Played on: Xbox Series X
Botany Manor is another game I got to play via Xbox Game Pass this year, and it wasn't really what I imagined it would be. Fortunately, in this case, that turned out to be a good thing, as I have something of a black thumb in real life, but no plant skill is necessary to enjoy Botany Manor's puzzle-filled progression.
That latter point is important as well, because, at its heart, Botany Manor is not truly a gardening sim, but instead a puzzle game, layered with an adventure game-style presentation. Set in 1890, the game puts players in control of under-appreciated, brilliant and retired botanist, Arabella Greene. Arabella is attempting to write a book on rare and forgotten plant specimens, and after recently inheriting a family estate in Somerset, England, she's given the perfect grounds to realize her experiments, and give a new lease on life to nearly extinct species of exotic (and fantastically fictional!) plants.
Botany Manor would certainly fit the definition of a 'cozy' puzzler, at its heart. The game has no sense of urgency, and allows players to explore Arabella's manor at their leisure. Opening up new paths is done by successfully growing the right plants, and earning the right tools, according to a checklist that Arabella keeps. These plant puzzles rely on careful manipulation of the environment, and a few choice uses of tools and ingredients available to you, in conundrums that wouldn't feel out of place in a point-and-click adventure game. No wonder I enjoyed this experience so much then!
Botany Manor feels clever the whole way through. Its plant puzzles offer just the right degree of challenge, and the fact that the game never pushed or stressed me out over achieving a certain result was even better. Even just exploring Arabella's manor proved to be pretty fun, as I gradually opened up new and intriguing corners of the estate with every story-dependent plant mission that I completed.
Another surprising delight throughout Botany Manor is how effectively it tells its story through research notes and manor features. Arabella's character is given some interesting development as you continue to amass clues regarding how to grow her plants, and by the end of the game, you'll feel like you know her fairly well, even when Botany Manor is presented in first-person, and you never actually see what Arabella looks like during gameplay. You don't interact with any other characters throughout the game either, so the fact that Botany Manor's passive storytelling resonated with me as much as it did is a great testament to how inspired the whole game concept is.
Botany Manor does occasionally demand some patience from its players, mind you. I did run into some minor gameplay and visual bugs here and there, and even beyond that, the sheer amount of backtracking you sometimes have to do threatens to grate on impatient players' nerves. It's still nice that Botany Manor never rushes you, but that doesn't totally alleviate the fact that you'll need to run all around Arabella's manor more than once if you plan to finish the game properly.
On the bright side, Arabella's manor nonetheless remains an enjoyable environment to explore, and the ultimate payoff to Botany Manor's puzzles did feel worth it in the end, at least to me. I played through the entire game in one sitting, in fact, scooping up the handful of achievements I missed not long after. I didn't ultimately play the PC version in this case, despite it also being offered for free on Xbox Game Pass, and despite Botany Manor's first-person presentation and general environmental navigation definitely feeling like they're designed with a mouse and keyboard in mind. Still, the game is plenty easy to navigate with an Xbox controller, just the same.
I expected to have to learn far more actual plant science to play Botany Manor, and in the end, the game actually exceeded my expectations. It's approachable, it's well-presented, and while it does have a few bugs and gameplay hiccups at times, I enjoyed all of my five or so hours playing it. Unlike quite a few Xbox Game Pass games that I've played through this year as well, Botany Manor is still available on Xbox Game Pass at the time of writing too, seeing as it just released this past April! If you're looking for a cozy virtual getaway that gives your brain a decent workout, I'd definitely recommend booking a stay at Arabella's estate, especially if you're an Xbox Game Pass subscriber that can save yourself the entry fee!
IF I HAD TO SCORE IT: 9/10
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