[b]5/10[/b]
Sokoban, but instead of pushing boxes directly, you grow and shrink plants that push the boxes.
[b]What is it:[/b] A Sokoban-inspired puzzle game in which you don't control a box-pushing worker, but can grow and shrink “plants” along predefined tracks, pushing boxes out of the way as they grow. The goal in each level is to get the boxes on the designated spots. You have two different kinds of boxes, red and yellow, but they behave the same, it’s just that they go on the spots of the same color. You have two kinds of plants as well, one just pushes boxes ahead as it grows, and the other kind can grab one box and drag it along. You only control which plant to grow or shrink, but they always go on predetermined paths, and up to a predefined limit, a plant cannot go off its track.
The first half of the levels are quite easy, I found them rather boring, it’s usually obvious what you need to do, you just have to click your way through the solution. And click you shall, hundreds of times! That’s my biggest dislike in this game, the controls are terrible. It’s all mouse only, and one click at a time, no repeats when growing a plant. Click click click click to grow to the desired length. Fortunately, shrinking does support a turbo mode, if you keep the right mouse button pressed for a bit, it will shrink the plant really quick, and there are keyboard shortcuts for undo and restart (non-repeating, of course). But other than these two keys, the game is really mouse centric.
The second half of the levels does get a bit more challenging, yet I still found most of them unsatisfying. They are challenging just because there’s too much going on, but a jumble of paths, boxes and target spots doesn’t make a clever level, just a mess to sort through. Overall, maybe there were a handful of levels that I enjoyed.
A few more aspects bothered me. The game is slow, with needless pauses inserted. Like I usually complain, I’m an impatient player, I want my “impatient player” settings in a game. When finishing a level, there’s a “Level Completed” message displayed, with nothing to do, and only after a couple of seconds the “Next level” button shows up. Why? What good does it do to not have the Next button displayed right away? Loading and restarting a level is also slowly animated. At least the game is quickly reacting to grow and shrink commands, it keeps up with how fast I click, but it obviously wasn’t designed with that speed in mind, since the animations can’t keep up and look broken, with black spots leading the slowly growing plant.
Overall? A good puzzle idea, but with sub-par levels, terrible controls, and lacking QoL features.
[b]How hard is it:[/b] Trivial to moderate.
[b]How long is it:[/b] 35 levels, usually 3 unlocked at a time. Can be finished in 2-3 hours.
[b]Level design:[/b] Not good enough; simple easy levels with obvious solutions, complex levels just because they’re full of stuff, rarely a clever layout or clever use of the mechanics.
[b]Quality:[/b] Poor. A few volume and screen size settings, unlimited undo, decent level select. No cloud saving, no achievements, very few non rebindable key shortcuts, tedious clicky controls, useless delays. The last level is always locked in the level select screen, the only way to access it is to finish the 34th level and proceed to Next Level from there, and even after finishing it, it still appears locked.
[b]Worth the price:[/b] Not until it gets improved a bit, and even then I’d wait for a discount.
[b]Most positive aspect for me:[/b] Interesting mechanics.
[b]Most negative aspect for me:[/b] Terrible clicky controls.
[b]What would make it better:[/b] Keyboard/controller support. More and better levels. Repeated growth when keeping the mouse button pressed, and repeated Undo when pressing the Z key. Steam cloud saving and achievements. Back button on the level end screen. Progress reset.
[b]Also consider:[/b]
[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2171690/Handshakes/?curator_clanid=25928931]Handshakes[/url], shrink and grow arms until the hands clasp.
[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1471960/Room_to_Grow/?curator_clanid=25928931]Room to Grow[/url], snake-inspired game with ever growing limbs.
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