Plants a Game of Growth and Growing

A Simple Task

Where do you draw the line between a game and a tool? At some point, the thing stops becoming as much about play as it is about what the designer wants you to do with the game. That's where Plants tends to stand out from its competition, being as much a relaxation product as it is game. Whether or not that makes it a good fit for gamer's, though, is a more complicated question.

Learning to Grow

The idea behind Plants is relatively simple - you're going to help a flower grow. Despite what the developer thinks, this isn't all that novel of a concept. The goal here is to provide a non-violent, almost meditative experience for those who just want a few flashing lights in front of them when they're trying to relax.

The concept falls flat when you introduce the game elements.

The truth is that the idea of a meditative game has been done before. And it's still one that's got a lot of appeals. When you start to introduce fail states to a game about meditation, though, something stops working. This is a game that seems to want to be all about relaxation, but it can't let go of basic game concepts enough to allow users to enter that state.

A Simple Flower

Plants is not a great-looking game. It's got a lot more in common with what you would've expected to see in a free mobile game a few years ago than it does with what you'd generally find on Steam today. While not every game needs to be a graphical masterpiece, there's something off about the design of Plants. It might be the fact that the design isn't all that unified, or it might be the fact that it looks like it's as done in MS Paint.

Plants' touted audio isn't enough to help it past its graphical shortcomings.

For all that the game talks about its relaxing music, it doesn't ever feel like a real element. Is there music? Sure, but it's neither better nor worse than what you'd find in most games. If it were important, the game probably wouldn't tout the possibility of turning it off, and if it was meant to be ignored, you'd think that it would be at least a little less prominent in the advertising copy.

Basics of Gaming

Plants is technically a game, so it's probably worth looking at from a game-play perspective. The good news, of course, is that it is quite playable. The only thing that you're going to do in the game is to grow a flower, so it's nice to see that this can be done competently.

Your only goal is to move your plant towards water droplets, which can be done with your mouse. There's nothing particularly revolutionary here, but at least the developer has managed to make this process as painless as possible. The only downside, of course, is that the lack of variety is boring.

Not Worth Picking

The truth is that Plants would feel much more at home on an app store than it does on Steam. There's nothing here that justifies the price of the game, nor the room that it takes up on your hard-drive. It's a relaxing diversion at best, but there are plenty of other games that are better at that task. Plants is a game worth skipping.

TL/DR

Plants is a simple relaxation game that feels a little under cooked.