Review: Botany Manor

Available on: Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox (Included in Xbox GamePass)

Cost: €24.99, £22.49 or $24.99

Genre: Puzzle game

Developer: Balloon Studios

Publisher: Whitethorn Games

It’s 1890, and you are Arabella Greene, a retired botanist that has just inherited a Somerset Manor in the English Countryside. Your publisher has accepted your book proposal and you are now tasked to complete your herbarium, a collection of studies and research about Forgotten Flora. Investigate your surroundings and find clues to figure out how to make the fantastical plants bloom. Botany Manor is a delightful point and click puzzle game with striking visual design and a subtle but poignant story about Arabella’s life and career, as well as the role of women in the 19th Century.

Story

Throughout the game you will pick up various letters from family, friends and colleagues that will give a snapshot into Arabella Greene’s life, learning she is a retired botanist, unmarried by choice, much to some of her family and acquaintances distate, that is living her life her way.

You see her struggles as a woman growing up in the 1800s and the pressures society has placed on her, as well as the limitations she has had to face in her career.

Despite this, Arabella appears to be very comfortable in her choices in an “unusual” lifestyle for women at the time, and has achieved many great feats that others would not. The plants in the game are magical, so there is a hint of unrealism within the realism which is a subtle but well executed balance.

While you never see a character, or hear Arabella speak, you do get some hints of her personality through her letters to give n idea of the type of character she is. Continuing the story to the end gives a satisfying conclusion to Arabella’s career.

Gameplay

The aim of the game is to find unlock different areas to reveal new seeds to grow into the forgotten fauna and use clues in those areas to solve the how to get the flowers to bloom. Botany Manor is a point and click puzzle game so each room you walk into there will be an indicator of a clue to click on to solve the puzzle and have the flower bloom.

The methods to bloom the flowers are quite imaginitive and get more fantastical as the game progresses. It could be certain temperatures, to weathers, to times of the day and even changing the colour of the flower by adding elements to the soil. The puzzles themselves are simple enough, once you collect all the clues for that flower it’s fairly straightforward to work out how to bloom them.

As you explore the manor and it’s gardens you pick up a variety of clues to fill out your Herbarium. This I felt was a place for improvement, as once the clue is logged in the book you are unable to view the clue within your book. You do get a very brief description of the clue, but if you need more detail you have to return to the clue itself, which can be frustrating going forwards and backwards across the map.

However there is a good amount of satisfaction seeing the clues fill up, and when you are researching multiple flowers at once it’s a good challenge to try and work out which flower some of the trickier clues apply to.

I really struggle with motion sickness from video games so I was wary of playing Botany Manor due to it’s first person perspective. I was really impressed with the accessibility settings in this game to avoid this, with lots of settings that can be customised and recommendations to which settings may help with reducing motion sickness. I wouldn’t have been able to play this game at all without these settings so this was a great addition.

Graphics and Visuals

The graphics are very bright and distinct, and the sprawling map and little pathways were enjoyable to explore. Oddly, I did feel like the garden could have used a lot more flowers, which wasn’t something I expected this game to be lacking in. The rooms were well filled and it was easy to spot a clue quickly. The game is pretty and there’s a nice amount of detail overall, and I did enjoy exploring all the different areas.

Longevity

Unfortunately the game is disappointingly short, it can be completed within 4 hours. Thankfully for me it was on GamePass but I would have been a little annoyed at paying full price for this for only 4 hours of gameplay. Once the game is over you’re not able to go back to previous areas without removing your progress which was also a little disappointing. The map of the area was large enough to easily have had more flowers and clues. The 4 hours were very enjoyable, but I probably wouldn’t replay this game purely because I’d know the puzzle solutions.

Conclusion

Overall, I did enjoy Botany Manor. For a game I didn’t think I’d be able to play due to motion sickness I was very impressed with the level of settings to mitigate this and was able to play the game without issues. The story is subtle but thoughtful, and I enjoyed the pacing and progression of the game. The puzzles were straightforward enough but still enjoyable to solve, and there was a good pay off seeing each magical flower bloom. There are some areas for improvement, the visuals were striking, but maybe a little bare in places. The game would have also benefitted from a better log of the clues so you don’t have to run all over the map to remind yourself of the little details. I was disappointed the game was only 4 hours of gameplay for the price, so I would definitely recommend it on GamePass, but if I was paying full price on PC or other consoles I’d recommend waiting for it to be on sale.