Jan 7, 2023 - Day 7 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 10

Game: Gardens Inc. 2: The Road to Fame

Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: May 23, 2014
Library Date: Sept 23, 2017
Unplayed: 1932 days (5y3m15d)
Playtime: 36m

In a world where game sequels can take years to be released, it's a breath of fresh air to see a sequel released [checks notes]... 58 days later.

OK, it's a casual game, and they seemingly decided to cash in on the popularity of the first one. The sequel suffers from the same "fixed resolution forced to full screen" as the predecessor, but does have a couple of small quality of life changes that improve upon the formula.

Same frustratingly addictive gameplay loop that keeps me coming back to replay the level to try and beat the clock and get the gold award, but I consciously made the decision to not let it eat up my entire Saturday.

Again, the fixed-resolution-forced-full-screen is the only thing keeping this from an "excellent".

4: Good

Edit: In an odd twist, there are two more sequels (3 & 4), but not available on Steam, only through Big Fish Games, or on mobile. 1 & 2 aren't available on mobile. I thought they felt like mobile games, and they are *very* suited to the iPad screen.

Oh no...

#GardensInc #Casual #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365

Jan 6, 2023 - Day 6 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 8

Game: Gardens Inc. - From Rakes to Riches

Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Mar 26, 2014
Library Date: Sept 23, 2017
Unplayed: 1931 days (5y3m14d)
Playtime: 3.9h

I've looked at this game sitting there in the 2017 group a few times, and bounced each time.

"A gardening game?" Another day. Today was that day. It's an almost nine year old game; classed as a "casual strategy" game, when they go into 800x600 and get blown up to full screen, with no options for high res, you know you're going to have a bad time.

I figured I'd suffer for the 15 minutes, and then write up the review.

[4 hours later]

I can't believe it sucked me in like that.

It's got a typical casual/mobile game cheesy storyline, with staged levels feel. You're running against a clock, and you've got to fix a few things in each garden, and you need to do some upgrades, and managed resources, and I'll just play this level one more time to beat it.

My initial rating for Gardens Inc. is:

4: Good

The only thing that stopped this cartoonish casual game getting an "Excellent" was the low-res graphics and resolution shift.

#GardensInc #Casual #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365