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Gardening sim Horticular is an isometric Viva Pinata featuring a dead planet and loads of gnomesGnome country for old men
Gnome country for old men
Image credit:Slug Disco
Image credit:Slug Disco
A hundred clay and plaster eyes catch yours, unblinking; a hundred figures seemingly freeze in the act of pushing a toy wheelbarrow or smoking a pipe. The tune you were whistling dies in your throat as you hurry past into the reassuring shadow of the relatively gnomeless bungalows to either side. Gardening simHorticularis like that, but with an even greater sense of contrast, because it asks you to resettle a desolate planet. There is no generic urban scenery to hurry onto, here. There is only bare, cracked earth. And the gnomes.
Horticular is the work of developers inDirection Games and publisher Slug Disco, who were kind enough to send over a preview build. (There’s alsoa less substantial demo on Steam.) I’ve played about 30 minutes, and good news, Xbox-360-loving sickos, this is sort of Rare’sViva Pinatabut with isometric pixelart visuals. And gnomes.
The music is affable, plinky-plonky stuff and the gardening elements are both restful and sinister in the context of the surrounding badlands, which are dotted with rocky ground you can’t cultivate without upgrades, and various wizened, ever-so-slightly Lovecraftian curly trees. What do the gnomes want with this place? Apparently it’s a source of magic. Why is it in such a hellish state? Well, the previous gnome overseer, Nightshade, has gone missing, and now there’s some kind of Corruption at work that periodically blackens your plants and renders terrain tiles unusable.
I personally wouldnevertrust a gnome, but again, as a rambling Englisher I have had too many surprise encounters with houses where the lawn ornaments have undergone a viral population explosion. Perhaps you like gnomes! You should probably try that demo, then. Horticular is out less than a week from now on 11th July 2024.
