Garden

Garden is what you can call an unexpected surprise, of the good kind. It’s a lightweight game that has a rather unique visual style and very relaxing gameplay. Your identity is a mystery and the world you’re in is just the same, albeit, it’s quite fascinating.

Garden is the result of collaborative work between takorii, Daniel Linssen and Martin Kvale, and what a little treat it is. It uses simple graphics that push a pseudo 3D look which makes it charming.

The world around is a surreal garden that is inhabited by odd little creatures. It’s built using excellent colors, it’s randomized every time you enter a new level and it’s always a pleasure to look at. It even uses an effect which mimics tilt-shift photography, what a gorgeous little game Garden is.

Gameplay in Garden is very easy to pick up and master. The camera angle can be rotated 360 degrees around the main character, you can strafe with grace and kill enemies without too much trouble.

However, there are a few things that make Garden fairly tough. Your ammunition is limited and needs to be collected, you can kill a bug by dashing through it but after that it needs recharging, and levels do get tougher as you advance further into the game. There is also permadeath to take into account.

Another thing that is simply great is the audio. It’s crisp, clear, beautiful, every little sound is excellently engineered and it greatly adds to the overall atmosphere of Garden.

On a closing note, Garden is by all means a great little game. For how small it is, it has a great atmosphere, smooth gameplay and it’s very relaxing to play.