Grow Home

Hear me out. Have you played Death Stranding? This is a "Strand" type game.
- You build infrastructure to traverse an expansive landscape.
- There is a focus on picking up and collecting things.
- The body of your protagonist is physics simulated (and controls like on roller skates).
- There is a theme of connection amidst a confusion between technology and nature.
- Even the control scheme is similar, expect to wear down the triggers on your controller.
Silly ideas aside, this is an interesting game with one big level. Once you beat it, it does throw more to do at you. It feels a little fluffed up by the achievements - it feels like those could be the second half of the game (though maybe I'm just bitter because I'm a completionist but I don't want to spend that kind of time on the game). The last thing I'll add is that the game is charming. I really like that the mothership is called M.O.M. and has low res pictures of her son plastered all over. The game's speech is also deliberately filled with typos, because if you were a robot, why would you bother investigating English enough to get all the words right? Robots doing an okay but not perfect job is charming.

For some reason, I never got the impression this was a physics game based on the trailer. That caught me a bit off by surprise. I wouldn't call the controls 'intentionally bad' like Surgeon Simulator and the like but they are awkward and take time getting used to. For the most part I didn't have too many problems with it until the later stages, where I kept sliding off of surfaces despite still hanging on. Sometimes falling through objects completely.
I found it to be another good Podcast game. There's very little ambient music and the tasks are simple enough that it's easy to listen to something else on the side. The game itself is extremely short but getting 100% does take a lot more time. Some of the achievements are a little too tedious though.
The sale price is generally around $2 which is pretty damn good for what it offers.

An infinitely charming, glorified tech demo; it’s a little shallow, but smart enough to end before it exhausts the interests of its systems. The emphasis on jetpacking all around a green landscape pleasantly reminded me of puttering around in Tribes 2.

This game transports you to another world for a while. It's short but I absolutely love this game.

Grow Home gleefully sprouts its physics-based legs and climbs an ever-growing beanstalk to the stars.
WHAT I LIKED:
+ BUD, the central character, was fair to control. Whilst sometimes throws himself off a floating island, the majority of the climbing mechanics were well executed and never felt uncontrollable.
+ 100 crystals to collect, which in turn upgrades BUD's jet-pack and other useful equipment, resulted in exploration being primarily fun and rather relaxing. The data bank also supplied more collecting to perform.
+ Once BUD reaches MOM's spaceship, an additional task of collecting star seeds is thrown into the mix, further extending playtime.
+ Unlockable skins. Ninja BUD is the way to go, trust me!
+ Gliding around the gigantic beanstalk is a soothing endeavour to say the least.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- Grabbing hold of flora and fauna with two hands unfairly weighed BUD down, even with unlimited fuel in the jet-pack.
- A few too many teleport devices which makes the game easier if BUD was to accidentally let go when climbing, as it means the player can fast travel to that closest point.
- Short. The game can be 100% completed in approximately 3 hours (if you're speedy at finding the crystals). The extra Steam achievements may add an incentive to come back, however there is nothing to do once all crystals have been found.
VERDICT:
5/10 bioluminescent maggots

Cute game, good for a little bit of fun. 8/10 this game may give you an Oedipus complex.

Recommended
Albeit short, this game is a lovely platformer where you climb a giant plant while struggling with awkward controls.
📕Intro:
A ship navigates space in search of star plants. Once it finds one, the ship activates a botanical utility droid or BUD who is essentially a gardener. His task is to help the plant grow and harvest the precious seeds that can undoubtedly help restore precious life. So he jumps out of the ship and hits the surface.
🎮Gameplay:
The second you take control of BUD, you start to ponder why your controller's broken. The dramatic drop from space must've broken his balance chip or something because the unfortunate robot can barely walk in a straight line without wobbling left and right. He also tends to trip over his own legs quite often. But that doesn't really matter much as his strength lies in his climbing abilities. By using the shoulder buttons (if you're playing with a gamepad) the little guy can climb everything. And by everything, I'm primarily referring to one dominant plant that's the robot's sole chance of getting back to his ship.
Apart from the remarkable plant, there is not much to see on the tiny island. There's a lot of exotic plants, rocks, and the only other living thing seems to be something resembling a sheep. When you move your eyes upwards, you will see a considerable number of floating rocks of different sizes. Some are so small that can only hold a lone tree or a plant, while others form a bigger mass with hidden caves and other secrets that still need to be discovered. And you might be interested in exploring.
Scattered over all the floating rocks are 100 sparkling crystals which give you useful improvements and instantly make the climbing experience a little more bearable. You may want to collect at least half of the crystals to earn and then upgrade the jetpack. It does not contain a lot of juice, but it might save you from a long fall.
In any event, the main purpose of the game is to help the main plant grow. This is accomplished by climbing one of its multiple branches and then riding it into floating green rocks. However, the branch moves erratically and has a limited range, so you can't simply jump on one and direct it all the way up. What's more, if you lose control, the branch will twist and take its own path. The number of green rocks the plant needs to grow increases with each layer you reach. But you don't have to worry because there will be no shortage of branches.
The environment can assist you too. There are bouncing mushrooms and active geysers that kick you up in the air, and big leaves on branches that do the same. Smaller leaves and flowers can be stowed in your backpack and used anytime to slow down your perilous descent. And then there are the teleporters that need to be activated first. They are of vital importance and a priority each time you find one.
The reason for this is that it's so easy to fall from the narrow plant due to the way the robot works. When that happens, and there's no flower in that backpack of yours, you're dead. Long falls are especially painful when you know you can't save yourself. Rather than waiting anxiously until you crash, it is better to use the suicide button. If you have had the misfortune of falling without paying close attention to the teleporters, unfortunate death usually involves a lot of climbing that you have done several times already.
🙋‍♂‍Final Thoughts:
If you focus solely on the main objective, the game can be completed within a few hours. There are no clever puzzles or secrets, unless you count an occasional cave that is there only for achievement purposes. There is one short secondary mission where you need to bring exotic plants and animals to teleporters for scanning; with the exception of some valuable information and a new costume, this does not offer any reward. Oh, there is some post-game content where you must find eight more seeds that have been scattered around the world. But unlike crystals, which can be found by following a signal, seeds have no such thing.
👍/👎Pros and Cons:
Pros:
Cutesy style
Some freedom with plant-growing
UbiSoft game that doesn't require Uplay
Cons:
Awkward controls
Short
🏆Make or Miss:
Rating: 7/10
Reviewed by: Sosich
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