GAME REVIEW: Gardener’s Path (2021)

I haven’t been gaming too much so far in 2024, but there have been a few games on circuit recently nevertheless. I had put one called Gardener’s Path from Viridino Studio on my wish list sometime last year, for it’s cute pixel graphics, interesting artwork, and the fact that it’s a puzzle game about gardening underground, which, frankly, just appealed to my personality. Eventually, it went on sale, so we played through it, in pretty reasonable time.

First of all, the game does have a story about defeating underground insects in cave gardens (which I won’t spoil), but it is completely tacked onto the beginning and end of the game. It’s fine, but it could have been expanded and dispersed a bit, in the same way the puzzle mechanics expand and diversify as the game progresses. For a game with about 60 puzzles, the game just air-drops you into this garden dungeon and makes you complete the entire game before getting any more story, which isn’t great, pacing-wise.

That said, the puzzles were fun enough for what the game cost. I found myself (traditionally a dummy when it comes to puzzles and tactics) fairly equally paired with my partner, who is much more logical and able to plan ahead than I am, which was nice. And as mentioned above, the puzzles continue to add new challenges as the player progresses, so it is fun to play through from start to finish and isn’t so challenging that you should need to look up help. The music and artwork are both very nice. Ultimately, if you’re just looking for a quick time-kill and enjoy puzzles and/or bit-art, this could be worth dropping a few coins on, but if you’re hoping for a masterpiece, Gardener’s Path could have cooked a little longer before coming out of the oven.

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