Garden Simulator does what it says on the tin. Tired of the rat race and making some very poignant references to the COVID-19 pandemic, our protagonist has been forced to work from home in recent months and suffers from deteriorating mental health. They move in to reclaim the old mansion that their family lived in and improve their quality of life. And you will soon be working on gardening.
The garden is small at first, but you can purchase extensions that wrap around the house. Some items in the in-game catalog are readily available to learn how they work, while others must be unlocked. Criteria for unlocking each item, both cosmetic and functional, are given in the catalog so you don’t have to guess things, but usually grow X amount of a specific crop or something similar That’s it.
Tasks are sent to your home mailbox so you can focus on your gameplay, but these are very mundane and not particularly difficult to accomplish. Experience points and garden coins are given as rewards. Leveling up gives you skill points, which you can use to improve certain aspects of your gardening life. Increased watering efficiency, increased funds from harvesting, etc.
I really enjoy planning and designing my own garden. Put the vegetables in this place and the flowers there. It can be planted on the ground, raised floor, or potted. Everything feels very real, but the controls seem to have a really hard time putting things down exactly and can really ruin the whole vision.
Garden Simulator is low risk, low reward, but highly addictive. We spent hours before we knew it and found the experience to be totally relaxing. Exactly what the small plot of the game is trying to achieve. It’s fun to potter your little garden and admire your crops, but it gets a little boring after a while. Tasks tend to be repetitive in some way and don’t change with the seasons or weather. every day is the same. This feels like a trick taken off and could have done a lot more with the addition of this along with the garden pests.
