Growbot Review

Growbot is a point-and-click adventure game where you have to solve puzzles to progress to the next stage. You play as a young Growbot, named Nara, who’s beginning her captaincy training aboard the Ventral Station when it’s suddenly attacked by a mysterious figure known as Crissy. As far as first days go, this one wasn’t great. With no one left to communicate with, you’re on your own as you look for your superiors: Captain Art and Captain Kino. The only beings you have to help you are the fantastical and charming creatures who live on the station.

My first impressions of the game are pretty standard: it’s cute. Nara and the other Growbots resemble big-headed robot babies, and Starbelly and the other creatures look like they’d have plushies made for them. I have to say, in the beginning, the music established the atmosphere as a rather haunted one, with static effects and added use of piano notes, but I felt this was rather misleading. This is a low stakes game, and so the haunted tones didn’t match the actual relaxed gameplay. The audio also made me think for sure that there would be a lot higher stakes with Crissy, who seemed like she would be some sort of monster, but alas, she was not.

As you travel the first few areas, you find nefarious motives for the station to be attacked. Reports from captain meetings reveal that things aren’t great behind the scenes. The more you play the game, the more predictable it is. From about halfway through the game, I became bored each time I would go through the puzzles and find out more about the story. Upon playing it again, the foreshadowing would become clearer, and it felt a lot more obvious as you clicked the items again.

I can tell when I’m not the target audience: Growbot, with its simple controls, is for a younger audience than myself. It feels like a children’s story as opposed to a game. After a while, the puzzles were beginning to lose their novelty.

Essentially, you would have to solve one or two little puzzles, either by finding something or by completing a maze, then you would pick the sounds a flower makes and put them into a specific tune. Thankfully, they included some accessibility features to make this easier for anyone struggling with musical notes or hearing difficulties. Personally, as someone who falls into a rather tone-deaf category, I found it far more frustrating trying to complete these sections without the extra hints. Unfortunately, this puzzle formula does wear on you after some time.

It didn’t help that Starbelly was the only one who had a voice, and I wouldn’t have been surprised to find him in Animal Crossing. At first, it was cute, but not when no other characters are doing it. I know this seems oddly specific but, when I can’t skip dialogue, it doesn’t help when Starbelly is the only one talking.

It was a shame because I was really expecting more with the lovingly drawn art. Growbot’s price tag certainly doesn’t relieve the disappointment I felt; a playthrough is only about four hours, and you’re mostly clicking arrows. For £15.49, I would say it’s a bit steep for a game with such limited replayability.

This isn’t to say that this is a bad game. Personally, I just found it underwhelming after seeing all those positive reviews. Sure, there are some beautiful themes about nature, facing your mistakes, friendship, growing up, and letting go, but it felt more like a parable than a game.