There is something ontological and cosmogonic, not to say theological, in caring for a plant. Elevating yourself to an entity on which the survival of a living being, already defenseless and incapable of communicating, completely depends, actually has something divine about it. This is an activity in itself capable of making us reflect on the great mystery of life, death, creation, the possible existence, or insistence of course, of a higher being.
Gardening, in other words, can be a very profitable hobby, due to the quantity and quality of philosophical reasoning that it is capable of activating and at the same time extremely relaxing, refreshing, satisfying to the extent that one is perfectly capable. to make your beloved plants grow and prosper.
Unfortunately, however, the green thumb It is not a quality that the possible superior being has democratically distributed, in equal parts, to all the participants in this great theatrical performance commonly called life. Between those who regularly forget to properly feed their garden and those who, for reasons totally unknown, do nothing more than bury one wilted plant after another, it is not certain that everyone can benefit mentally from engaging in an activity that only some truly can. defines zen.
In aid of all these failed nature lovers, those who despite themselves do not have time to properly care for a handful of plants, or simply those who want to drag their favorite pastime, Spagnolissima, into the virtual world. dramatic iceberg, a software house based in Turin, has thought well of creating Garden In!, a small, minimalist and particular experience that could easily be compared to the old Tamagotchis.
Why such a comparison? We explain it to you in ours review of Garden in!.
Take the pot, fill the pot, hug the plant in the pot.
There is no real menu, at least not worthy of the name, to welcome the user every time Garden In! is started. There is something written that appears on the monitor, it is true, but deep down the center, the beating heart of the entire experience, is revealed from the beginning, i.e. the fourth, the first among others that can be unlocked and taken from an isometric view, which contains the experience conveyed by the software.
Suspended in a sidereal void that can take on the colors of sunset, sunrise, a starry sky, etc., at first you will feel that you are facing a kind of clone of the beautiful Unpacking. Furniture reduced to the basics, boxes yet to be opened piled up at random, the idea of facing a game in which time is suspended, relaxing music in the background makes this placid and delicate image in pastel colors even more dreamlike.
It is up to the first screen of the tutorial, which appears in a pop-up window in the center of the scene, to explain the intent and (not) objectives by Jardín En!. From a convenient menu, easily accessible at the cost of one click, you can place a pot wherever you want, fill it with soil, plant a seed and wait for nature to take its course. That's it, or almost. Oh really. Actually. We're not kidding.
Garden inside! it's a Rose water simulator for indoor gardening.. There is no intention to replicate reality, nor does the gameplay stumble in proposing who knows what varieties of plants, soils, pots, unknowns to take into account to avoid questioning the value of your green thumb. You plant the seed, you wait a few hours, virtual of course, you enjoy seeing the plant at its maximum growth and you move on to place the next pot.
Like herbal tea before bed.
There is some variation on the theme to timidly liven up the situation. It is advisable to water the plants from time to time, but at most they can dry out temporarily. In case of invasion of unwanted insects you will have to arm yourself with spray. To prevent your roommates from feeling abandoned, from time to time you can literally pamper them with a measured and sweet caress at the click of the mouse. Plus, if you're feeling especially enterprising, you can plant two seeds in the same pot, giving life, with a little luck, new hybrid species.
In terms of gameplay, we don't really go beyond this, leaving the tome that records all the varieties planted up to that point, a limited list of unlockables, and a short list of missions the task of imparting a minimum of progression to the whole. Successfully planting a certain number of specimens, protecting them a certain number of times from insect attacks, discovering a new hybrid variety, are (very easy) conditions imposed by the previous objectives and that anyone can easily achieve, even more so if we take into account Note that No, you will have to accumulate money, or similar credits, to buy vases in quantity or beautify your home with additional furniture and appliances.
Completing these small tasks will allow you to unlock new rooms, household objects, backgrounds for the stage and obviously pots, seeds, types of soil. Nothing that vast, of course, considering all of Garden In! is "completeable" in one twenty game sessions.
The only limit in this sense, if we look closely, is the time necessary for the plants to grow, time that however passes even when we are not in front of the PC. Precisely this particularity brings the Dramatic Iceberg creature closer to the unforgettable. Tamagotchi. Garden In!, in fact, is the ideal software to start before going to sleep, or to give yourself a break of about ten minutes from your stressful daily routine.
This short period of time, in fact, is more than enough to water the plants, rearrange the furniture, and perhaps place a new vase somewhere. The pace, so to speak, is the same as with the Tamagotchi, which required a few minutes of your time to be cared for, while the rest of the day you could easily leave it alone.
Garden In!, in short, It is not a video game in the classic sense. More than anything it offers an experience, it offers a small corner of paradise in which to retreat from time to time. What it does not offer from a purely recreational point of view, it returns with its pastel colors and its relaxing soundtrack capable of lulling you into an almost dreamlike dimension, where no plant can wither and there is nothing that can threaten your tranquility and calm. .
Conclusions
Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Vapor, Nintendo eShop Price 9.99 € Holygamerz.com 7.0 Readers (3) 8.6 your voteFor just under ten euros, Garden In! It promises to silence every anxiety, every worry, every fear that takes over your mind. Its relaxing soundtrack, its relaxing colors, its elemental and easy-to-master gameplay, will drag you to a dreamlike and suspended dimension where not even death, money and the urge to act exist. Planting the seeds, watching them grow, furnishing the rooms of the house will be the only thing you can do, a limitation clearly intended and desired by the developers, precisely to offer a product within everyone's reach, that can avoid any type of apprehension. Garden In!, to put it another way, is not a title for everyone. It really depends on what you're looking for in a video game, what amuses you, what stimulates you. With a cup of herbal tea in hand, perhaps on particularly gloomy days, the Dramatic Iceberg creature is the perfect culmination of an intense and sublime moment of relaxation. However, it is an ephemeral production, very limited and with a very short useful life. If you are looking for a minimum of progression, if you expect a realistic simulation, if you expect a very long list of unlockables, you will surely be disappointed. A game to enjoy as it was done with the old Tamagotchis, about ten minutes a day, knowing that after the first start of the software you will have seen practically everything it has to offer you. Ideal on Steam Deck, or on Nintendo Switch where it will debut soon, to play under the covers, just before falling asleep.
PRO
- Beautiful artistic design
- The soundtrack helps you sleep wonderfully.
- A panacea against everyday anxieties
AGAINST
- There is no real progression.
- An evanescent experience in itself
