I’ve been fascinated by immersive puzzle games since I started playing Maquette a few years ago. The idea of entering a world and solving increasingly complex environmental problems from a first-person perspective intrigued me from the first minute, which is no doubt why I was so keen to try out Balloon Studios’ delicious Botany Manor.
The aim is to explore a manor house in the green hills of the British county of Somerset at the end of the 19th century. You take on the role of retired botanist Arabella Greene and, using your flair for all things botany, must figure out how to grow a selection of rare and exotic plants, while also learning more about this magnificent, sprawling mansion that you inherited have. It’s not a demanding or stressful game, on the contrary, and in many ways the structure is even reminiscent of Call of the Sea and the way Out of the Blue structured that project, or even Sad Owl Studios more recently Viewfinder.
Because Botany Manor is an immersive simulation game, there is no tutorial or additional help. You must explore the locations available to you in the mansion, collect clues and study them to discover the exact way each plant blooms from seed to seedling and from there to fully bloomed adult plant. This process is fairly similar throughout the game, although the challenges and clues offered become increasingly complex. While at the beginning it’s about determining the temperature at which a flower will bloom, towards the end you have to use, for example, the animal call at the appropriate speed per minute to ensure that a seed reacts and springs into action.
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It’s a very intuitive and interesting physical and practical system that Balloon Studios has developed with this game, where you manually plant seeds, interact with elements and objects, etc., but as I just mentioned, it’s also very familiar , as each puzzle follows the same trends. You unlock a new part of the mansion, explore the area for the seed packet, find all the corresponding clues scattered around the area, determine which clues apply to the seed in question, and then put what you’ve learned into practice to get the Plant to grow seeds. You should never stray from this well-trodden path, but in many ways that’s a good thing, otherwise navigating Botany Manor could become a tedious affair.
I say this because some of the clues can be very tedious to find, and many of them require thinking outside the box to put them into practice. You’re never pressed for time or in the presence of a dangerous creature, so these issues can be dealt with stress-free, but during my playtime there were times when I got stuck or confused and had to spend a good 10 minutes resetting my brain to network to help overcome the solution. Luckily, the level design, art direction, soundtrack and effects, graphics and overall audiovisual presentation of this game are so excellent and charming that you won’t mind getting stuck and having to retrace your steps. You want to be in this world that resembles the breathtaking vistas from the era of Downton Abbey or Bridgerton. This is not a congested gray city street, but a gleaming white manor house surrounded by rolling green hills, colorful flora and fauna and in the middle of the British summer when the sky is clear azure and the sun shines relentlessly.
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Even though there is no dialogue in Botany Manor, the game still has a great sense of narrative. By collecting clues and exploring the mansion, you will learn who Arabella and her family are. You don’t need a main story to immerse yourself in this world because Balloon has done a great job in the environmental storytelling department. Admittedly, this is partly because Botany Manor doesn’t drag on for too long. It’s a short game with limited replayability, allowing you to focus solely on exploring and solving puzzles. This has its advantages and for those looking for a relaxing game to play for an afternoon or two, there is much to appreciate. However, if you’re looking for something more, you’ll likely be disappointed as there aren’t even secondary objectives or tasks to spend more time on.
It must be said that this game is currently plagued by some strange bugs. These include overlay text that is not aligned correctly or is completely wrong compared to some parts of the text, liquids leaking from solid objects, clues that are in the wrong place where they actually are, etc. These are not major or game-breaking issues, but they may cause some frustration or reduce immersion if you notice such things popping up.
Botany Manor is an ideal game for Game Pass. It is simple, charming, lively and sweet. It’s a puzzle game that strikes just the right balance between challenge and simplicity, and the first-person setting and wonderful presentation make it an immersive experience in a world you’ll want to explore. It doesn’t have the narrative depth of Call of the Sea, nor the ingenuity of Viewfinder, or the mechanical excellence of Maquette, but when you look at the whole, it’s a good addition to the collection as immersive simulation puzzles go.
