A relaxing gardening simulator that lets you grow flowers and design your own garden at your own pace.
I've been playing quite a few high iintensity games recently, so I thought it was about time I slowed things down and returned to a more traditional cozy gaming experience. Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator seemed like a good choice, offering a relaxing gardening experience where you can grow flowers and create your own garden.
One thing I was a little apprehensive about was the first person perspective, as I tend to struggle with motion sickness in these types of games. Thankfully, the camera movement is fairly stiff, which actually worked in my favour, and I didn't have too many problems playing.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Garden Life, although there were a few things that prevented me from loving it.
Story
In Garden Life, you're given an overgrown community garden to restore, starting by clearing away the mess before getting to work planting your first flowers. As you progress, you'll complete requests from the local community, unlocking new areas and equipment to help develop your garden.
There's a little story behind the garden itself, but the focus is very much on the gardening simulation rather than a traditional narrative.
Gameplay
Garden Life is a fairly straightforward gardening simulator, although there's quite a lot you can do once you get started. You'll plant seeds, water your flowers and prune them as they grow, gradually filling your garden with different varieties. Flowers grow surprisingly quickly, and you'll soon find yourself with plenty to harvest. In fact, I ended up with far too many rose bushes at one point because I just kept planting all the seeds the game was giving me!
You can use your flowers to create bouquets and complete requests, eventually unlocking a flower stall in the town square where you can sell your arrangements. The money you earn can be spent on decorations and better gardening equipment, including improved clipping tools and sprinklers that make looking after your plants much easier.
I also really enjoyed the creative freedom. You can arrange your garden however you like, deciding where to plant everything and how to decorate the space. Once you've unlocked the town square, you can also contribute flowers to the pavilion displays to earn additional prizes, which gives you something else to work towards.
One of my favourite things about Garden Life is that there's absolutely no rush. You can spend as much time as you like gardening or rearranging everything, and I think the simulation side of the game is where it works best. It's a nice change from games that constantly push you towards the next objective.
Graphics and Visuals
Unfortunately, this is where Garden Life really fell short for me. I appreciate that the game has its own particular art style, but I just didn't find it especially appealing.
The graphics look quite pixelated to me, and I found the colours rather dull. Considering how much of the game involves growing flowers and making your garden look beautiful, I would have liked something a little more visually pleasing.
I know this is entirely down to personal taste, but the graphics are a big part of my enjoyment of cozy games, and I struggled to get past them here.
Longevity - How Long is Garden Life A Cozy Simulator?
Garden Life has plenty to keep you occupied, especially if you enjoy decorating and experimenting with different garden layouts. There's a good selection of flowers to grow, and you'll gradually unlock more equipment and decorations as you complete requests.
There's also a Creative Mode if you'd prefer to concentrate entirely on designing your garden without having to work through the usual progression.
I can see this being a game that people spend a considerable amount of time with, particularly if they enjoy gardening simulators. The freedom to develop your garden at your own pace is certainly one of its biggest strengths.
Conclusion
I enjoyed Garden Life, and it was nice to return to a more traditional cozy game after spending so much time playing faster paced games. I particularly liked how relaxed the gameplay was, and there's a good amount of freedom when it comes to designing your garden.
Unfortunately, I just didn't find the graphics particularly appealing, which did affect how much I enjoyed spending time in the game. The first person perspective also isn't my preferred way to play, although thankfully it didn't cause me too many problems with motion sickness.
If you're looking for a relaxing gardening simulator that lets you take your time and get creative, I do think Garden Life is worth considering. It wasn't quite to my personal taste, but I enjoyed the gardening mechanics and appreciated having a game that wasn't constantly asking me to hurry up.
Find Your Next Cozy Game
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Garden Life is a relaxing gardening simulator with plenty of creative freedom, but its graphics and first-person perspective weren't entirely to my taste.