Strange Horticulture Review

If you’ve ever played Plants vs Zombies and enjoyed the Zen Garden more than the zombie killing then I’d highly suggest giving Strange Horticulture a whirl. You don’t tend to the plants quite the same, but setting up a little greenhouse is a fun distraction if you can get through all the puzzles.

An air of mystery and fear follows you throughout the story. You play as the Horticulturist, owner of the local plant shop in the town of Undermere, providing various herbs, flowers, and plants to your customers and identifying them along the way. There is some opportunity for mischief or straight-up murder; I truly appreciate the option to poison rude customers by choosing to give them either the plant that causes memory loss or the one that leads to insanity and then death. The temptation to turn a little boy into a toad can almost be too great.

You need to pay attention, as many of the puzzles can be quite tricky and involve a lot of trial and error, but the fact that there is little hand-holding makes it more immersive. Breaking out the Bryer’s Disk (a tool used in coded messages) while exploring the map fulfils my younger self’s dream to be a treasure hunter, solving mysteries like the one surrounding the strange murders in the area. The main story is subtle but filled with intrigue and has three endings to discover.

The humour is on point and very dry, but unfortunately doesn’t last long as you delve deeper into the game. Some underlying themes are surprisingly dark with a lot hiding beneath the surface; for example, an encounter on the map brings up a dead deer and shows the cycle of how life comes from death. The ‘death’ mechanic doesn’t kill you but it shatters your mind, so to revive yourself you have to put the broken pieces back together. Add on creepy sound effects, like the heartbeat, and Strange Horticulture really nails the sense of unexplained impending doom.

Red alert! Red alert! YOU CAN PET THE CAT, I REPEAT, YOU CAN PET THE CAT and it even purrs when you do! Hellebore, your feline shop assistant, is the cutest little black blob ever, and it sits on your counter, getting startled whenever the bell rings for your next customer.

Though fairly simple in design, the art style is absolutely lovely. It lends itself quite nicely to the atmosphere and is reminiscent of antique botanical encyclopedias. The art pairs so well with the various tools, I am obsessed with using the magnifying glass for absolutely no reason other than because it’s fun to use. Maybe I’m just a nerd but flipping through the ‘Strange Book of Plants’ was what I spent most of my time doing, just looking through all of the identifications and uses to compare them to the plants I’d collected.

The sound design is absolutely on point; as with most of this game it is simply done but the execution is wonderful. The background music is soft and soothing which often stands at odds with the unsettling nature of the story. Hearing the rustle of the paper as you flip through the various documents or the scrape of wood against wood when you open the desk drawer seems so insignificant but it really aids the immersion of the game.

Accessibility is a shining point in Strange Horticulture. The developers have built in a system to allow you to zoom in on small text. It is unfortunately quite clunky and difficult to use but the fact that it is even available is commendable. Another small gripe is that the tutorial is lacking. You are essentially dropped in at the deep end to figure things out by yourself, but there is an argument to be made that it’s part of the game’s interest. You have to do a lot of self-exploration and use your head to follow the trail of breadcrumbs in order to discover everything. The hints are well done in that they give you enough information without giving too much away.