Botany Manor review

[omegamouse@pawb.social]

Firstly, many thanks to @Panties@lemmy.ca for providing a code for the game :)

Botany Manor is a charming little puzzle game in which you explore a manor house, gradually unlocking new sections as you work out the correct conditions to germinate different species of plants.

Visually it has the painterly, cell-shaded design of The Witness which felt perfectly at home in this pastoral Somerset valley. And flicking through the botany guide to check maps or clues reminded me of Obra Dinn.

Part of the puzzle of the game is sorting and assigning the clues to the correct plant; in each chapter you'd be given access to several different seeds and it's your job (having read through letters, posters and pamphlets) to work out which growing conditions relate to which plant.

I liked how the rough locations for clues were all listed in the book should you need any help, taking away a lot of the frustration of searching fruitlessly. And you'd only have three or so puzzles ring-fenced each chapter which stopped things becoming overly convoluted. All together it made for a relaxing experience that let you focus on exploration and solving the puzzles themselves.

The soundtrack is very peaceful too, with lots of bird song and natural ambience.

The puzzles themselves aren't particularly difficult, but I loved how varied they were. I got the sense of being in a cosy escape room without a time limit. There's a little bit of story as you go along which gets a satisfying resolution at the end.

The game took me just over three hours to complete, so it's quite short but it honestly felt like the perfect length. I'd highly recommend it for anyone into puzzle games!