From a seed can sprout a million things, and given that this
particular seed helms from the bowels of Amanita Design, you can expect those
things to be extraordinary. Before even playing Botanicula, I was greeted
during installation with a cute chorus from the five tree friends I was to
become so attached – it was but a glimpse into the sprightly sounds and
delightful, childish veneer awaiting me. It was inviting indeed – a journey
into what seemed to be a completely separate world. Alas, it is just a game
and, as such, is here to be judged and not to establish an imaginary home
within, though, given the chance, I’d soon move into this tree-dwelling
neighborhood.
By far the greatest achievement of Botanicula is its ability
to spread a smile. It didn’t need to grab my cheeks and force my stretchy lips
into a crescent moon; it simply propelled me up to the real moon in order to
see a surrealist’s interpretation of the first moon landing. Back down on
Earth, though, in a particular tree, there are five friends who I had to help
fulfill a foreseen prophecy – to plant a seed fallen from the sky in order to
save their home from a parasite attack. They’re a mad bunch, and playful too,
but fearless in their strive for adventure, and they carry with them the
greatest team morale you ever did see. The five protagonists of Botanicula
quickly became my best friends as I shared their victories and their close
shaves with death, and was soon wishing to outstretch my palm towards the
monitor so that they may hop on and bring a rarely seen joy into the room.
Botanicula captures the act of play in a most intuitive way.
Though the five ‘heroes’ have a home to save, their main purpose seems to be to
play with you, and the whole game is based around that concept. As such, I
found that the three senses that can be affected by a computer game were being
spoiled rotten. The splashes of color across the game’s fruitful and artistic
scenes fascinated my eyes, from the pastel greens and mild yellows to the
contrasting blacks and muddy browns of the game’s later stages. The music and
sounds within the game really are outstanding – with every living thing that
inhabits the screen assigned an organic sound rendered in a more characterful
way. Human voices are distorted in choruses; strings and horns wail as if
telling a tale and a whole range of unusual instruments hearken back to a folk
music tradition, making the environment and any resources at hand resonate with
a sound to fuel the imagination.
The third sense is, of course, touch. Botanicula is not best
described as a point-and-click adventure as it transforms your grasp on the
mouse into a means to reach into its world and grab, yank and prod. There’s a
great sense of a tactile relationship between you and the game through this.
Each static screen of Botanicula felt like a fresh discovery, giving me a
chance to explore the microscopic world of bugs and buds as I did in my infancy
under my mother’s gaze. It’s easy to sum it up,really – you’re seeing this
world through the eyes of a child.
Botanicula transported me right back to my six-year-old
self, who was rather fond of playing the Living Books series on CD-ROM. These
were stories in which the player could click on various things in the screen
and an animation would occur, with plenty of sounds, music and anthropomorphism
to go with it. Botanicula captures this surprise of discovery perfectly as you
scan the screen not to solve a puzzle, but to bring things to life. It is
through these discoveries that you’ll progress through the game as you
encounter some form of obstruction which will need you to find feathers, keys
or glowing blue gems to be surpassed. There’s more than just pure fun to be had
out of screen exploration too as with every new creature you discover, a playing
card is added to what will become your ever-growing collection. Depending on
how many you have by the game’s end, you’ll be rewarded with a gift-wrapped
present, perhaps even three if you found all of the playful characters.
Botanicula may be all about discovery, but it always ensures
that to actually progress, you’ll never be strained and will consequently never
outstay your welcome. Too many times in-point-and-click adventures I have been
left to cycle through the same scenes looking for the tiniest detail, or
swapping inventory items over and over again for a solution. Botanicula has
none of this. One of the most reassuring aspects of the game is that you are
only allowed to do anything with an item in your inventory if it’s supposed to
be used in that screen – it is design like this that ensures you don’t become
disengaged with the world. You’ll flow through the game with a very natural
rhythm; you’ll probably get stumped a tiny bit, but not for very long – I’m
willing to bet that even a small child could get through the game by
themselves. It’s not like you even have to read at all; the story and the
anecdotes from the always friendly inhabitants are told through imagery, garble
and animation.
If you ever wanted to be with Alice as she sang with the flowers, then
Botanicula will chime with you very strongly. It will with just about everyone,
adult or child, due to its fantastic presentation, simplicity and mellow joy.
The game went on plenty long enough but, by its conclusion, I was left gagging for
more. Part of me feels like there should have been more to the ending, but
that’s probably because the rest of the game is filled with such magical
content – it’s hard to top that by a game’s end. I’ve replayed the game since
to not only find what discoveries I missed, but to also just relive the moments
I found bizarre and the ones that made me giggle. My only disappointment is
that I don’t have a young child around to play through the game; I think that’s
where the game will really shine.
PROS: Enchanting environment, brain-teasing
puzzles and fantastic sound design
CONS: Lack of instructions makes it hard to get
into
SCORES: 9.5/10
Genre: Point-and-Click
Adventure game
Developer: Amanita
Design
Publisher: Amanita
Design, Daedalic Entertainment
Platform: PC,
Mac, Linux, iPad
Downoad/Buy: Botanicula
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