
Strange Horticulture stands out as one of the best Adventure/Simulation titles in recent memory.
93
Verdict
95%
Steam
90
IGDB
Verdict score based on confidence-adjusted Steam reviews?
Very Positive on Steam (95% positive from 15K reviews)
Critically acclaimed (90/100 critic average)
Compelling narrative and story
Rich open world to explore
No significant drawbacks reported
Strange Horticulture is a 2022 video game by British independent developer Bad Viking, published by Iceberg Interactive for Windows, Nintendo Switch, macOS and Xbox One. Described as an "occult puzzle game", Strange Horticulture involves the discovery and identification of a fictitious herbarium of plants for sale to a range of mysterious and unscrupulous customers. Gameplay involves the completion of puzzles by matching the details of customer requests of plants to their descriptions, opening up access to more plants and identifying information.

Runs well on modern hardware.
Last updated 18d ago
I'm torn between wanting to recommend this game and not recommend this game. I ultimately do recommend it if you're looking for an atmospheric cozy game but definitely catch it on sale due to how short it is. For the reviewer who said there's no easy way to go back and get the other endings... That's not strictly true. 3 of the endings can be achieved on day 16 and only require going to a different location. All you have to do is go to "load" your game from the main menu screen and the game has autosaves for most of the days, which you can just select day 16 and go from there. I will say the thing I appreciated the most about this game is that it never deadlocked you and made you start back over/cheese your saves if a customer came in and you didn't have what they were looking for. There is no sense of urgency (which is a good thing for a cozy game) so if you put off following up on a clue or something for a bit, your customer will wait there patiently for you to venture out and find the plant they're looking for if it's not already in your possession.
A Cozy puzzle game with spooky vibe. Every character (including you) has a backstory that you unveil day by day. Most of the puzzles were easy to solve if you pay close attention to the pages and information given by the customers. Eventhough it's a plant identifying game at it's core, the steps that you need to go through to get those plants is what makes it even more interesting. Music, interation effects and A CUTE CAT that you can pet gives it the cozy vibe whereas the customer interactions adds the spookiness. Overall a great game to play before you go to sleep or when you wanna play something chill.
This game is a total delight, so cozy, and still a fun detective puzzle. I wish I had played this game sooner.
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Data sourced from RAWG, Steam, IGDB, CheapShark, Wikipedia, HLTB, and GX Corner. Sources: rawg, steam, cheapshark, igdb, wikipedia.
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