When Botany Manor entered my life, I instantly felt sorry for the poor real plants I was attempting to grow. Admittedly, I don’t have a green thumb, in fact most flowers that come under my care do not survive very long.
So here I was, staring down this gorgeous-looking puzzle game trying to summon my inner gardener. I was determined to show the world that I could grow and care for the unique and delicate flora showcased within Balloon Studios’ Botany Manor.
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Luckily, the gameplay is so intuitive, even someone like me was able to watch the mysterious shrubs bloom and flower before my very eyes.
A Flourishing Tale
Set in 1890 on the beautiful estate of Botany Manor in Somerset, you play as Arabella Greene, a retired botanist. After a long and turbulent career, she returns to her roots: researching long-forgotten plants and helping them thrive once more.
Arabella receives a package in the mail, it contains a book called “Forgotten Flora – A Herbarium”, however, the pages are empty! All the information about these exotic flowers and their mysterious qualities are missing — it’s now your task to fill in the blanks.
Across the Manor and its grounds, players must find seeds and use clues to complete the Herbarium in the hope that one day, your book will be read by others.
There’s plenty more to discover along the way, interacting with and reading old letters, books and posters can help unlock more of Arabella’s history and the mystery of the Manor.
Arabella The Great
Though we never get to physically see Arabella, I felt her story was told well. There was plenty of evidence that pointed me toward her elderly age and her important work as a botanist. For example, in the orchards, there were walking canes resting against benches and tea cups on garden tables. Inside the manor, I learned about her rough life through the various letters and postcards.
The letters painfully described her rejections from the many colleges she applied for. There were also letters from former male colleagues with sexist undertones, suggesting she stay at home and tend to the “domestic” gardening.
This lore immersed me further into the story, allowing me to side with and truly care about Arabella. I could tell she was a strong-willed and passionate woman who worked hard to become a botanist regardless of the pushback she received.
How to Become a Botanist
Botany Manor is an exploration puzzle game with huge cosy vibes – it’s best described as an escape room for plant fans.
The game begins in a greenhouse, though it’s full of smog and you can’t see too far in from of you. Without too much hand-holding, the game introduces you to the basics of plant growing, a pot, some soil and a watering can. Knowing I had to find clues around the greenhouse I began my exploration.
The puzzles were logical but I quickly learned that each clue needed to be read carefully to fully solve a problem. At times, I was running around in circles trying to figure out what to do.
It all came down to not reading the clues properly. Reading. Is. Key.
I always knew it was my fault for missing something as the game presents all the information you need. This did not soil my experience at all, in fact, if anything my puzzling-solving skills flourished as the game progressed.
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Once I had found all the clues, I followed my instinct to try and grow the rare flora I had in my terracotta pot. Sometimes the flowers just needed a bit of tender love and care whereas other times they needed a special song played to them.
There were a great number of ways to make these mysterious bushes flower. It was exhilarating when you solved the puzzle and they began to bloom right in front of your eyes.
Great Explorations
After I grew all the plants in one part of the house, a new area would unlock either by finding a key or solving a code to open up new pathways. This to me is what made the game feel like one giant escape room, as I had to solve one puzzle to get to the next.
Finding the codes and keys really made me dive deep into my memory bank to remember clues I came across earlier in the game. In fact, I resorted to some old school note taking to try and remember some of the important clues I found along the way.
I highly recommend doing this, especially in the later chapters, as the puzzles don’t necessarily get harder, however, they throw a lot more clues and information at you.
One aspect of the game that I found particularly critical was the Herbarium. As I progressed through the manor, the Herbarium would gradually fill out with clues for each plant type I encountered. Once I gathered all the clues for a specific plant, the corresponding page in the Herbarium would be completed.
However, it would have been a great inclusion to easily read the clues again from the Herbarium page instead of having to traipse around the Manor again to find them.
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Being a cosy game, this would have added to my warm, snuggly feelings instead of the annoyance of hunting down old clues again and again (I am looking at you Mr. Rusty Pig).
This is only a minor nitpick and something that could be added in a future update.
Botany Manor’s gameplay loop is addictive and I found myself wanting to continue playing to discover what kind of precious plant species I would find next. The game doesn’t shy away from the fact that it is a shorter experience, explicitly telling us from the beginning it is five chapters long. There are 12 different flowers to discover throughout the manor making my play time roughly six hours long.
Everyone Can Bloom At Botany Manor
Being a cosy puzzler game at heart, the developers have done a lot to make this accessible to all players. With plenty of options to customise the experience and play the game your way. I was able to toggle on and off the crosshair as well as change its size allowing for a clearer focal point.
