Developed by Still Alive Studios, Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator takes the joys of being a hands-on florist and gamifies the experience, bringing all the rewards without the backache. Packing garden chores with creative freedom into a relaxing simulator style game, Garden Life allows you to plant, prune and potter around the garden at your leisure. Whether you prefer to focus on the flower growing or would rather add a decorative touch, Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator has got you covered with plenty of hours of laid back gardening.
Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator is available on Steam for £20.99 ($24.99) and PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch for £34.99 ($39.99).
Story – Garden Life
Garden Life begins by introducing the community garden you are to be taking care of, leaving you to clear the rubble and replace the weeds with a variety of flora and garden decorations. The narrative is delivered to your letterbox as illustrated postcards which double as objectives, presented in the form of a flower order. The cozy game vibe is enhanced as there are no time limits, and therefore no repercussions for not completing a request – though a few of the objectives are tied to milestones in the garden. While only providing bouquets for a small clientele, the requests are filled with further details from the characters, their relationships lending to the feeling of a pre-existing world and showing snapshots of a social network beyond the garden fence.
The story is propelled forward by Robin’s to-do list.
Gameplay – Robin’s To-do List
There is little time to waste in Garden Life, with plenty of orders to complete, creative freedom with decorations and a satisfying gameplay loop making it hard to put the controller down. If not preoccupied with self-imposed tasks, Robin’s to-do list will guide your garden organisation, your green thumbs using the left analog stick to move and the right to rotate the camera. The equipment wheel displayed at the bottom of the screen can be cycled through using L1 or R1, enabling quick access to tools.
Naturally, each of the tools have different functions. R2 triggers actions, holding down to water plants and spray pesticides, or press and release with secateurs to snip away a stray stem or two. While I couldn’t resist the temptation to go all out Edward Scissorhands, the excitement soon turned to regret when a misplaced cut caused an impressive ivy plant fall to the ground in a shower of leaves. There are also a number of tool variants to be collected, the themed sets unlocked through completing certain orders or statues in the Pavilion.
Items in the equipment wheel can be switched out from your rucksack, which is opened with an easy tap of triangle. Despite a welcome update expanding the rucksack’s carry capacity, my bag would still quickly become packed and frequent trips to the shed were needed. The shed is home to three cupboards, each with seemingly endless storage space. When your bag is full, items will automatically be sent to shed storage. While this was useful, an auto-sort of some kind would be ideal, as the manual inventory sorting could become tedious and I eventually gave up trying to stay organised.
Some flower orders and statues reward different tool variants, with themed sets for you to collect.
The Plant Book
The greenery is full of life, albeit taking liberties with the reality of botany. The procedural plants are responsive to their care and environment. Flowers such as jasmines require precise trimming in order to grow, and all seeds need water and sunlight. However nature’s growth is accelerated, with the rewarding result of blooms blossoming before your eyes. By collecting clumps of weeds and depositing them into the compost box, you will have copious amounts of fetiliser available, making it possible to harvest plants multiple times a day.
The plant book is both a guide and an encyclopedia for you to complete. Starting with Amaryllis and ordered alphabetically, all the species of plants in the game have their own page. Jotted down next to a sketch of the flower are tips to help them flourish, including how much space the seed needs, their preferred seasons and whether or not they require a trellis to climb. The plant book also keeps track of the colours of species you have collected so far. These are noted in little circles at the bottom of the page, the question mark replaced with different hues as you harvest randomly generated seed mutations.
The plant book holds essential information as well as helpfully keeping track of which seeds have been collected.
Village Square
Holding down X on the bike outside of your garden transports you to the village square, where you can sell and purchase goods in exchange for Florins. To begin with, the only accessible area is Leslie’s shop, which you will be instructed to visit during the tutorial objectives. Once these are completed, you will be able to open your own market stall and gain access to the Pavilion, making trips to the village a daily necessity.
- Leslie’s – Always greeting you with a cheery welcome upon entering her shop, Leslie’s is stocked with all of your gardening essentials: tools, outdoor decor, and seeds. The cozy little shop changes decorations on offer along with the seasons, hopping from pumpkins and paper windmills based on the time of year.
- Market stall – Here you can sell bouquets and decorations you’ve crafted in your shed. If like myself you become an accidental seed hoarder, these will also sell for a generous price.
- Pavilion – It may be tempting to ignore the Pavilion, at first glance a large tent with empty wooden frames. Yet when the flower donations are complete, each statue becomes a beautiful floral tribute to members of the community.
The flower statues in the Pavilion pay tribute to the characters.
Audio and Graphics – Lush and Vibrant
As the focus is primarily on the relaxing gameplay, Garden Life can be forgiven for its lack of human life. A portrait of each character pops up on the screen, along with a dialogue bubble. Their detailed illustrations combined with the personalities presented in writing and accompanying voice acting create the illusion of their physical presence. The garden ambiance is completed with the occasionally tweeting of birds, or raindrops pattering on the rooftop of wooden shed as you rifle through seeds and craft bouquets.
Plants are the main spectacle of Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator, and the attention to detail when recreating flowers in the semi-realistic style emphasizes this. As the seasons change, so does the appearance and atmosphere of the garden, the long days of summer contrasting to the white snow blanketing your garden during winter for an added touch of realism. The art style also accurately captures intricate details like the clusters of petals on a hydrangea, the textured domed leaves of a hosta plant, and the ruffles of a peony – all plants I definitely knew beforehand and didn’t have to Google to compare the resemblance.
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- If left unattended, weeds will try to take back the garden.
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- Progressing through the objectives eventually opens up the greenhouse for you to customise.
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- Jasmines and other climbing plants require trimming daily and something for them to grow along.
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- There is plenty of creative freedom allowing you to pot plants and place decorations as you wish.
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- Seeds, tools and decorations are available at Leslie’s shop.
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- Photo mode can remove the HUD and allows you to view your garden from multiple points of view.
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- The narrative is delivered to your mailbox, stories being told through the flower orders.
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- You are given the weather forecast and season at the start of each day.
Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator was reviewed on PS5 with a key provided by Dead Good PR.
