When I first stepped into Gardener: Plant Creator, I was excited to dive into a world of growing plants but as I played, that excitement quickly faded.
Gardener: Plant Creator is a game where you grow plants… but not really. It’s actually a menu where you click and things pop up on screen. There is no challenge, no game, nothing. Just a screen with a piece of land where you can place parts of a flower by clicking an option in a menu.
Gardener: insult of a concept
You can’t do anything fun with your plants, like taste the fruit or have them battle each other. You also can’t turn them into monsters or have romantic conversations with them. It’s all just watching them grow, which gets boring fast.
The entire gameplay of Gardener: Plant Creator is just clicking through a list of flower parts and setting their sizes, the game will then show you said plant on top of some rendered landscape designed to look as good as your graphics processor will allow.
You click a part and it shows up on the screen. There is no gameplay interaction, no real task. Just push a button and the thing is there.
When the game begins you have only a handful of things you can put together. To get more you must enter the crystal menu and click on one of the unlimited crystals. Each crystal will be given a random item from the game. That is all. No story, no further gameplay, just this… empty garden.
While the graphics and music are pleasant, they simply aren’t enough to compensate for the dearth of activities within the game. Additionally, the requirement to play daily to unlock new content feels less like an enjoyable experience and more akin to a tedious obligation.
Okay… Now what?
Well, that is all I could have said about this disappointing game. It’s disheartening to see potential squandered in such a way. But rather than dwell on the negative, let’s take a moment for a little rant to lighten the day. Sometimes, expressing frustration can be cathartic, even if it’s just about a game.
I cannot get why any developer would spend time, effort and money to make something not worth showing to anyone else. I disagree with believing there was any real love behind the creation of Gardener: Plant Creator. It just feels too thrown together at the last minute to me.
This should have been a simulator or something magical but instead, it feels like an image creator to occupy babies with a short attention span.
And don’t hit me with the ‘it is free’ nonsense. The fact that it’s free doesn’t excuse any of its shortcomings; quality should never be sacrificed, especially when there are examples of superior games crafted by developers at single-day game jams.
My stance is final!
If the position of this article went over your head, let me make it clear. Gardener: Plant Creator isn’t very good. It doesn’t have much to offer and it’s not very fun. If you want something relaxing to play, there are lots of other games you can try. I thought this game would be fun, but it’s not. I wanted to enjoy taking care of plants, but I didn’t. Instead, I’m disappointed and I want to tell everyone how bad it is. I went into this game hoping to get my hands dirty in the garden and am leaving with a frown and a desire to write a scathing review.
Gardener: Plant Creator doesn’t live up to its promise. It’s not worth playing if you’re looking for something enjoyable.