There are plenty of choices when it comes to controls too. I loved seeing options to take away the number of button presses you needed to do, ultimately, you could play this game one-handed.
There is also a text overlay mode, which places all the text on the screen on a very simple black background with white text in an easy font to read.
This often helped me when parts of the text were missing or the writing was a bit hard to see clearly. Botany Manor deserves credit for inclusivity here and for having a game that can be played and enjoyed by all.
The Picturesque Manor
Botany Manor is set in an incredibly crafted world that is vibrant and full of colour. The game is played from a first-person perspective, which is something I don’t normally gel very well with. In this case, it was perfect, because I wanted to see the world from this perspective.
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It was a smooth experience too, no frame drops and definitely no motion sickness for me. Speaking of which, if this is something you find with first-person perspectives there are plenty of options to toggle on and off to try and combat this, like camera transitions and walking speeds.
Oh boy, the gardens are bright and beautiful with dazzling colours that motivated me to explore every nook and cranny. Twisting my way around the maze-like green hedges I found private gardens where I could just sit and watch time tick by.
I literally just wanted to plant myself on a bench and chill out with a book, a cuppa, and my big floppy hat. These are the exact vibes the terraces around the manor gave me.
Inside the enormous Manor, the atmosphere could not have been any better. The rooms were crafted delightfully with the light shining in all the right spots. Again, I enjoyed every minute of my time in these stunning rooms and could not wait to discover what secrets they hid.
Often, I walked into a new room with a sense of awe and it would actually take my breath away. Being an explorative puzzle game, this was incredibly important (you need to feel compelled to explore after all) and the devs nailed it here.
The Sound Of Cosy, Chilled Vibes
Scattered through the glorious grounds of Botany Manor are many benches, chairs and tables which you can stop at, take a seat and soak in your surroundings. I wanted to close my eyes and listen whilst cosying up in the garden on a warm Spring day.
You can hear the ambient sounds of nature, birds chirping, gentle blowing breeze and the sound of water running.
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Or maybe you enjoy inside vibes more? Well, the game has you covered here too. Take a seat on one of the comfy looking lounges and snuggle up in front of a crackling fire with a book and a coffee taking in the room’s ambience.
The music provides a gentle yet comforting string accompaniment over the top and creates an intimate atmosphere befitting its setting. Botany Manor captures these feelings in its soundtrack from beginning to end regardless of your vibe.
My Hopes and Dreams for the Manor
I completely fell in love with the ambiance of this game. I struggle to remember the last time a puzzle game engrossed me so much that I wanted to just stay in this world. This is where some of my big hopes and dreams for Botany Manor stem from.
Firstly, an idea for some end game content would be an open exploration mode. This is where I could just walk around my garden and tend to it. It is so breathtaking out there, I could have spent hours just watering plants, watching my new flowers grow, and taking in all the delights.
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Imagine, as you maintain the terraces, new wildlife comes to play all the while setting up places for them to eat and drink. An amazing new ecosystem developing before your very eyes.
I would have enjoyed being able to move around the different facilities seamlessly, enjoying each room for what it was.
Yes, this game does have a map, however, to access it you have to open the Herbarium, flick through the pages to find the correct map, see where you are, think about your route and close the book again.
A game like this deserves easy traversal and, on one hand, a mini-map in the corner would have really helped with this. On the other hand, it’d need to be easily hidden.
Finally, with all the letters, posters and information you find around the Manor, it would have been nice to have a scrapbook where they are kept in one tidy place.
Not every letter was relevant to growing the plants as some were more focused on giving details about Arabella’s backstory. This would have been a great way to easily experience her biography in one place. After all, I could kick back in a garden chair to read it and enjoy the warm sun on my skin.
I Do Have a Green Thumb
Botany Manor is a fantastic cosy puzzle game accessible to everyone, even if you don’t have a green thumb.
Exploring this world feels great and when you finally figure out how to make the flowers bloom you feel a sense of accomplishment. The devs have created an atmospheric game that both looks and sounds extremely impressive.
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The puzzles are logical and fun to solve, which is absolutely critical in a game like this.
I wish that there was a way I could tend to my garden and play around in this world longer after I had finished my botany tasks and a mini-map would have helped my exploration through the large manor.
Overall, if you love puzzle solving, escape room mechanics and a glorious cosy vibe I suggest you take a trip to Botany Manor, I guarantee you will enjoy your stay.
Get your garden gloves ready when Botany Manor releases on PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch and Xbox via Xbox Game Pass on April 10th. Can’t wait to begin exploring? There’s a demo available now on Steam.
Quest Daily scores Botany Manor:
8.5/10
A review copy of Botany Manor was supplied to Quest Daily for the purpose of this review.
