Grow Home Review

 I think it’s important to mention first that Grow Home is the first non-indie title I review on this website! Yes, Grow Home was developed by Ubisoft Reflections, a non-indie group. I feel like I’m making good progress here guys. I know it’s been a tough road playing only indie games day in and day out but, cautiously I’m expanding my game reviewing boundaries. (Cue a hand full of confetti and a single party horn).

 

Style/Gameplay

You want a game about robots growing plants Right? Well, GOOD! Grow Home stars B.U.D. (Botanical Unit Droid) who is directed by M.O.M. to grow a massive plant to oxygenate their home world. This is no ordinary plant though! It’s a plant that grows to the size of a planet. You get to grab on to stalks and ride them to nearby floating islands to get nutrition to the plant. The more nutrition you collect the taller the plant grows, and the more of the fascinating world you get to explore!

Now, right out of the title screen Grow Home is a very beautiful video game, which is pretty of unsurprising considering it’s a Ubisoft title, but the style of this game is very unlike most Ubisoft games. Grow Home, with its visible polygons and simple textures, reminisce of older games. There’s even an animated glitching effect when switching between menu screens. Focusing less on realism, Ubisoft created a relaxing, atmospheric game that has beautiful colors and glow.

 

Controls

 Unfortunately the controls are frustrating. I managed to get used to the controls, but even after finishing the game I still have a hard time getting around. B.U.D. moves like a weighted ragdoll. Instead of a walking animation his torso leads him and his legs move to catch and steady himself (much like a toddler. But, like, a drunk one.) Along with that mechanic, he has to gain momentum to move forward, which also makes stopping a bit hard to get the hang of also. I’ve fallen off cliffs countless times in this game because of this feature. Now, these mechanics were deffinately intentional and it wasn’t an accident that B.U.D. moved like this. I think the developers wanted it to feel like what piloting a robot from a distance feels like. But, it didn’t really help in my opinion. Luckily, Grow Home features several checkpoints, so I was never too far from my previous destination.

 

Dialogue

There is little to no dialogue in this game but I thought it was worth mentioning. The only dialogue is between B.U.D. and M.O.M. and was cute and funny at first but as I continued playing, what I took for funny in the beginning seam to get more sarcastic and mean almost as the game went on. It kind of makes the game a bit funnier in a sad way if you take the text as sarcastic. But there are deffinately lines that are meant to be demeaning. For example, and I can’t find the exact quote anywhere online, every time you die M.O.M. says something to you. Usually it’s something like “You did your best,” but when I died once M.O.M. said something about making a gif set of B.U.D. dying and people laughing at it. Pretty scrubby if you ask me, and I know a thing or two about srubs.

 

Music

I’m a big fan of electric music. I’m a big fan of this soundtrack. The OST to Grow Home has a chill, relaxed feeling that I really enjoy, but the funny thing is I don’t remember hearing it during my playtime. I actually had to look up the OST online while writing this review and listen to it again. I was shocked that I didn’t remember the music. I love the tracks! They fit in and melded so well to the game play that the music just became part of the scenery, something that was just in my peripheral the whole time. I’m deffinately going to put this music in my library as soon as I can.

 

TL;DR

Grow Home by Ubisoft is a great game, with a fantastic soundtrack, landscapes, and a fun objective of riding plant stalks to collect nutrition for a plant to grow! The only down side to the game in my opinion is that moving the character around can be difficult to manage at first.

 

Good/10

+Beautiful

+Fun Objectives

+It's Pretty Sweet Getting to Drive Plant Stalks to Floating Islands

+Music is Nice

-Difficult Controls