You are very lucky person for having a Journalist like me on Games. Not just because you have the sexiest narcissist among them all doing it, you have a person who could review the impossible. The UnderGarden is a game so indescribable I may ask for some pocket money out of this review.
The story of this shooting games is never explained. In fact I’m not even sure what is really going on. You play as a… umm… an Impish, Fairy, Teletubby- thing. I’ll call it Lopez for now. Lopez must for no explained reason grow flora and plants in The UnderGarden. What is The UnderGarden? No, that’s a question for you. I have no friggin’ clue what the devil is going on. Please can you tell me? It makes my job as a Journalist on here easier if games gave me an idea of what’s going on. It’s never explained about its existence nor where it is in the world. I suppose from looking at it’s cutesy style I shouldn’t imagine it’s logic behind it, but at least a back story behind it‘s existence. Giving us a game where nothing is questioned nor answered just gives a very confusing first impression.
The beta for Where's Wally? The Videogame was surprisingly more easier than expected...
The goal of the game is to grow flora in The UnderGarden. You control Lopez. To grow any flora you must hit pollen sacks then float over towards un-grown plants. That’s the real main target to do. You must go through 15 stages and grow the flora. You must work your way through simple puzzles and mechanisms. You aren’t timed at all, which gives the game an odd laidback feeling to it.
To assist you along the way you need to grow fruit that will help solve traps. Fruits which fly up/drop down onto switches, fruits that clear fog, fruits that explode, fruits to power mechanisms. It’s a little straightforward on what you need to do, but hey, it’s not that this game looks complex anyway so why expect it to be?
There are also some collectables to collect like hidden gems and special flowers. Which are quite a good challenge to find absolutely everything. Another thing to collect is musicians, I’m still confused upon how I managed to get a bonus from them, I believe it’s from having all of them in the stage in one spot (told you it’s hard to explain this game). Musicians are baby like versions of Lopez that make music, obviously. They add a nice touch to the atmosphere. Collecting these items will give you costumes for Lopez to wear. No real gameplay benefits but it’s funny when you unlock the Gentlemen gear, it gives Lopez a Top Hat, a monocle and a moustache which spurts money out when you dash. Gameplay is very simple and yet very good. It’s seems to create simple puzzles and simple gameplay and still seems to give such a peaceful impact.
I would of explained the multiplayer too if I had a friend to play it with D'=
In fact let’s harp on the atmosphere a bit more. This game gives such a relaxed feeling when you’re playing. Joyful music, laidback gameplay . And with the growing flora brightening up the levels it literally feels like the world is blossoming around as you play. It’s like this game doesn’t want you to rush, hurry or try too hard. It’s a fighting games where you can to things in your own time and not need the feel of worry at all. I think this is not only and very good gameplay idea, but it’s ingenious. It wraps you around a world so peaceful and calm, you can really feel it It’s atmosphere just can’t be disliked it anyway possible, not even if you don’t like the game you’ll at least still feel it’s peaceful manner.
Unlike that undeserved popularity Call of Duty (any), the game pulls off a wonderful atmosphere rather than shoving your racist, homophobic testosterone down a Nazi’s throat. I know that was a little uncalled for but consider this. Call of Duty pretty much takes the FPS genre and makes it even more bland then it needs to be. Now look at any screenshot in this review and try to tell me you’ve seen something similar to this game. This game is so unique it almost become it’s own genre, and yet this’ll probably get less popularity then CoD, a lot less. It’s this **** which make the general consumers of gaming seem more tasteless then stale bread.
Not even Lopez is that sure what's going on
Everything else to say about this review just helps the atmosphere strongly. The graphics make the game look so refreshing and calm. The soundtrack just gives the game it’s peaceful and mellow mood. And it’s gameplay gives the games easy-going nature. These three aspects alone have pulled off more then most imaginative games can pull off.
But like I always say no matter what game it’s not perfect. It has a couple of faults. My main criticism is it’s confusing first impression mainly, really just don’t question the logic of the game whilst playing and that’ll be alright. The only other problem I have is that while it’s a fun and interesting puzzler, it’s still quite easy. Not extremely easy just that easy which doesn’t feel like a challenge. Collecting the hidden items is the real challenge, but getting through stage and growing flora seems a bit too easy. The only other bad thing I can think of is sometimes you carry more than the paths space can. I seem to carry all the musicians at once and they can cluster in the incredibly small chambers and pathways.
