Strange Horticulture

The main mechanic of Strange Horticulture is quite nice - identifying plants feels like solving a series of small puzzles. However, there are a few things that I don’t really like. For one, while progression does exist - you discover new plants and encyclopedia entries - you have very little control over how it unfolds. They appear on their own, and you have no idea what will show up next or whether you’ve missed something along the way. It may not seem like a big deal, but I ended up reaching the end of the game without one plant that was critical for the finale. I have no idea where I missed it, thankfully, all plant locations on the map are static, so I was able to track it down with a little Googling. The map is also a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is a great complement to the in-store gameplay. It gives you an overview of the world and provides a natural way to search for new plants. On the other hand, it dangles the promise of free exploration, but that freedom rarely pays off. At most, you can discover some plants ahead of time and accidentally short-circuit a future quest, where the game will still guide you to the same location anyway. I guess the idea is to enable puzzles where you need to work out which place to visit. Still, the free exploration that yields no results is a big letdown for me. Overall, Strange Horticulture is a good indie game, but I can’t shake the feeling that it leaves quite a bit on the table. More choice-driven quests and deeper exploration could have elevated it into something truly memorable.