garden Love" which is how much your critters and gnomes adore your Garden layout. If you have nothing but 1 type of item and ground type, your love, and therefore income, will be lower. Take the time to decorate beautifully and have dozens of different items, your love will go up. More income means more space, so you can use that income to acquire more land, and in time, more customization, critters, upgrades, etc. I've complimented the game a lot but I can't really convey in text form how blown away I was by a seemingly simple gardening game. Even the trailers don't do the game justice in how fun it is, and that's not me saying the trailer or how they market the game is wrong or bad. In fact, it's the contrary because I don't tend to play demos of games that don't, at the very least, spur my interest and desire to play the game. That being said, it's hard to get across how intricate and detailed this game is without actually playing it.
So... this is me saying... you should absolutely try the demo or at least consider wish-listing it on Steam to support the development. I know when the full release comes out I'll be posting pictures of the insane amount of critters occupying my... probably haphazardly decorated garden but... I'll try and beautify it just for you guys (lol).
I will state that I only experienced one tiny bug and I'm 99.9% sure it was due to the fact that I'd minimized the game. You've probably experienced it once in your life when you alt-tab a game to do something in your browser or check Discord, and when you alt-tab back in, some feature of the game is broken. Usually, it's the mouse not being visible and that's exactly what it was in this instance. A quick restart of the game restored the mouse and I didn't experience the same bug again, but it is worth noting just in case anyone else runs into the same issues.
Aside from that, the Demo was a full experience and one of the better ones I've had out of all the Demos I've played. Kudos to the Horticular team for creating and developing something so enjoyable, we look forward to the game's future and full release!
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Disclaimer:
Please note that we have not been paid or promoted for this review, and are not affiliated with Horticular or its developers officially in any way. All thoughts are based on our own genuine experience of the game. All footage is based on the Game's Demo in its current state as of 06/06/2023 and is subject to change or be completely omitted in the full release at the developer's discretion.
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