Genre: Adventure, Casual, Platforming
Developer: Reflections, a Ubisoft Studio
Platforms: PC
Tested on: PC
Grow Home – Review
Ubisoft Reflections, a child company of Ubisoft, has recently released their new game Grow Home on the market. Grow Home proves to be a very casual adventure platforming game which keeps you relaxed with very easy gameplay and amazing art. And on top of that, it’s a Ubisoft game that doesn’t require Uplay!
Story
You are a Botanical Utility Droid, or BUD in short. Together with your spaceship crew, you’re looking for planets that house the seeds of a giant alien plant. Your mission is to grow the plant up to the point where it provides enough oxygen to make the planet self sustaining. On your quest, you’ll discover the beautiful world and its strange animals and plants. But be careful, it’s a long way down!
The story itself is very short (about 2 hours) but it’s worth the play through. After you’ve finished the story, you’re free to explore the world however you please, or you could just take a leap from the giant plant and see how you perish as you hit the ground.
Graphics
Grow Home has a very unique artstyle, but it’s fantastic! The textures look flat, BUD looks silly, the animals look silly and the world looks amazing from a distance. The graphics reflect charm, and this game has a lot of it! There are a lot of different kinds of plants, some of which can be interacted with, but most of them are just there to add extra charm to the game. Standing 2000 meters high and looking around provides you with a breathtaking experience. When you finally decide to jump down, you’ll see all the different biomes the game has to offer at different altitudes, showing you the beautiful journey you’ve made.
Sound
Sound and music are sadly enough an area where Grow Home isn’t that good at. The lack of music might even make the game boring at times, but feel free to play your own soothing and calm music to fully experience the game. Sound effects aren’t that great either, they’re just there but don’t add much to the game.
Gameplay
As said before, you’re BUD and you’re tasked by “M.O.M.” (your ship’s computer) to grow a Star Plant to a massive altitude. You’ll do this by climbing the plant and sprouting the Star Shoots, but more on that later.
BUD is controlled with your basic directional keys, including an action key, jump key and self destruct. Additionally, you’re also provided with two arms of course! However, you have to control the “grabbing” of each hand yourself, giving you (kind of some) control over what you’re doing. This way, you can climb cliffs by alternating grabbing.
You won’t only be climbing cliffs, but you’ll climb the Star Plant as well! The Star Plant has a big stem in the middle and has a couple of Star Shoots (or buds) along it. You can climb to these Star Shoots, grab on to them and then use the action key to make them grow. When it’s growing, you’ll have full control over the direction where it goes as long as you grab onto it. However, the only way to make the big stem grow is to direct the Star Shoots into Energy Rocks. Energy Rocks are floating islands that can be found around the world. Every time you connect a Star Shoot to it, the big stem grows. And if you’ve connected enough, the game opens up another “level”, allowing you to climb up further.
Growing the Star Shoots generates additional buds along them, allowing for further growth towards the Energy Rocks if you didn’t make it with your previous Star Shoot. Extending buds also grows leafs on them, if you jump on them, you rocket into the air. This technique allows you to access higher parts of the level faster.
The game also provides you with Teleportation pads, allowing easy access to higher levels if you’ve fallen down (which may happen due to the slow reaction of BUD). Also, power-up crystals grow throughout the world. Pulling them out of the dirt or rocks allows you to upgrade BUD, giving you access to a zoomed out camera, jetpack and more.
When you’ve finished the game, you can roam around freely in order to find all the teleportation pads, power-up crystals or simply explore the beautiful world!
Conclusion
Grow Home is a game that will take you on a magical journey in a beautiful world. While the story is relatively short, it’s a game worth buying if you’re into casual games. It has fun gameplay, a silly robot that you play as and even sillier animals. Enjoy the journey!
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