Grow Home developed by Reflections and Ubisoft is a small little game about a small little robot trying to make a massive bean-stalk style tree. Releasing for windows back in February, this game got ported to the PS4 at the start of September as well as hitting the free games of the month for PS Plus members. Looking at its cover art and a quick synopsis doesn’t really say much about the game besides it being about a robot and a tree so it might come off as a minimalistic game.
Story
You control B.U.D. (Botanical Utility Droid), a robot who is commanded by M.O.M to grow a massive “Star Plant” and gather its Star Seed to allow plant growth on your homeworld. That is pretty much it for the story, grow a tree, get to the top. After your 1st Seed you will be asked to gather 8 more to fully complete the game.
To make the tree 2000 metres tall and gather the 1st Seed can take up to 2 hours long, the extra Seeds can be around 2 more hours if you’re having trouble finding them, with more time spent on gathering collectables, finding secrets and gaining trophies. I can’t see the game lasting longer than 8 hours, unless you really put your mechanical nose to the floor to sniff out all this games has to offer.
Gameplay
This games has one of the most unique ways to control your character, while others have gone for the “control each limb” mechanic, Grow Home makes all its animations and movements dynamic and procedurally generated to an almost rag-doll effect. Your character will stretch out to a spot whilst you try to grab onto a stem or rock, or tumble on the floor if they don’t have a secure footing.
Left and right arms are controller with the trigger buttons, A for jumping/jetpack and Square to interact with objects. You can also store a flower or glide leaf and use it with the Y button, allowing you to control your falls a lot better. There is also a self-destruct button in case you get stuck, which can happen a lot with the rag-doll effects.
Once you start to climb the Star Plant you will need to find a Star Shoot which you will ride Bull style as it grows out from its stem in a direction you decide. You have to get these shoots to connect to yellow floating islands for the Plant to absorb their energy and grow even bigger. If you don’t quite make it to an island the Star Shoot itself grows leafs and shoots along its stem, so you can do it in segments. This seems to be one of the best ways to get around as well as it is much faster than climbing and allows you to almost fly through the air.
The game itself feels very flimsy, a wrong move can send you plummeting to the floor, face first into a corner or falling around because he made a wrong step. It can become quite infuriating when you have to climb all that way again, especially if you miss out on the teleporters along the way. However on the flip side it feels so refreshing from the normally rigid movements of other games, adding a new form of fluidity to gameplay.
Overall Thoughts and Feelings
The music and art style complement each beautifully, however the music and sounds do kind of fall into the background after a while. Night/Day cycles look amazing and add another realm of immersion to the game as you climb the beanstalk. It felt a bit too childish for me to play, with block colours and a sort of Disney look to it. It doesn’t feel open to older gamers in my mind.
Grow Home is really trying to spread its roots here, with unique gameplay and aesthetic, dropping you in a sandbox of rock-climbing and slightly parkour action. Your adventure takes you up to 2000 meters in the sky, through riding growing stems, jumping off floating island and jump leafs or teleporting with your helpful pods around the map. The only enemy is the time it will take to reach the top, it is a bit too easy to lose your footing and fall to the bottom or miss a jump and have to restart a parkour section.
Grow Home gets a 2/5, it’s a neat little game but with the short time and lack of action it doesn’t feel engaging enough. Simply jumping and climbing around a level doesn’t satisfy enough when you are not given obstacles or dangers, collectables also give you new/upgraded abilities but once you get 40 you’re pretty much set for the entire game. Being unique and fun is one thing, but there isn’t much in this game to keep you hooked… and looking at the 13% of gamers who have completed it shows just how many people kept at it after the first night in game. It feels more like a prototype then a game.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
You must be logged in to post a comment.