14 DAY TRIAL // Publisher Iceberg Interactive had several indie games to reveal at gamescom 2021, and one of them caught my eye. Strange Horticulture is described as an occult, plant-based mystery game in which you play as the proprietor of a local plant store.
Developed by UK-based studio Bad Viking, Strange Horticulture won’t be out until early 2022, but a free demo is now available for download via Steam for those who want to try it out. If not, a wishlist will definitely help developers.
The thing about Strange Horticulture is not that it has as quirky title, but it’s also an unusual game. Players are tasked with collecting and cataloguing powerful plants, while influencing the story to unravel the Undermere’s dark mysteries.
The game is set in Undermere, a small town surrounded by hag-infested forests and rugged mountains, developers explain. As the owner of the local plant store Strange Horticulture (aha!), you’ll explore the lands to find new plants.
But there’s a catch! The surroundings are not always friendly to a simple herbalist, so you might just stumble upon powers beyond your dreams or lose your mind completely. That being said, you’ll have to use the context clues you find in the game to decide which places to visit and which to avoid.
The folks at Bad Viking promise a cast of colorful customers that you’ll get to meet through your job at the local plant store, to the point that you will be quickly thrust into an occult mystery stretching back hundreds of years.
Typically, the people of Undermere will come to you for remedies that will help them sleep, but each illness has its own cure, so you’ll have to correctly identify the plants you need by using the in-game encyclopedia. Oh, and you can pet your cat as often as you wish.
